Dastardly fun from Herman Martinus, who runs Bear Blog, on a very special UX implemented on the page when a user is determined to be a spammer:

• When spam is detected, clear the form (so all the info needs to re-typed) and throw an error, eg: “Our servers are bearly managing. Try again later.”
• Disable pasting in all text areas. We can’t make it too easy.
• Every 5 to 10 seconds the element focus switches to a different input so while they’re typing in one area, they may accidentally start typing in another in a mildly annoying way.
• And finally to top it off, if/when they finally manage to submit the form again, throw a different error, eg: “Ensure content contains necessary parameters.”
• Repeat.

The Frustration Loop

It works, too, apparently. I love the idea of wasting bad people’s time. It reminds me of that episode of Mythic Quest, “Dinner Party” where they trap all the nazis on their own server.