Self-hosted for maximum control

mosparo is installed directly on your own server. This ensures that you retain full control over all processed data and minimize the risk of information falling into the hands of third parties. Unlike cloud-based solutions, where data is stored on external servers, all data remains within your own infrastructure with mosparo. Learn how you can install mosparo on your server here.

Privacy comes first

mosparo was developed with a focus on data minimization and transparency. No unnecessary personal data is collected or stored. Additionally, mosparo does not use tracking mechanisms or cookies that could monitor user behavior. This aligns with the principles of data minimization and purpose limitation emphasized in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Read more about how mosparo processes the data here.

Advantages over other spam protection solutions

There are many ways to protect a form from spam. Traditional solutions often require users to solve a puzzle before they can submit a form. However, puzzles can be difficult for people with disabilities to solve, and they take up time for all users.

Modern solutions attempt to bypass this problem by analyzing user behavior to distinguish between humans and bots. However, this requires the collection of vast amounts of data, and these services typically do not offer a self-hosted solution.

You can find the list of mosparo’s features here.

Conclusion

mosparo provides effective spam protection while respecting user privacy. With its self-hosted approach, you retain full control over all data and prevent third-party access. In an era where data protection is more important than ever, mosparo is a trustworthy alternative to traditional spam protection tools.

If you are looking for a spam protection solution that is both effective and privacy-friendly, mosparo is the ideal choice for your website.

The post mosparo: Privacy-friendly spam protection for your website appeared first on mosparo.

The mosparo Association is a non-profit organization with the aim to maintain, further develop, and provide general support for mosparo. The organization does not belong to anybody since it’s not a company, and you can’t own shares of the organization. However, because it’s a legal entity in Switzerland, the organization can handle all the legal stuff connected with such a project.

What will change?

In general, nothing. mosparo is a free-to-use and open-source software that will stay exactly like that. The association is here to assure that. We will continue with the development as before, and you will receive support through the different channels as you did in the past year. The mosparo Association will not start selling premium extensions, hosted services, or anything like that. We also do not begin to ‘hide’ the download button like other open-source projects like to do.

The visible change right now is that the address in the footer of this website was updated, and the menu received an additional link to the association’s website.

In the future, we will list Service Providers on this website (as long as we receive applications as Service Providers). Service Providers are members of the mosparo Association and offer a service related to mosparo.

The development of mosparo is still independent and not determined by the association. You can, as before, send us your suggestions for new features, adjustments, or integrations in the GitHub Discussions.

More about the association

You can find all the details about the mosparo Association on the website of the association: mosparo-association.org

We answered the most obvious questions in a separate news post on the website of the association.

If you have any questions regarding mosparo or the mosparo Association, please do not hesitate to contact us by email (feedback@mosparo.io or contact@mosparo-association.org) or in the GitHub Discussions.

The post Introducing the mosparo Association appeared first on mosparo.

In today’s digital world, accessibility is not just a buzzword but a necessity. Websites and applications must be accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities. One often overlooked aspect of this is spam protection. Many traditional methods make it difficult for people with disabilities to access content. This is where mosparo comes in – a tool that combines accessibility with effective spam protection.

What makes mosparo special?

mosparo was developed with the goal of providing a user-friendly and accessible solution for spam protection. It has been certified by Access for All with the AA certificate (PDF, 183 KB), confirming its compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This certification ensures that mosparo is accessible to a wide user base.

mosparo adds an additional form field to the form. This normal form field is invisible but correctly responds to screen readers and keyboard navigation. To ensure seamless integration into a website, the display of the mosparo box can be customized according to individual needs.

mosparo detects spam solely based on the data entered by the user in the form. Therefore, it does not differentiate between humans and robots but rather between desired and undesired content.

Why is mosparo better than other spam protection methods?

Traditional spam protection methods, such as CAPTCHAs, often pose significant barriers for people with disabilities. According to WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), many CAPTCHAs have severe accessibility issues that make them difficult for users with visual impairments or motor disabilities to solve. In contrast, mosparo relies on form data validation that does not disrupt the user flow while still providing robust protection.

