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I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for this mod. I was using Dagon Design’s contact form plugin because it offered anti-spam verification but not being very skilled in matters of CSS, couldn’t make it look how I wanted. I had used Ryan’s plugin before but had been bombarded with spammers emailing me using it. My anti-spam - Bad Behaviour and Spam Karma - caught most of it but it was still a pain.

Yours is an elegant, neat enhancement and I reckon Ryan should adopt your mod and give you co-credit for taking the plugin further in such a useful way.

So yeah. Thank you! The contact form looks just how I want it to now. x

Thanks, Andy! I was inspired by Seth Godin and the book Crypto. Seth pointed out a site (long ago) that had a 2 + 2 = 4 challenge question that never changed.

When I read the book Crypto, one of the key pieces of it was how you could pass a piece of information between 2 people that solved a problem… without someone in the middle able to figure it out.

The problem with most ’spamware’ is that a computer calculates the challenge question. That’s an inherent flaw, because it will be a computer that tries to break it.

By making the challenge question a visible aspect of my page in English, I’m avoiding the computer question and solution. And… just to make sure, I allow the person to change the question and answer any time they want.

I think it’s a great model and I hope to put it on my comments next. I get a ton of spam on my comments but have not received a single piece of SPAM on my contact form.

Appreciate your kind comments!
Doug

Thank you! I’m downloading it now…

[...] Douglas Karr has been kind enough to provide a modified version of the WP-ContactForm plugin that I’ve been using to manage my contact form. It’s a simple change to implement, and if you get any spam through your WP-ContactForm, this will save you a lot of headache. It’s a much simpler concept than a CAPTCHA image — it verifies humanitity through a simple challenge question. By default, this is “2 + 2 =” (4). Easy enough for anyone to answer — except for bots! Recommended. Tags: Douglas Karr, contact form, spam, WP-ContactForm, CAPTCHA, challenge question, bots [...]

great form!
Simple to install and works with no confusing set up.

Doug, you are a gentleman and a scholar! We’ve just been bombarded in the last few days with Contact Form spam and a google of the WP support forum led me straight here. I’ve installed the new plugin and it works like a charm. I’ve also hit your PayPal button in appreciation for this lifesaving plugin/modification!

This form may end up being the single driving force behind my FINALLY getting around to updating my personal blog at joniverse.com from WP 1.5.x to WP 2!

Thanks Joni!

Simple solutions for big problems. Everything should be coded this way, not a damn 50 KB plugin with things you won’t ever use or strange features (AJAX for a Contact Form? What?).

Thanks.

[...] I used Wordpress Contact Form Plugin Anyway, if you could not read/write code, you can use dreamweaver to do it. Here’s a simple tutorial: Simple Contact Form __________________ "This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time" [...]

Great plugin - very much needed!!!!

thanks

Great mod to a great plugin. Thanks.

Hey. Thanks for the plugin. You rock!

I have tried using Ryan Duff’s original WP Contact Form, but always experienced errors with my blog (granted, probably a theme conflict). And the Phrixus WP Plugin never worked either.

What did you do? Why does it work? Why?

Anyways, thanks man! A donation is on it’s way.

Thanks, ywamer!

[...] I have recently been receiving a lot of WP-ContactForm spam. I love this plugin which has been created by Ryan Duff, but the spam is getting on my nerves. After doing a little searching I found a very nice site from Douglas A. Karr. He modified Ryan’s plugin to have a Challenge Question. This is great and hopefully will cut down on the spam I have been receiving through ContactForm. I will have to remember to change the answer if I change my blog title! Check it out. [...]

Brilliant. Thank you Doug. It’s truly appreciated.

Hello! I’ve been trying to download the plugin but it re-directs to a page that says the page isn’t found.

Sorry about that May C!

The file is there now. You happened upon the site as I was moving around some domains. I also sent you a note via email that the file is there now.

Doug

Thanks for fixing it! I was looking for it all day, thinking that it may have something to do with my browser so I tried various browser with the same result.

At one time I couldn’t get it to work, but it seems to work now! That’s great! At first, Bad Behavior blocked me from my site. I can’t believe it! It seems quite aggressive so I’ve added my own ip address to the whitelist since I couldn’t get a hold of the developer at all (all emails are bounced back).

Hopefully I can lessen the amount of spam emails I get from the contact form. I will periodically change the challenge question to thwart those human spammers that read.

Time will tell whether this is a good deterrant. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the great plugin!

I’ve actually never had to change my challenge question… it seems that simply having one has been good enough! Good luck!

Thank you thank you thank you. We had to change servers, and suddenly everything I had used for contact forms previously was shot to h. Your form works beautifully, except I needed to change the stylesheet so that the name/text area lined up in IE (it was fine in Firefox). I simply changed the .contactright to float left. I also had to change the textarea sizes to fit my blog, but that was simple. Works like a dream!

