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Worst CAPTCHA Ever

svedic.org

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Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#151
post #81
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still loathe reCAPTCHA more than any other captcha out there. I've given up hopes of logging in on many occasions simply because of it. Looks like it's designed for not to be deciphered either by humans or computers.

Fun tip: reCAPTCHA is actually two things, the "re" and the "CAPTCHA". In other words, one half is about testing that you're not a human, while the other half is a legitimately unknown word from a source of failed optical character recognition. You actually don't have to get the latter one anything close to right; and I think you're given the option of at least one typo in the actual CAPTCHA test. So when a CAPTCHA l…

at 4chan, it's almost a rule to write male-anatomy-part-that-starts-with-P for the easy to read word.

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#152
post #81
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still loathe reCAPTCHA more than any other captcha out there. I've given up hopes of logging in on many occasions simply because of it. Looks like it's designed for not to be deciphered either by humans or computers.

Fun tip: reCAPTCHA is actually two things, the "re" and the "CAPTCHA". In other words, one half is about testing that you're not a human, while the other half is a legitimately unknown word from a source of failed optical character recognition. You actually don't have to get the latter one anything close to right; and I think you're given the option of at least one typo in the actual CAPTCHA test. So when a CAPTCHA l…

So your the smart aleck whose been inserting the word 'balls' into all my ebooks. Damn you, drostie!

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#154
I don't see the problem. It's easy for people to see the word and type it in. Lightweight but not insignificant measure of protection. Compared with no protection, this form will receive less spam.

There is no impact on the user except a better user experience.

The corporate developer may have looked at the spam levels and decided that a basic measure would be fine considering the exposure to the page, or other reasons.

CAPTCHA is anti-people. It's a step back to the dark ages every time a website asks you to type in a fuzzy word, often just a jumbled string making it even worse for reading.

Surprised some comments are taking aim at the developer, who at least isn't using the stupidly backwards, barely visible full version of captcha. Check en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA it's a joke that the examples posted there seem so much easier than the overly-abstract usual suspects out there in reality. That wikipedia article needs a new section, something like 'criticisms' or 'UX Fail'.

D&B's 'captcha' is whack? So is Google's.

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#155

I don't see the problem. It's easy for people to see the word and type it in. Lightweight but not insignificant measure of protection. Compared with no protection, this form will receive less spam. There is no impact on the user except a better user experience. The corporate developer may have looked at the spam levels and decided that a basic measure would be fine considering the exposure to the page, or other reaso…

Why even bother adding the background image if you are just trying to stop dumb spam crawlers.

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#156
post #94
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun tip: reCAPTCHA is actually two things, the "re" and the "CAPTCHA". In other words, one half is about testing that you're not a human, while the other half is a legitimately unknown word from a source of failed optical character recognition. You actually don't have to get the latter one anything close to right; and I think you're given the option of at least one typo in the actual CAPTCHA test. So when a CAPTCHA l…

> try doing the possible half and typing in "balls" for the other half That doesn't help with the digitization of books. :)

This explains what happened when I tried to read "28 balls later"

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#157
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And at the same time, most captcha solving services I've tried break recaptcha with no problem! And they aren't even expensive. Now, I dunno if they use fancy ML techniques or sweatshops with little African children receiving electroshocks when they get one wrong, but they do work to the point that nowadays captchas only repel legit users and very badly engineered spam bots, the good bots are already ahead of the gam…

There are some services like "Captcha Brotherhood" were you get points for solving captchas of other users, which you then can use to let other users solve your captchas.

...that kind of defeats the point of it, you know :)

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#158
I hate hate hate D&B. so scammy and spammy and worthless. I think their corporate structure reflects the scam... One company issues the DUNS # but another is the telemarketing spammy one that calls you for years afterward.

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#159
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is that the dev is apparently competent enough to make it look like a captcha, yet not enough to know what the purpose of a captcha is. Actually, even if it was real captcha, a computer could still easily guess the answer because the random parts are outside the answer text.

Yeah the regular grid and text would probably make ocr even easier if it were necessary. It wouldn't surprise me if they just used uppercase letters, too. Maybe they assumed that bots would interpret the page the way a human being would, when they're not looking at the source code? Though my money's on someone just not caring.

You know, it could have been gone this way:

Manager: Make me a captcha. Dev: We don't really need one, all we need is a simple way to avoid dumb automatic submits. M: Use a simple one, then.

... a few minutes later...

D: Here it is, the user just has to copy over those four letters. M: Hey this is not a captcha. It does not look like a captcha.

... a few minutes later...

D: Here it is, now it looks like a captcha.

On the other side, it could be very true that if you don't put some annoyances behind it, "normal" people don't recognize it as a captcha... And most of the time (on most custom low traffic sites...) you don't really need much more that a static "write the result of 2+2".

I've been there, I've already done it :-)

Re: Worst CAPTCHA Ever

#160
post #151
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun tip: reCAPTCHA is actually two things, the "re" and the "CAPTCHA". In other words, one half is about testing that you're not a human, while the other half is a legitimately unknown word from a source of failed optical character recognition. You actually don't have to get the latter one anything close to right; and I think you're given the option of at least one typo in the actual CAPTCHA test. So when a CAPTCHA l…

at 4chan, it's almost a rule to write male-anatomy-part-that-starts-with-P for the easy to read word.

Penis. It's called a penis.
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