Another advantage of mosparo is its adaptability. It integrates seamlessly into various platforms and offers website owners the flexibility to customize it to the specific needs of their websites or applications. This ensures that spam protection does not come at the expense of user experience.

What is better in other spam protection methods compared to mosparo?

To be as effective as possible, website owners must create their own rules in mosparo. This requires continuous analysis of received spam and regular updates to the rules. Other methods come without any work after the implementation in a form and are therefore better than mosparo regarding the work a website owner must invest.

European Accessibility Act (EAA) and inclusive spam protection

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) requires companies across the European Union to make digital products and services accessible, including spam protection. While traditional solutions like CAPTCHAs are difficult for many people to access, mosparo offers a user-friendly alternative. Thanks to its invisible mechanisms, mosparo ensures effective protection without creating barriers for people with disabilities. This helps businesses comply with the EAA requirements without compromising user-friendliness.

Background of the Law

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) was enacted by the EU to improve the accessibility of products and services across Europe. Each EU member state must implement these requirements into national law. These new laws will come into effect at the end of June 2025. In Germany, the law is known as the «Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetzt (BFSG)».

Companies across the EU should start addressing the new accessibility requirements early to implement compliant and user-friendly solutions in time.

Conclusion

At a time when accessibility and user-friendliness are paramount, mosparo offers an innovative solution for spam protection. It combines spam rules and effective security measures with a strong focus on accessibility, setting new standards. If you are looking for a spam protection solution that is effective, privacy-friendly, customizable, and accessible, mosparo is the ideal choice.

The post mosparo: Accessible spam protection that sets new standards appeared first on mosparo.

We’ve created a second post with all the details about the new version 1.3: Read more

As with the previous versions, we’ve prepared a video to give you a short overview of the new features, changes, and fixes. You can watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo.

Due to the new functions and changes, we have also added new strings. Your help in updating the new and changed translations is always welcome. You can find the list of translations on Weblate. Learn more about translating mosparo in our documentation.

Thank you very much for your contributions. We’re thankful for all the bug reports, translations, questions, ideas, bug reports, and all the other feedback we get from our users.

We look forward to reading your issue, question, or idea on GitHub. You can also contact us by emailing feedback@mosparo.io or on all the possible social media platforms (see the website’s footer).

The post mosparo version 1.3 released appeared first on mosparo.

With this new version, we’ve added Project Groups to organize the projects within mosparo better. Additionally, mosparo now has a proof-of-work-based mechanism to protect forms. You can find more about these features and all the other features and changes in this news post.

This beta version (v1.3.0-beta.1) is not production-ready and should only be used for testing.

To test the version, download the beta version here or switch the update channel in your mosparo installation to “Beta” and search for updates.

If you find anything that looks weird or needs to be fixed, please create an issue on GitHub. Thank you very much for your help with testing mosparo. We’re looking forward to your feedback on the new version.

The post First beta of v1.3 ready for testing appeared first on mosparo.

A very important bug fix solves a problem with the project’s origin hosts. mosparo didn’t validate the hosts correctly. This changes with the new version, and the hosts are verified correctly. Please test your form after upgrading to v1.2.

You can find all the details about the new version 1.2 in this post: New Features & Changes in Version 1.2

We’ve also prepared a video introducing the new features, changes, and bug fixes. You can watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo.

Because of the accessibility adjustments, some translations have not yet been updated to this new version. Your help in updating the changed translations is always welcome. You can find the list of translations on Weblate. Learn more about translating mosparo in our documentation.

Thank you very much for your contributions. We’re thankful for all the bug reports, translations, questions, ideas, bug reports, and all the other feedback we get from our users.
We look forward to reading your issue, question, or idea on GitHub. You can also contact us by emailing feedback@mosparo.io or on all the possible social media platforms (see the website’s footer).

The post Version 1.2 of mosparo released appeared first on mosparo.

You can find all the details about the new version in this news post.

Important: One of the bug fixes could break the functionality of your form if you haven’t configured the project correctly. Read more about it in the news post with the changes or in the documentation.

This beta version (v1.2.0-beta.1) is not production-ready and should only be used for testing.

