CAPTCHAs and sign‑up quizzes annoy real people and barely slow down determined bots. As the fediverse grows, we need smarter, more humane defences, ones that don’t push away genuine newcomers. What creative, non‑intrusive ideas do you have? Trust‑based vouching, proof‑of‑humanity protocols, behavioural signals… what feels both effective and aligned with the open social web? I’m building a social media platform and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Having manual account approvals combined with a short questionnaire asking why they want to join and which communities interest them has been extremely effective on my instance so far, as most bots reveal themselves at this step.
“You’re in a desert, walking along in the sand, when all of a sudden you look down, and see a tortoise. It’s crawling towards you. You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back…”
Tortoise? What’s a tortoise?