You’re very welcome, Linda! I, too, have modified the actual HTML of the form for a better layout (you can see it on my contact page on this site). I actually had so many issues with cross-browser compatibility that I gave up and made a table! I know that’s supposed to be a no-no… but it looks much better.

I’ve tried to use your edited version of the contactform, but I can’t make the layout work right. At least in IE, Firefox works perfectly of course. The fill in-blocks are floating around and I need them lined up. Can you give me a hint how to do it?

http://www.ans-online.nl/anstiplijn

Teun,

I’ve modified the plugin and added a table layout version. I ran into the same issues that you did and I gave up on trying to make it using CSS/HTML. Sometimes tables are the best approach.

Doug

Hi Teun - the following styles are from Doug’s “wp-contactform” within the wp-contact folder. I changed just two things, I think (I can’t remember what they were!) and I added a style for the submit button. Doug - I had to change the px to ems, sorry!

The styles are applied at the beginning of this same wp-contactform page, where you’ll see a few lines that contain lengths for the textareas. This is where you can add the style to the submit button. (I hope all this makes sense). I haven’t tested the following style changes across all browsers and all resolutions, but it seems fine in both Firefox and in IE. If you test it and find a quirk, please let me know:

/* Begin Contact Form CSS */
.contactform {
position: static;
overflow: hidden;
}
.contactleft {
width: 25%;
text-align: right;
clear: both;
float: left;
display: inline;
padding: .4em;
margin: .5em 0;
}
.contactright {
width: 70%;
text-align: left;
float: left;
display: inline;
padding: .4em;
margin: .5em 0;
}
.contacterror {
border: .1em solid #ff0000;
}
.contactsubmit {
text-align:center;
}
/* End Contact Form CSS */

Thanks, Linda! No apology necessary, thank-you!!!

Checked out here following your link at wordpress.org. It looks like I ended up with a similar approach to yours, to deter spam registration.

Só um teste, sabe?

[...] WordPress Contact Form with Spam Protection Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

I have attempted to implement several contact forms, including Ryan’s.

When I use the contact form, I get overlapping text, the name, etc is higher than the box, and the user can’t enter any data in the text box.

Is there any way anyone could help? Here is what it looks like:

http://www.michelledear.com/?page_id=48

I did make sure to clean up anything that was listed per the “if you are using a previous version” information.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Michelle Dear

[...] now have a “Contact Me” link on a page on the left.  Thanks to Doug Karr and Ryan for assistance and the plugin. • • [...]

Güzel bişi

Hi Doug
I’ve just instaled and activated your great plugin, created a Contact page, but, what need i to make for the contact form appear on my contact page, need i to insert some piece of code? and if yes, where? and or how?
I’ve read the readme file searching by instructions, but, it’s nothing useful there.
Sorry but i am a newby, can you explain step by step, please.

Thank you

Dr PennyStock

Thank you very much, Sir, very fast response.

Cheers
Dr PennyStock

Very nice Plugin sir

Thanx for making it

[...] haben. Kudos außerdem an Askimet für den Kampf gegen Spam, sowie an Douglas Karr für seine Anti-Spam-Version des Kontaktformulars von Ryan Duff. Respekt auch an Flickr-User mufasa, der auf Flickr ein Tutorial [...]

[...] and it will take you to the front page. I also have a contact form in place that utilizes the WordPress Contact Form with Spam Protection by Douglas A. Karr; click on ‘Contact’ to try that out. I’ll most likely get [...]

Howdy,

I’ve tried tons of contact forms but none of them worked on Godaddy except this one!!! It totally rocks. Also, the challenge question entry on the form can handle images! Check out my website where I basically put in a captcha image in an attempt to look more professional. Truly great, thanks very much!

[...] Contact Form with Spam Protection This is a form mail contact form that has a challenge question to help eliminate spam. I went through a ton of these forms before I used this one. The problem is that I use Godaddy as a hosting service and that tends to play heck with these contact forms. But this one works great. The challenge question entry that you fill in with your question even handles images so I use a captcha image in an attempt to look more professional. This plugin is a lifesaver for Godaddy users. Check the website to download as there are multiple flavors. [...]

[...] WP-Contactform (Fra Ryan Duff) som email-formular i din WordPress-webside, bør du opdaterer til denne version med simpel SPAM-beskyttelse, som Douglas A Karr har været så venlig at tilbyde til fri download [...]

Doug,
I think Wordpress is re-writing your post a bit. The code to include the contact form is similar to an HTML comment, using two ‘dashes’. The code on this site that I copied & pasted was an emdash instead! People copying and pasting will find that the emdash won’t work…