Comments on: Why CAPTCHA Sucks and What to do About it

By: amar

amar — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:51:57 +0000

I wish they would come up with an easier to comprehend verification. Captcha sometimes feels like SAT once again.

By: Chris Ivey

Chris Ivey — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:02:14 +0000

I agree that CAPTCHAs are overused. Some people are getting smart about handling registration and comment spam, (I like the Disqus solution), but in some cases you absolutely need a reverse Turing test.

I developed a prototype system based on the semantic associations humans intuit between objects, and eventually we evolved a product, now in beta called “VouchSafe”. I would be interested in your reaction and comments.

By: el Presidente

el Presidente — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:59:54 +0000

Well, as is the case with almost everything human, the reason of the annoyance you experience, in particular with reCAPTCHA (the one with the two word verification), is … what else, MONEY.
When you type the two words, ONLY ONE is used for verification, and the other is a service you unknowingly and unwillingly provide FOR FREE, because what you are really doing is helping them to electronically type scanned words of real life books in the process of being made into e-books! The words that the scanning technology can’t recognize and save as typeface automatically, they put into the CAPTCHA for you to oblige!
Since you typed correctly the other word (usually a non-existing one), they “take your word” for the other to be correct as well, and store it to their data base.
So,FOOL THEM!
Write the non existing word correctly, and instead of the other word (or numeral, or math-type, or non-English type), insert whatever you like: 40 letters long gibberish, offending words, the good old “CAPTCHAsucks!”, or, if you’re in a hurry, just a plain dot (or any single letter) will do. Just make sure that the two words are separated by a space, (and don’t use any other spaces in your gibberish)
Try it!

By: john

john — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:29:06 +0000

Captcha got even worst because now they have included foreign punctuation marks and lines through the words. The fact this has occurred along mostly likely indicates captcha fails along with your advice on a 5 layer spam filter also probably indicates that website developers do a very poor job of blocking spam.
Not that I guess it’s really fair to blame you because it’s not simply web forms but the entire internet which has become inundated with spam. The average search on bing/google produces ehow,ezine,maholol,yahoo answers, wiki, top10sites, et cetra. 90 percent of searches result in spam sites that provide almost no useful information. The internet now reminds me of a typical street in the Bronx lined with pawn shops, cash checking centers and trash.

By: Pete Williams

Pete Williams — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 06:15:35 +0000

I agree actually Jono. Since I first wrote this post recapcha seem to have run out of words and now present you with upside-down illegible hieroglyphics. Best avoided!

By: Jono

Jono — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 03:04:45 +0000

recaptcha is just as terrible as any other captcha, if not worse since they go so far to say “stop spam read books” then expect ppl to translate words (i use the term lightly) such as ‘lobo’ ‘fibights’ and ‘sidfForms’ – all of which appear to be scribbled on by a 2 year old with a crayon. So they have said to hell with thier very slogan and merely endeavored to make life harder.

Im guessing ppl who adore and thump captcha’s like the end of the world are doing well and dont really need any online business. Makes you wonder why have a website at all if they dont want e-customers? /shrug

By: Jose

Jose — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:52:56 +0000

I despise CAPTCHA. Yahoo uses it and all that tells me is that Yahoo discriminates against dyslexics. Clearly they hate me. So I use a different provider now. yahoo was on the way down anyway.

By: Anyon

Anyon — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:16:02 +0000

I don’t like Captcha, especially when it fails after the 5th time I type it in. I even use the refresh image button to make sure I have the right image up. I get fed up when after 5 times it still says it’s wrong. I am going to boycott sites that use Captcha at inappropriate times, or if I have to use it more than 2 times a visit. (And even that is still to much for my taste.)

By: barney

barney — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:08:46 +0000

Captcha is evil, and a conspiracy created by the Illuminati/

By: Machine until proven human « SourceForge.net: Project contra-captcha

Machine until proven human « SourceForge.net: Project contra-captcha — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:02:42 +0000

[...] basically everyone knows that captchas are a real, real bad idea. If you’re wondering why.. here’s why in [...]