NoNewWars

This isn’t a review, it is spam.

This isn’t a review, it is spam.

This isn’t a review, it is spam.

Now running PlusCaptcha Version 2.4.0 on WordPress 4.7.4 running Twenty Eleven theme.

I tried posting a comment to my blog and the Captcha was not appearing. I have applied updates and de-activated and re-activated this plugin and still get:

“The plugin generated 1 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin.”

Do I just give up on this plugin?

No, it didn’t have such a button.

However, I’ve just installed it on another site I have and that does have the button. On clicking it it displayed:

Security Ninja is analyyzing your site.
It will only take a few moments.

Then a pop-up box saying:

Undocumented error. Page will automatically reload.

When I click on OK it just sits there flickering three blue boxes and red text saying “STOP SCANNING”.

I think I’ll give up on this plug-in now, thanks.

Thank you for applying this enhancement in v4.02

Thank you for fixing this in v4.02

I have disabled it, logged in to the PlusCaptcha site, reconfigured it, re-enabled it, re-configured it again and now it works again.

On re-activating it, WordPress still gives the message “The plugin generated 1 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin.”

It has taken me a few hours to work out what was causing the problem and a couple more to find a solution.

I had a look through the errors other people have reported and “White screen of death in admin area” sounded similar. That was caused by large tables. My database is up to 82Mb and most of it was in wp_IPBLC_login_failed.

I ran the update I suggested in “Suggestion / request for reducing wp_IPBLC_login_failed size” and then compacted the table and the database went down to 8Mb.

I then re-activated the plugin and the Dashboard carried on working.

I think that field wp_IPBLC_login_failed.variables might be better as a varchar(512)

Actually, I think there is a problem. I cannot get the PlusCaptcha image to ever acknowledge I have lined it up correctly so comments cannot be posted.

Update: I have upgraded WordPress to the latest version, WordPress 4.5.3 and PlusCaptcha is still rejecting every attempt at lining up the image correctly. I have tried over 20 times and none are accepted.

I have left it activated so the bug can be witnessed. My web site is:

blog.NoNewWars.co.uk

Yes, I’ve managed to send a form. Didn’t need to clear the cache. The problem went away for a few hours.

My concern is site visitors being presented with a server error and I don’t understand why.

What is the server that is not responding? The web host? If so, why is it this plugin that’s affected?

What is the server it is trying to contact?

Is it the Akismet server? If so, changing the logic might help such that it isn’t contacted at all when Akismet is not being used. (I don’t use Akismet as it loses so many valid comments).

Is it dialing home?

Something else?

Here is a site that was caught when it was happening:
https://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-300116-135057.php

(Let’s hope this 2nd attempt doesn’t get lost too.)

Yesterday a Yahoo! search for the same strings returned two other WordPress sites saying the same thing immediately before a contact form with a “Send it” button.

I’ve just done a Google search and there have been hundreds of WordPress sites with that exact string and, if you go to the cached version, some of them can be seen showing it before a form looking like a Quick Contact Form form.

It even includes aerin.co.uk/contact-form-examples and aerin.co.uk although they are not showing it right now.

See here:
https://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot-300116-133707.php