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I reached 1k rep on Chess.SE, now I can review suggested edits, and I see anonymous edits from unregistered users, all bots and spammers.

I know that you are not willing to turn off the anonymous editing because many users hate registering, but could you add simple captcha, just to make sure that real users are editing the question?

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    excellent suggestion. Shouldn't be hard to implement. Personally, I would suggest using Google's reCAPTCHA. More so because of the brilliant idea of digitizing books at the same time. I believe it is in the same spirit as StackExchange, adding indispensable value to the community.
    – Guy
    Mar 3, 2014 at 7:53
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    Not sure it's really necessary. There are already mechanisms at place to block spam edits, takes some time for them to kick in but they're blocking the major part of spam edits. Adding captcha will discourage the few good edits we might gain from anonymous visitors, while many spammers use smart enough bots to overcome captcha or simply using real people to spread the spam so captcha will not stop them.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Mar 3, 2014 at 7:56
  • I've been notified about suggested edits (which all turned out to be spam) to a single answer of mine in chess.se 20 times in the last week. It is the first thing in years that has really negatively affected my interaction with the site.
    – dfan
    Mar 6, 2014 at 11:53
  • @dfan yes I know, your question has been edited hundreds of times by spamers last week, I had to review all these stupid spams, thats why I asked this question here, we need a solution, we don't have to review spams and bots
    – Lynob
    Mar 6, 2014 at 12:14
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    @dfan I think this can be a positive trend. Probably, this site is getting stronger and stronger Google search hits. Thus, it attracts the interest of spammers. Thus, the site is growing more popular! As for the spam itself, captcha is a standard solution.
    – user251762
    Mar 13, 2014 at 12:47
  • @Fischer what makes you think anonymous editing is disabled on Stack Overflow? It's not.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Mar 13, 2014 at 13:45
  • @ShadowWizard I opened incognito, took this screenshot for SO, and this one for Chess.SE, there's no improve this question button for unregistered users on SO
    – Lynob
    Mar 13, 2014 at 14:22
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    @Fischer right, because the question was still too "new", anonymous visitors can suggest edits only after a certain time limit, think it's 10 minutes. Try now and see the "improve this question" link. Edit: 10 minutes indeed, see here.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Mar 13, 2014 at 14:26
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    @ShadowWizard ok thank you, I did not know that, I removed that part from the question
    – Lynob
    Mar 13, 2014 at 14:31
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    Cheers, I still hold my original opinion that it's not needed but looks like many support you. Let's hope for some official answer soon, one way or another! :-)
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Mar 13, 2014 at 14:33
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    Seen captcha broken/bypassed on plenty of other places by spammers so not sure it is the solution especially if other measures are already in place.
    – Joe W
    Mar 13, 2014 at 15:34

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