I’ve been getting some hits from spammers on my newsletter survey page recently. My previous newsletter survey form was built in HTML which is the traditional way of building forms for the web. But HTML forms can be filled out and submitted by automated spambots. This is what I was experiencing. I’d get empty form submissions or submissions filled with garbage (apparently, there are a lot of spambots out there with too much time on their hands 
).
After a week or so of spam form submissions I took action to stifle that. There are two approaches that I’m aware of to do this. First, is the use of CAPTCHAs, the distorted characters with squiggly lines that you have to decode and type into a box before you can submit a form. The other, which is the technique I’ve been using on my website, is to use Flash or Flex for forms. The advantage of this latter technique is that it doesn’t require the website visitor to decode anything or type anything extra.
Flash, as you may know, is commonly used for creating annoying, eye-catching banner ads. However, it also lots of other uses, from creating forms to creating gorgeous rich internet applications. Fortunately, spambots haven’t figured out how to submit a Flash form yet.
So, I’ve converted my newsletter survey form to Flex (Flash and Flex are the same from the website visitor’s point of view). So, if you’re receiving my newsletter check out my new newsletter survey form and vote for the topics you’d like to see covered in upcoming issues. And, if you’re not a subscriber, go take the survey and then sign up to receive my monthly newsletter on my Custom Websites page.