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Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

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Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#201

Post by Luyt »

Jach wrote: post #193

I know ESR isn't really popular here, but: "Being a native English-speaker does not guarantee that you have language skills good enough to function as a hacker. If your writing is semi-literate, ungrammatical, and riddled with misspellings, many hackers (including myself) will tend to ignore you. While sloppy writing does not invariably mean sloppy thinking, we've generally found the correlation to be strong and we h…

"If you can't yet write competently, learn to."

Excellent advice.

Ayn Rand wrote: "If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn."

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#202

Post by Iv »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #124
dredmorbius wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whomever. loses. :)

Are you sure "whomever"? Isn't that the objective form and, in this case, "whoever" is the subject?

I spent 10 minutes on grammar links before picking one...

Originally I wanted to write something along the line "whoever's grammar is loose lose" but I am almost sure this is not a correct form

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#203

Post by olavk »

corin_ wrote: post #73
raganwald wrote: post #46

Here’s my test for whether you’re qualified to post to Hacker News. Pair the following five comments with their corresponding definitions: 1. “Raganwald is a blowhard whose pathetic attempts to score karma reveal him as an insecure dweeb who can’t get over being kicked around in grammar school. He and his mumblings should be should be flushed down the toilet bowl like the turds that they are.” 2. “What, raganwald is…

I know people smarter than the vast majority of HN users (how can this really be judged, sure, but I'd place money on it, certainly far, far smarter than me) who wouldn't know those, and I know many, many people who are damn smart (just not fitting them into the "smarter than most people here", but definitely smart enough to belong here if they wanted to) who also wouldn't know them.

Never mind if people are smart or stupid. The important thing for a forum is if the participants are willing and able to provide thoughtful and interesting comments. Simple quizzes like the above (joke or not) might filter out a lot of lazy trolls up front. Everybody with a genuine interest in the forum should easily be able to find the answers using Google, and might even find it fun to learn a bit.

More importantly, after having made a bit of effort to be allowed in, the users might value the forum more.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#204

Post by Udo »

trotsky wrote: post #125

If Fox Nation implemented something like this, they’d have zero commenters (unless, of course, they made the wrong answers “right”). I wholeheartedly disagree. I am pretty much a total idiot (based on many years of evidence) and yet I can easily use the words listed correctly. The fact that I espouse bizarre and unworkable methods of government (see my username) certainly doesn't prevent me from spelling correctly. I…

  I'm surprised to see such a thinly veiled insult directed at one
  set of political beliefs sit at #1 on HN.*
Things tend to sit at #1 on HN because they're interesting and engaging. I didn't post the link because I wholeheartedly agree with it, and I suspect that's not the reason why people upvoted it either.

That being said, I think the not-so-thinly veiled insult directed at the average Tea Party clientele is backed up by casual observation. And that's saying something, coming from a foreigner who has no stake in the US party system (=me).

  I am pretty much a total idiot (based on many years of evidence) 
  and yet I can easily use the words listed correctly.
You're obviously not an idiot. You can articulate yourself, bring points across in an eloquent manner, thus enriching the conversation. Compare that to someone who only communicates in lulz or derrrp-speak. The point of having an online discussion is not to surround yourself with people who agree with you 100% of the time, it's about having a stimulating discussion in the first place.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#205

Post by [deleted] »

mirkules wrote: post #98
corin_ wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are homophones not homonyms - normally I wouldn't be so pedantic, but in a thread around the idea of people having prove they know meanings/spellings/etc, it seems suitible.

Don't you think it's ironic then that you misspelled "suitable"?

[deleted]

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#206

Post by [deleted] »

mirkules wrote: post #98
corin_ wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are homophones not homonyms - normally I wouldn't be so pedantic, but in a thread around the idea of people having prove they know meanings/spellings/etc, it seems suitible.

Don't you think it's ironic then that you misspelled "suitable"?

[deleted]

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#207

Post by epo »

mirkules wrote: post #98
corin_ wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are homophones not homonyms - normally I wouldn't be so pedantic, but in a thread around the idea of people having prove they know meanings/spellings/etc, it seems suitible.

Don't you think it's ironic then that you misspelled "suitable"?

Gosh, a correct use of the term "ironic", can the ghost of Morissette be being laid to rest?.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#208

Post by [deleted] »

Jupe wrote: post #183

At first take this seems like it would be easy to circumvent, (given a dictionary of homonyms) but... google "look over there." == 1.5M hits google "look over their." == 16.2M hits google "look over they're." == 1.0M hits Google doesn't support periods, apparently. But, other examples from the article are a little more easy to game: google "do you know were we are going?" = 8 hits google "do you know we're we are goi…

[deleted]

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#209

Post by jgeerts »

The funny thing is that the smart captchas are easier for a computer to guess (if it wasn't a joke).

Too bad that the current implementation of captchas ever saw the light, they are pushing a security issue to the end user. Seems like a good opportunity :).

The acronym is "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart" but it isn't really that automated, so do captchas actually exist?

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#210

Post by narag »

tomelders wrote: post #146
raganwald wrote: post #46

Here’s my test for whether you’re qualified to post to Hacker News. Pair the following five comments with their corresponding definitions: 1. “Raganwald is a blowhard whose pathetic attempts to score karma reveal him as an insecure dweeb who can’t get over being kicked around in grammar school. He and his mumblings should be should be flushed down the toilet bowl like the turds that they are.” 2. “What, raganwald is…

is this a trick question?

I can't know but, after reading the comment, it ocurred to me that identifying "idiots" with bad spellers is fallacious.
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