# \[ANN\] The end of Capchas: Thorny Form plugin **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 9, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-the-end-of-capchas-thorny-form-plugin/159892 "2009-02-09T20:45:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/cc9497/32.png) [@wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wybo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-the-end-of-capchas-thorny-form-plugin/159892/1 "2009-02-09T20:45:10Z")
Thorny Form is a Rails plugin for unobtrusively protecting forms against form-SPAM. It adds extra fields like a honeypot and some others which can then be checked before the form-data is used in your application. To use Thorny Form you just need to change two lines per form. First in the view form\_for has to be replaced by thorny\_form\_for (remote\_form\_for by remote\_thorny\_form\_for). Then in the controller you have to add a check for spam in the shape of self.thorny\_form\_free\_of\_spam?. See the full Thorny Form docs for a code example and installation instructions here: [http://www.logilogi.org/pub/doc/plugins/thorny\_form/](http://www.logilogi.org/pub/doc/plugins/thorny_form/) It is not an unbreakable solution, but it is likely to continue to work for quite some time. The following joke from Ned Batchelders blog nicely sketches why: ``` Jim and Joe are out hiking in the forest, when in the distance, they see a huge bear. The bear notices them, and begins angrily running toward them. Jim calmly checks the knots of his shoes and stretches his legs. Joe asks incredulously, “What are you doing? Do you think you can outrun that bear!?” Jim replies, “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.” ``` Thorny Form is under the Affero GPL, and developed by the LogiLogi Foundation ([http://foundation.logilogi.org](http://foundation.logilogi.org)) greetings, Wybo W. * * * :🧑‍🎓 - Informatiekunde (computer linguistics, IR, webtech), History and Philosophy - Member of the Center for Metahistory Groningen ([Faculty of Arts | About us | University of Groningen](http://www.rug.nl/let/cmg)) ::Free Software and Open Source Developer: - Active in the LogiLogi Foundation ([http://foundation.logilogi.org](http://foundation.logilogi.org)) - [http://www.LogiLogi.org](http://www.LogiLogi.org), Cumulative, shared commenting, publication and idea sharing: Where insight comes together… - ComLinToo, a computational linguistics toolset written in Perl ---
**Author:** ![wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/cc9497/32.png) [@wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wybo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-the-end-of-capchas-thorny-form-plugin/159892/2 "2009-02-09T20:48:50Z")
On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:43 PM, Wybo W. wrote: > The following joke from Ned Batchelders blog > nicely sketches why: Perhaps worthwhile pointing out the URL as well: “Stopping spambots with hashes and honeypots” – Ned Batchelder, January 2007 [http://nedbatchelder.com/text/stopbots.html](http://nedbatchelder.com/text/stopbots.html) – PA. [http://alt.textdrive.com/nanoki/](http://alt.textdrive.com/nanoki/) ---
**Author:** ![wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/cc9497/32.png) [@wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wybo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-the-end-of-capchas-thorny-form-plugin/159892/3 "2009-02-09T20:53:02Z")
On Feb 9, 2009, at 8:43 PM, Wybo W. wrote: > It is not an unbreakable solution, but it is likely to continue to > work for quite some time. The following joke from Ned Batchelders blog > nicely sketches why: For what’s worth, Nanoki, a wiki engine implemented in Lua, uses Ned Batchelders tricks to keep itself spam free. For an illustration, check the source of the various form: [http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/main/editor](http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/main/editor) [http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/cloud/editor](http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/cloud/editor) Cheers, – PA. [http://alt.textdrive.com/nanoki/](http://alt.textdrive.com/nanoki/) ---
**Author:** ![wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/cc9497/32.png) [@wybo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wybo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ann-the-end-of-capchas-thorny-form-plugin/159892/4 "2009-02-10T18:19:55Z")
> [http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/cloud/editor](http://svr225.stepx.com:3388/cloud/editor) > Thanks for providing these links. Feedback on the Rails plugin ([http://www.logilogi.org/pub/doc/plugins/thorny\_form/](http://www.logilogi.org/pub/doc/plugins/thorny_form/)) is most welcome. It is used in [http://www.LogiLogi.org](http://www.LogiLogi.org) (both for remarks and logis/ documents) Wybo W. * * * :🧑‍🎓 - Informatiekunde (computer linguistics, IR, webtech), History and Philosophy - Member of the Center for Metahistory Groningen ([Faculty of Arts | About us | University of Groningen](http://www.rug.nl/let/cmg)) ::Free Software and Open Source Developer: - Active in the LogiLogi Foundation ([http://foundation.logilogi.org](http://foundation.logilogi.org)) - [http://www.LogiLogi.org](http://www.LogiLogi.org), Cumulative, shared commenting, publication and idea sharing: Where insight comes together… - ComLinToo, a computational linguistics toolset written in Perl