To defend against a bot, we must first distinguish between bots and legitimate users.
Maveric, being (1) a signed-in user (2) with sysop priviliges, is easily distinguishable from a bot. Don't get all insulted, mav, I mean that a computer program can easily distinguish you from a bot on the basis of the numbered points above.
Perhaps the edits-per-minute criterion could be applied to anonymous users.
Ed Poor