*goes home to eat a jar of pickled minions and cry about branding issues

Sorry about my initial reaction. It's just that I gave this explanation patiently a few times already, and I guess your giveaway was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Especially seeing how you're not a newbie around here. I realise you only meant well and I should have respected that.

All I know is that the movies have made me hate that word. Kind of like I'm not sure if I will ever be able to enjoy the word "twilight".

thats why you should always say "twee shite" unless referencing the light level or that cool TV and radio show.

*passes pickled minions.

G'wan - they're crunchy and the taste makes the film go away

*points at label which reads "pickled in mindbleach"

I never had a code to give away and never had any reason to research the protocol for doing so. But I understand the explanation and will refrain from posting them publicly in the future.

Just why don't you tell me now whether the bots still bypass the captcha?

What makes you think they can't? Also, how does the captcha deal with "scumbags, leechers, trolls, scammers"?

Nobody mentioned any bots.

That's the first thing that comes to mind when you all talk about how unhealthy it is to drop a code in the wild.

But none of us have mentioned it: we have mentioned scumbags, leeches, trolls and other undesidreables, but no bots.

I don't think anyone has claimed perfection, or even complete simplicity, in that regard. There are some different guidelines that different people suggest, like "a person had to reply to get the code, and in many more cases add some kind of general check to see if the perso was actually active on the forums". There is a scammer thread (or two) that can be reviewed, if someone cares to trust it.

Random code drops enable SLTS to scoop them up without actually having to do any work except watch for them. An analogy that may have already been made: if you don't want to attract vultures, then don't leave things they like laying around.

I see where you're going. However, as there are SLTS looking to scoop those keys up, so are legit members. And just as there are active and legit members looking to grab keys by requesting or doing whatever measures you've got, so are SLTS looking to do havoc. That's because SLTS are actually humans, just flawed humans trying their best to hide their identity. So in either way you're still attracting them. I'd say ban freebies and there'll be no more SLTS if they do get in via freebies, but nobody would like that.

NALS927337E3E3A1CQ

Congratz, that's like sticking two fingers up....plonker.

YARP!

Still, thats another one on the naughty list.

*calls in firing squad