"Many developers vastly over-estimate the likelihood of customized spam."
I run 100s of small random low traffic low priority sites. Without some form of form control, the ALL get hit with customized and random other crap spam. I don't have decent experience with many things in life, but I can say this is one topic I have YEARS of experience with. I've never over-estimated the amount of any type of spam any form can get after being on the web for just a few months. Doesn't matter how big they are or what they do.
I'm not saying ReCAPTCHA is the only thing out there or even the best, but having an open form is just asking for trouble.
I run 100s of small random low traffic low priority sites. Without some form of form control, the ALL get hit with customized and random other crap spam. I don't have decent experience with many things in life, but I can say this is one topic I have YEARS of experience with. I've never over-estimated the amount of any type of spam any form can get after being on the web for just a few months. Doesn't matter how big they are or what they do.
I'm not saying ReCAPTCHA is the only thing out there or even the best, but having an open form is just asking for trouble.