What a brilliant idea. Will give it a go... thx

Seems like a good idea, installed.

Can you just make the background transparent?

@Brett you can open the css for that file and add this then ajust to your liking for the log on box

opacity:0.4;
filter:alpha(opacity=40); /* For IE8 and earlier */ 

@ Brett Ware, to make the background transparent just Twizanex it. To see what I mean, look at this example here. Just open  the Honeypot Spam Catcher for Elgg 1.8 css and change it like this:

/* From this width */  /* width: 500px;  */

/* To this   */     width: 1000px;

Let me know how it works for you
        

'twizanex' ? is that similar to twizllers? or redvines ? which is closer ?

@DhrupDeScoop, Twizanex is a: noun, verb, Twiza·nexed, Twiza·nexing. Twizanex is not similar to twizzllers, however, Red Vines Red twists flavor appears very similar or closer to Purple Vines Purple raspberry-flavored Twizanex.  %-(I)  (laughing out loud)                              

ohh, raspberry flavored sounds good

Wow, this works very good. I went from over 50 spam registrations a day down to like 2 or 3 after I added this. 

I use Elegance theme on my site, where a register form using pop-ups. Can I use these plugins?

Thanks for the answer ;D

Yeah it will work

something weird. I imitated spammer by typing 1 into new field (which is visible by the way) and all I got emailed is:

The email address of the spammer is 1

no IP address or username were emailed at me.

elgg v1.8.6

The plugin emails the email address filled in the fake field, rather than real email field. With automated spam, this is the same email address 99% of the time.

The plugin doesn't email IP address, but could be done by integrating IP tracker plugin with this plugin..

okay, then it's todo list. Interesting idea though. spambots cannot resist temptation, that's where comes honeypot.

Update to the Author: Honepot is a great spam catcher, after installing this 48 days ago, I haven't had any issues with spam since, and even disabled the captcha at registration. It stops the bots. :)

Not showing in page source when activated for Cool theme by Stan Larroque, version 1.0.  Please advise on how to correct.

I'm using the Honeypot plugin, but the hidden email field is visible with developer tools such as Google's Inspect Element. If you go to Facebook Sign Up page, there are hidden fields, but you won't see them even with developer tools because (I think) the input type of the fields is set to "hidden" not "text" as in the honeypot plugin. The purpose of hidding fields is to hide it from people completely whether visually or with the help of developer tools. If a spammer can see where your hidden fields are located using developer tools such as Firebug, he/she could tailor his/her spambot so that it avoids filling the "hidden" field. 

Here is the HTML of the honeypot plugin: 

<div class="email_cover"></div>
<input type="hidden" name="email_address" tabindex="-1" /> 

And here is the CSS of the honeypot plugin: 

.email_cover {
       display: block;
       position: absolute;
       width: 1000px;
       height: 40px;
       background-color: <?php echo $color; ?>;
}

I have tried to use <input type = "hidden"... and the hidden form has become invisible (as intended) but the <div class="email_cover"></div> of the form, and hence its location on the page, is being highlighed when I hover my mouse over the <div class="email_cover"></div> in the HTML panel of the Firebug. 

Any hint/help is appreciated. 

will this work with the image captcha plugin?

yes it will and elgg hammer made by Tom

Holy crap This worked. It was very easy to install and I did not have to configure anything.