Caprilli

… And, while we are on MailChimp, why is Chimport not working with OSX 10.10.1 (Yosemite)?

It means you can only upload one contact at a time, which is pointless. A previous Ap Store reviewer pointed this out in November.

If this were all non-commercial, fine. But I am paying $30 a month for this!!

Another Mailchimp reply, this one suggesting an alternative spam subscriber procedure.

Anyone got a view on this?

Thanks so much for getting back to us. We can definitely understand your frustration with these recent spam signups that have been occurring. While they can indeed increase the number of subscribers on your lists, they can definitely have a negative effect on the health of a user’s list. So, our developers are definitely working as best they can to stop these signups from coming in.

With our most recent update, our developers were able to add an option to our hosted signup forms to allow users to enable a CAPTCHA using Google’s new one-click recaptcha system in order to help separate bots from real humans. You can find more about that in the following article, under the section titled ‘Tips for customizing your forms and response emails’:

Create Signup Forms and Response Emails: http://eepurl.com/BQS3r
Because the Google’s recaptcha can only be enabled based on the domain, the built in recaptcha system is currently only able to be enabled for the hosted forms for each list and not for embedded forms. However, you may be able to manually add a recaptcha to your embedded signup form by following the steps on their site to add the generated code to your webpage. You can find that page here:

https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/index.html
In addition, another option that may help would be to add a required radio button field to the list. Many of the signups appear to only be submitting information to basic fields, so adding a radio field with options such as ‘Yes I’m human’ and ‘No, I’m not human’ can help to prevent them from joining the list. However, we’re also definitely continuing to investigate other avenues as well.

Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns. We’re always happy to help! Have a great day!

I have replied to this from Mailchimp.

The key issue here is that Mailchimp gains financially from bogus subscribers and should do something to prevent them. (I am a paying customer of Mailchimp.)

On one site, http://www.carlex.org.uk, I adopted the embed Mailchimp sign-up form.

On http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com I use the plugin Genesis eNews Extended form. I am unable to see any difference in either process: ie the “honeypot” field on both appears to be the same.

All my sites use double opt-in Mailchimp forms.

I am disappointed that you suggest I repeat my complaint in another department of Mailchimp rather than address it.

My key concern is that Mailchimp makes financial gain by additional subscribers to the sites, whether bogus or not.

That should be addressed. Suggesting that I try out a third party captcha service such as Wufoo is an inadequate response to this important issue, which is being discussed on WordPress.org.

That was my response to this:

Thanks for writing back to us. I’m happy to offer my assistance here.

MailChimp uses the double opt-in process so that subscribers’ identities can be verified to reduce the possibility that a spambot can automatically subscribe to your form. The MailChimp-generated embedded form code also includes a “honeypot” field that is used to prevent spambots from autofilling forms to be added to a mailing list. It is also possible to use the Wufoo integration to create a custom form with a CAPTCHA that would further prevent spammy signups.

Switching from a single opt-in signup form to a double opt-in MailChimp form with the “honeypot” field, or switching to a Wufoo form with additional confirmation steps, can prevent spammy signups. Despite this, however, spammers are innovating every day and have been able to circumvent these measures as well. We are always monitoring these situations and looking for ways to stay a step ahead.

One way that users can assist with this situation is to submit requests for features to our development team, as user feedback is one of the main drivers of future versions of the application. Here’s the link to our Feedback form where you can request that feature if you’d like to check that out:

http://mailchimp.com/contact/feedback/

I hope this was of assistance to you. Please let us know if you have any further questions, concerns, or feedback with this issue, we’re always happy to offer our assistance. We look forward to hearing back from you soon. Take care!

Here is what Mailchimp says. I am using the plugin Genesis eNews Extended, but replaced this on one site with direct Mailchimp embed forms. I cannot see any difference at all, and certainly no honeypot field.

I have not used Wufoo, which I strongly think is something Mailchimp itself should provide. My sites are http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com and http://www.carlex.org.uk

Mailchimp’s response:

Thanks for contacting MailChimp support. I totally understand the concern with those spam signups in your list, and I apologize for any inconvenience that you’re experiencing with this. I am willing to help in any way that I can.

I took a look at the webpages that you sent over, however, it appears that a third-party signup form widget is being used rather than a MailChimp Embed Form. And, as you mentioned, I can see that the widget is not using any type of CAPTCHA field or preventative measure. In cases like these, one way to prevent spam signups may be to use an embed form rather than a widget form since all MailChimp embed forms include a Honeypot field that is designed to prevent spam bots from completing the form. For more information on how to include the MailChimp embed form, here’s a guide that will walk you through that: http://eepurl.com/gOGN#Embedded-Form-Options

The best way to prevent those signups moving forward would be to use a CAPTCHA field. Though MailChimp forms do not come with a CAPTCHA field by default, this can be added using one of our integrations. One that I recommend would be Wufoo. Here’s an article that talks more about that integration: Integrate Wufoo with MailChimp: http://eepurl.com/ia25. A CAPTCHA field prevents spam bots from signing up by requiring that a random set of text is entered to confirm that it is indeed a human that is trying to sign up.

If you still continue to experience trouble with spam signups after you’ve put these measures in place, please let us know immediately, and we’ll glad to look into this issue further. I completely understand how much of an inconvenience this situation can be, and I appreciate your understanding.

Thank you,

Sorry. I forgot the url:

http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com

The comment was being considered spam.

This sorted it: http://www.stickyreaders.com/duplicate-comment-detected.html

A useful answer to me, and so probably many amateurs, would have been: go away and learn some basic code! But the respondents were too polite to do that.

Anyway, it is what I have been doing, using this excellent site: http://www.htmldog.com

I thought getting to grips with HTML and CSS properly would require a massive investment in time, and that is not the case. Strange that one can run three pretty popular websites for more than a year and not realise this …