Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads • Hacker News Board

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#121

Post by mirkules » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:16 PM UTC

corin_ wrote: post #103

mirkules wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Pretty ironic, yeah. Though I'm generally terrible with misspellings, because once I've thought of what to write my mind drifts off, I usually gaze out of the window, and my hands often follow their muscle memories rather than what I want to type. So in fact, I actually often type their/there wrong, although any time I do I catch it as soon as I've done it.

No harm, no foul. :) I was amused by it actually, and a thought crossed my mind that you did it on purpose.

Anyway, it just reiterates that, while funny, this method of captcha is pretty much useless.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#122

Post by SoftwareMaven » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:17 PM UTC

Terretta wrote: post #93

cromulent wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's no excuse not to know common homonyms and misspellings. Would you consider dyslexia an excuse, or English as a second language? Or even semi-illiteracy? I think it's definitely possible to be very clever and still not a good speller, and not bother to double-check on an Internet forum. Einstein was notorious as a poor speller, which suggests he didn't double-check himself.

English as a second language is not an explanation for the "your/you're" errors which are generally sheer ignorance. Ignorance and IQ are certainly different. But IQ is generally measuring "problem solving ability", and when to use a contraction is a problem. If one is very clever, one tends to have that particular problem solved. But, whether the misuse is from inability to solve the problem, or a choice to not solv…

"Because you are not Einstein, it is not OK for you to make mistakes"?

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#123

Post by cromulent » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:18 PM UTC

Terretta wrote: post #93

cromulent wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's no excuse not to know common homonyms and misspellings. Would you consider dyslexia an excuse, or English as a second language? Or even semi-illiteracy? I think it's definitely possible to be very clever and still not a good speller, and not bother to double-check on an Internet forum. Einstein was notorious as a poor speller, which suggests he didn't double-check himself.

English as a second language is not an explanation for the "your/you're" errors which are generally sheer ignorance. Ignorance and IQ are certainly different. But IQ is generally measuring "problem solving ability", and when to use a contraction is a problem. If one is very clever, one tends to have that particular problem solved. But, whether the misuse is from inability to solve the problem, or a choice to not solv…

Some good points towards using the Captcha, but I'm still not convinced that "there's no excuse not to know common homonyms and misspellings".

As far as using common homonyms and misspellings as predictors of "job performance, health, and various other life outcomes", well, I'm not quite sure that's reasonable. For example, xd's comment below:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2868142

has an error in it "Too many people will spill there emotions" but I don't think it's reasonable to predict too much based on that. There's several reasons these errors are common, not just inability or indolence.

There's often a slip between mind and the keyboard - I know I often simply type the wrong thing even when I know full well what the correct thing is. Muscle memory or something.

Edit: 'their "doing it wrong"'. Ah yes, very good :)

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#124

Post by SoftwareMaven » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:19 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #110

Iv wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an English native speaker. Their/they're/their also stings my eyes when incorrectly used, but I must admit that I often do the lose/loose mistake. But that's fair, whoever uses a grammar that is loose, lose.

whomever. loses. :)

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

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#125

Post by trotsky » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:19 PM UTC

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. In fact, unworkable and impractical ideas may be a significant indicator of post-secondary education.

I'm surprised to see such a thinly veiled insult directed at one set of political beliefs sit at #1 on HN.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#126

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #113

raganwald wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for a good point. Establishing correlation without causation is a minefield, IMO, although each of us may come to different conclusions. Filtering people on the basis of correlation and not the primary attribute is discrimination. I doubt filtering a forum is illegal discrimination, but I’m uneasy about where that might lead me personally if it were my forum. Giving a ridiculous example, at a certain time in h…

Establishing correlation without causation is a minefield, IMO... Those who miss nuances of thought and logic are often the same folks who miss nuances of grammar. It's a skill one can learn. Using that as a membership filter would be no different than forming a programming group and restricting it to programmers.

[deleted]

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#127

Post by ZoFreX » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:27 PM UTC

boredguy8 wrote: post #104

As is often the case with these "I'm so smart and other people aren't" posts, the author makes what I bet is an unintended mistake. I assume they want each option to have only one solution. The last example ("It is poor form to ____ you temper in a discussion group"), either option (lose or loose) works. The verb form of 'loose' means 'to set free', and temper has come to mean an agitated state of mind. So you can sa…

I don't think anyone would ever use loose in that manner without preceding it with "let"? Feel free to correct me, but to me that sounds very wrong.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#128

Post by ZoFreX » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:28 PM UTC

alecbenzer wrote: post #10

this would also seem to discriminate against people who aren't native english speakers (or w/e other language).

Exactly. I now live by the credos that someone making these mistakes may actually just not know better, or be struggling with a foreign language. So far (on HN at least) this assumption has held in many cases. It also makes me far less angry when reading the internet, regardless of whether the assumption is true that's hardly a bad thing.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#129

Post by StavrosK » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:28 PM UTC

raganwald wrote: post #90

StavrosK wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't always need causation, sometimes correlation is enough. EDIT: To clarify, it doesn't have to be that stupidity causes bad grammar, but if bad spellers are likely to be bad commenters, that's all you need.

Thanks for a good point. Establishing correlation without causation is a minefield, IMO, although each of us may come to different conclusions. Filtering people on the basis of correlation and not the primary attribute is discrimination. I doubt filtering a forum is illegal discrimination, but I’m uneasy about where that might lead me personally if it were my forum. Giving a ridiculous example, at a certain time in h…

Ah, I agree about not banning people, judging the entire group by a few (or even most) members is racism. I'm just saying that correlations are useful, and we shouldn't ignore that.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#130

Post by dabent » Wed, Aug 10, 2011, 3:29 PM UTC

This is an interesting concept, but won't keep out comments from the reasonably educated, but devious. Those often are the worst kind. It's usually possible to simply down vote puerile comments into oblivion, but one intelligent troll can waste considerable bandwidth.