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I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

michaels.world

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Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#231

Post by CodesInChaos »

jknoepfler wrote: post #218
Saris wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brave PoW captcha maybe? Because it requires no input/interaction from the user.

I don't understand why POW solutions aren't more popular.

I don't think there is any PoW that results in acceptable performance for the user (especially on mobile) while also making the cost for an attacker high enough to deter them.

Even renting the compute on AWS, it only costs $0.01 per minute for the equivalent of a decent desktop computer (c8g.4xlarge). While an attacker will likely either use a botnet, or hardware better suited for solving the PoW than the hardware the user is using.

Though CAPTCHAs don't really work well anymore either, since solving services are quite cheap. Recaptcha is nowadays primarily based on other factors, like IP reputation, susceptibility to google tracking, and behavioral scoring.

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#232

Post by Y_Y »

Retr0id wrote: post #176
Y_Y wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> until we solve unequal wealth distribution globally Is this a joke?

Why would it be a joke?

Even assuming that uneven distribution is a problem, and that it was possible to make global wealth evenly distributed, it would be such a collosal undertaking that it would necessarily entail massive social upheaval and take a very long time after which the captcha problem would hardly be comparable to what we have now.

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#233

Post by marginalia_nu »

jknoepfler wrote: post #218
Saris wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brave PoW captcha maybe? Because it requires no input/interaction from the user.

I don't understand why POW solutions aren't more popular.

Most people engage with web content on relatively low powered machines. If you tune them to be tolerable on a 4 year old mid-range android device, there isn't much cost incurred on a threadripper.

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#235

Post by mp3geek »

blindgeek wrote: post #193
blindgeek wrote: post #191

And the very angry email that I (probably unwisely) just dashed off to support@hcaptcha.com: "So I've been trying to sign in repeatedly to set the accessibility cookie since last night. Every time I click the submit button, I get the useless error message "an error has occurred, please try again". My friend, who shares my roof and my static IP, got banned from hcaptcha's accessibility service last year for being too…

And their thoroughly unhelpful reply: "Hi there, sorry to hear you're having difficulties! We have an alternative authentication scheme that you may prefer: https://www.hcaptcha.com/accessibility You can sign up here: https://dashboard.hcaptcha.com/signup?type=accessibility This lets you avoid the challenge altogether after registration. It is designed for users with any kind of difficulty solving the challenges. Tha…

Brave support here, tried to reach out to hcaptcha support and got the same auto response :|

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#236

Post by jokethrowaway »

michaelt wrote: post #68
jerf wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If "having a government identity" was a solution to the identity problem, it would be solved. It is not solved. That is at most the beginning of a solution to the problem. And in practice, it is little more than the beginning of the problem, as the government's definition of blindness is very unlikely to be a precise match to "has problems completing our visual CAPTCHA", and if multiple governments have standards the…

> They're international businesses with engineering teams, and a constant feed of low-level operatives who can scam governments about how blind they are if the governments leave any hole in their system. I don't know about your country, but in my country the government is pretty keen on avoiding abuses of the benefits system. After all, a blind person gets tax breaks and cash benefits totalling about $5000/year. So t…

I'm sure some rural country somewhere would start selling certificates en masse the moment this is implemented.

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#237

Post by joegibbs »

croes wrote: post #45
Rastonbury wrote: post #14

Some captchas are getting pretty discriminatory, not everyone lives in the West and can identify the objects they are asking you to. Another recent one sticks out where they asked me to pick a shape as the same number of conoids on screen. If you ask people on a street what a conoids I bet a significant amount will give you blank looks Also at least now I know some people call those markings crosswalks

But on the internet the answer to „what is a conoid“ is just a web search away. The bigger problem is when other options of a captcha fit in another cultural context. Taxi colors are an example for that.

Google "conoid" and you'll get a bunch of pictures of shapes that are curved in different ways. I assume the captcha was talking about things that have a similar shape to a cone, but I don't think you'd get much of a clue from Google.

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#238

Post by esperent »

andrewflnr wrote: post #226
gsk22 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except scooters are literally motorcycles? From Wikipedia: > A scooter (motor scooter) is a motorcycle with an underbone or step-through frame, .... Scooters are often legally motorcycles as well. For example, I had to get a motorcycle endorsement on my license for a scooter I owned, because the engine displacement was too large for the extremely restrictive "moped" category in my state.

They're not really considered as such by motorcycle people, for decent reasons too. Scooters generally have rather different ergonomics and controls, notably CVTs rather than manual transmissions for "proper" motorcycles. Overall a pretty different experience to ride. There's not really a good umbrella term, either, though.

I live in Vietnam where the entire population drives small motorbikes or scooters. There's no defining feature except for having a cutaway to place your feet in a scooter. Even the engine placement is less of a clear thing now that many of them are electric.

There's motorbikes with scooter like controls, there's scooters with motorbike like controls. Many small automatic motorbikes feel basically identical to driving a scooter except that your sitting position is very slightly different.

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#239

Post by CuriousCosmic »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #189
Toorkit wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are called Vans.

In the US. And then there's "shuttle", I believe the US has at least one kind of thing called "shuttle" for every possible mode of transport, including orbital flight.

Well technically anything can be a shuttle because specifically the thing that makes it a shuttle is the operating pattern (repeated point to point service) rather than the machine itself.

Etymology-wise a shuttle was a type of weaving tool which is why the verb shuttle exists, i.e. to rapidly move back and forth across a length (as if you were weaving a thread into a piece of fabric).

So then you got shuttle trains which frequently ran back and forth. And from there other types of shuttle services (shuttle buses, shuttle vans, etc).

And of course eventually the space shuttle being intended to be a launch vehicle designed for shuttle service to and from orbit. (side note but technically if the SpaceX Starship actually achieves it's intended sub-24h turn around it'd be able to qualify as a shuttle provided it ran a fixed point to point route on a regular basis).

Re: I was banned from the hCaptcha accessibility account for not being blind (2023)

#240

Post by Retr0id »

Y_Y wrote: post #232
Retr0id wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be a joke?

Even assuming that uneven distribution is a problem, and that it was possible to make global wealth evenly distributed, it would be such a collosal undertaking that it would necessarily entail massive social upheaval and take a very long time after which the captcha problem would hardly be comparable to what we have now.

None of that is at all relevant to the point I was making. Whether you think extreme wealth inequality is good or bad, for as long as it exists, it makes paying fixed fees a poor alternative to captchas.
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