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Anonymous

(@Anonymous)

Joined: 1 second ago

Posts: 0

Topic starter 17/03/2022 8:59 am [#366]

As the site continues to grow and attract new users, we’ve had to ramp up security to protect the site and its users. As a result, we’ve implemented some new security features, especially around user passwords.

We are also now aligned with third parties that will inform you if your passwords have been compromised elsewhere on other sites as part of data leaks to protect your account here, and you will not be able use that password on this site.

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mjr

(@mjr)

Reputable Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 303

17/03/2022 11:25 am

If other security is being increased, might it be possible to remove the insulting "recaptcha" physical ability test? I know my eyesight and hearing are imperfect and I do not need to be called inhuman!

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Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 1768

17/03/2022 11:46 am

@mjr, oh you've picked a minefield!

I'm not sure whether this site actually uses Recaptcha (i.e. Google's offering) or another flavour of Captcha. If it is Recaptcha, I'm pretty sure it's v2 and not the new less visibly intrusive v3, but for me that's a good thing. There have recently been some discussions about Recaptcha v3 and the feeling its data gathering could likely be seen as excessive and therefore in breach of GDPR legislation in many scenarios. I'm very protective of my privacy, so I'd personally hate this site moving towards something like that.

Nonetheless, whether Google or not, I accept some form of Captcha is pretty much essential. It doesn't improve security; it simply avoids bots setting up (nice and secure) accounts and then spamming us senseless. What I would argue, however, is that a much simpler form of Captcha could well be used with very little loss of effectiveness against bots.

Just my two penn'orth....

105 m2 bungalow in South East England
Mitsubishi Ecodan 8.5 kW air source heat pump
18 x 360W solar panels
1 x 6 kW GroWatt battery and SPH5000 inverter
1 x Myenergi Zappi
1 x VW ID3
Raised beds for home-grown veg and chickens for eggs

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

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Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4578

17/03/2022 6:23 pm

Good points above. I'm not going to be dropping Recaptcha quite yet because there are so many bot/spoof accounts that try to be created for any number of reasons and Recaptcha does a relatively good job of filtering those out.

As an aside, I got a bit too clever for my own good last night and my original posts are now all "anonymous" 🤣 Will get around to fixing that when I get a moment.

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👍

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mjr

(@mjr)

Reputable Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 303

17/03/2022 10:43 pm

@majordennisbloodnok It's recaptcha. Which isn't a captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) because it fails to tell computers and humans apart: it insults people with sight and hearing problems as "robots" (only slightly better than its previous habit of saying they were not human!) while there are now computer programs that can pass it more reliably than many humans. v2 may be better than v3 but it still harvests user data.

I agree that a captcha is useful, possibly even essential, but recaptcha is a gross insult mixed with ableism and data gathering.

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Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 1768

18/03/2022 12:24 am

@mjr so if you’re basically saying Google is the spawn of Satan to be avoided in favour of almost anything else, I agree.

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

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Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4578

02/04/2022 9:07 pm

The first of our badges is out and we've settled on this one for experts (people with strong knowledge backgrounds) on the forums.

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Majordennisbloodnok

(@majordennisbloodnok)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 1768

04/04/2022 1:18 pm

How about a range of “covering the bases” badges for people able to give user experiences of combining renewable technologies?

The obvious combination is solar pv and ASHP, and there are plenty of us available, but the experience of those members who’ve incorporated wind and solar together, who’ve built their own energy storage solutions and who’ve saved or generated energy in innovative ways are particularly valuable voices to celebrate.

"Semper in excretia; sumus solum profundum variat"

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Derek M

(@derek-m)

Illustrious Member Member

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4425

20/04/2022 5:31 pm

@editor

Hi Mars,

If you are responsible for these pop-up adverts that keep appearing on the screen, then I am far from impressed. Also, some days I have to go through the login process several times, which again is becoming most annoying.

👍

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Mars

(@editor)

Illustrious Member Admin

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 4578

20/04/2022 8:47 pm

@derek-m, I’d tweaked some Google ad settings this morning and they appear to be responsible for the new ad formats. I’ve now disabled them and reverted back to to the old settings. According to Google it may take a few hours for things to revert back to how they were.

As for the logins, is that because the site is not remembering you?

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mjr

(@mjr)

Reputable Member Member

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 303

21/04/2022 11:39 am

@editor I don't know about derek-m, but the site doesn't remember me for very long, whether or not I tick the "Remember Me" box on the login page. Maybe a day or two max. That means that I cannot participate again until I get one of those evil eye tests that I can pass. There's not much point even reading the site because it won't remember what I've read if I'm not logged in. I'm sorry to say it, but isn't it a bit ableist?

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Transparent

(@transparent)

Famed Member Moderator

Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 3186

21/04/2022 2:01 pm

So what we need @mjr is a 'virtual robot app' on your PC which detects the recaptcha pop-up, moves the pointer to the box and mimics left-click on the mouse...

That surely can't be very difficult to implement, can it? 😎

Save energy... recycle electrons!

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