To test the version, download the beta version here or switch the update channel in your mosparo installation to “Beta” and search for updates.

If you find anything that looks weird or needs to be fixed, please create an issue on GitHub.

Thank you very much for your help with testing mosparo. We’re looking forward to your feedback on the new version.

The post First beta of v1.2 ready for testing appeared first on mosparo.

The two days

The first event occurred on the 20th of April, 2021, on a park bench between two villages in Switzerland. It was late afternoon, and the sun was setting in the background. We, Marc and Matthias, discussed different project ideas. One of these ideas was a very rough one for building a new CAPTCHA solution.

One day later, on the 21st of April, 2021, Matthias (zepich) wrote the concept for a project called “NoSpam”. Later that day, we discussed the concept in a phone call. On the same evening, the first domain was bought, and the project started to take shape.

Some more days later, the name “mosparo” was defined and the project was officially started.

The concept

The concept was written on the 21st of April 2021 and did not receive any adjustment since then. After settling on the name, we did not even update the project name in the concept. The concept describes the essential features and how the verification should generally work.

Of course, mosparo received many more features than we had in our minds three years ago. However, comparing the concept with the final software is interesting because we wrote the concept before we started to develop it and described the technical validation and verification process exactly how we developed it and how it’s still in the software today.

You can read the original concept here: Konzept Project NoSpam (PDF, 97 KB)
The concept is only available in German.

The rest is history

A half year after these two days in April 2021, mosparo was installed on the first website on the internet. It’s our test website for catching spam. Another year later, in August 2022, mosparo’s private beta started with more websites. And finally, another half year later, mosparo was officially released as a public beta.

Thank you for using and supporting mosparo!

If you want to help make mosparo better, you can find all information about contributions on our Contribution page. If you find an issue, please report it as an Issue on GitHub. Please let us know in the GitHub discussions if you have any questions or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!

The post Back in time: The start of mosparo appeared first on mosparo.

In recent weeks, “Access for all”, the Swiss foundation for technology adapted to people with disabilities, has tested the mosparo spam protection mechanism for compliance with WCAG 2.1 by the W3C.

Access for all confirms that mosparo is fully compliant with all success criteria at levels of conformance A and AA. To verify compliance, Access for all tested with different experts and different technologies and devices.

Since mosparo was built with accessibility and data privacy in mind, the mechanism of mosparo in the frontend is straightforward and, therefore, not a problem for assistance tools like screen readers and other accessibility tools.

Technical details

Access for all tested the visible and invisible modes of mosparo with version 1.1. We prepared an installation of mosparo and a demonstration form for Access for all. We’ve added some rules to test the spam and non-spam scenarios.

Some optimizations, which Access for all found while testing the mosparo spam protection, were already added with version v1.1.2, while some additional optimizations will be added with mosparo v1.2.

WCAG 2.1 AAA

We’re planning to go a step further and want to verify the compliance with the success criteria at the level of conformance AAA. We will inform you once we have more information about that project.

Accessibility Conformance Declaration

Accessibility conformance declaration WCAG 2.1 A and AA (PDF, 183 KB)

If you want to help make mosparo better, you can find all information about contributions on our Contribution page. If you find an issue, please report it as an Issue on GitHub. Please let us know in the GitHub discussions if you have any questions or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!

The post Compliance with WCAG 2.1 A and AA appeared first on mosparo.

Enough of the numbers. Last year was great, and we’re always happy to find mosparo on websites in the internet. We added many new features with the versions last year and also with the new version 1.1.

You can find all the details about version 1.1 in the post here: New Features & Changes in version 1.1

We’ve also prepared a small video to present the new features. You can watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo.

This year, we will continue with the development of mosparo. We have some ideas ready, and some users have given us ideas for new features. We’re always looking forward to seeing your ideas.

Thank you very much for your contributions. We’re thankful for all the ideas, bug reports, translations, and all the other feedback we get from our users.

We look forward to reading your issue, question, or idea on GitHub. You can also contact us by emailing feedback@mosparo.io or on all the possible social media platforms (see the website’s footer).

The post mosparo version 1.1 released appeared first on mosparo.