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I manage to get rid of line 99.99% of spam with a hidden checkbox. Bots tend to check them, so I just ignore it if it's checked.

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I remember reading about a blog that used this method something like 10 years ago, and wondered why I don't hear about it more often. Glad to know it still works just as well as back then.

I made a contact form that sends the data URL encoded if JS is disabled, or JSON if JS is enabled. If the back end gets url-encoded data, it's spam.

I also use the hidden field trick, but I label it phone number and fill it with zeros. Then I hide it with an external stylesheet. I don't actually want a phone field, its a decoy. If it is changed from zeros, it is spam. Most spam bots don't seem to parse external stylesheets.

I've had zero contact form spam with this method. Mind you it is a very low volume site.

I was just having fun with it, making a php-style contact form backend but using node.js. I read lots of those old blog posts you mention.

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