Comments on: CAPTCHA usability: Humane alternative to CAPTCHA

By: Marisa

Marisa — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:22:14 +0000

Akismet has been a real good for detecting spam comments and I never use anything else on blogs. If you don’t approve comments automatically then you can spend a few minutes every week to quickly scan all the spam mails through. There is a little change that some usefull comments will end up in the spam folder but that is a fact of todays websites and comments.
If you really want to do blog commenting then you should try a few times if your comment is not approved immediatly. Not all comment will go to the akismet spam folder.
I really hate those hard to read captcha’s some sites use. If you use cpatcha then automated browser calculated one sounds like a real good option. Not sure if spammers can replicate that browser behaviour and make delay to commenting but it’s not in the near future.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:13:01 +0000

We run a commercial website and after struggling with different spam prevention systems, we decided to let spammers do their job and make our customers’ lives easier. We prefer to clean up a database and have higher sales volumes; CAPTCHA is a hassle and some prospects are not interested in coping with it.

By: Jason S.

Jason S. — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:08:10 +0000

Though my eye doctor says that I have perfect vision I still get stumped by a couple of catcha’s that I have to input multiple times, such as myspace and facebook – I think there has to be a better solution than me trying to make a comment on a buddys profile but have to type in teh captcha 3 or more time.

By: business communication

business communication — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:39:02 +0000

I think that the captcha process is very confusing, especially for those who are new to it. It can be very difficult to get the symbols correct because frequently they are very hard to read.

By: Marvin Africa

Marvin Africa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:02:21 +0000

In the past I’ve sometimes given up trying to get past some over zealous captchas.

Maybe genuine comments should be given strong keyword orientated backlinks. If a good comment was considered more valuable web users would work harder to make sure they get what they are after, and that is backlinks.

A start would be to stop linking the name field back to a website. It would make more sense to have a keyword field that links back to the website. Then take out the option to have any live links in the comment box. Continue with using filters and good eyesight to seperate the unwanted spam from the genuine comments. Captchas have to evolve as the bots will always figure them out eventually.

I can imagine someday having to complete an entire level of super mario just to prove that I am a human being (or am I?)

Marvin Africa

By: Eddie

Eddie — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:44:04 +0000

The worst ones to solve are the Captchas that myspace uses and Google – I get them wrong a couple of times before I can get it right due to not wearing my glasses – still though -

By: John

John — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:05:58 +0000

I can’t stand the captchas that bend the words and add squiggles (is it a dash? or an apostraphe?) – I’ve sometimes just discarded my comment after 4 or five attempts to get it right. As for listening to the audio, sometimes I’m prompted to install upgrades (that I don’t need if I can listen to music with no problem, or I just installed the same update yesterday!), so they don’t help. Yes Techie, a simple sum or trivia question is best IMHO

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:25:35 +0000

I kinda like the captcha’s that many drupal users have implemented where there it presents a nonsense phrase and the asks what is the first word in the phrase . . . . No matter how nonsensical the word is, you can at least read the letters and duplicate the phrase.

By: Techie

Techie — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:36:35 +0000

I agree with Hale Groves, it is pretty annoying when you have to try several times over to enter a captcha containing some of the less distinct letters. Moreover, the use of pastel colours on similar backgrounds doesn’t help.
Just yesterday, I decided to try the audio output alternative because a text input box had not accepted a couple of attempts. The audio turned out to be a snatch of rapid conversation – no chance of transcribing that. So I too prefer to be asked a question or a simple calculation; what’s wrong with that as a way of determining that it is a human on the input end?

By: Edinburgh Architect

Edinburgh Architect — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:57:21 +0000

I think the use of CAPTCHA could be legally challenged here in the UK. Architects like me have had to wrestle with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). for the last few years here, working out how to make our buildings accessible to people with every imaginable disability. Its a very difficult and frustrating job sometimes, especially as the official guidelines are not clear. The law here relies on court cases to establish legal president, which will then be worked into all future guidelines. There have been a number of cases over the last few years, usually against large property owners (McDonald’s for example)

It seems that the Equality and Human Rights Commission here has now published guidelines relating to accessibility of websites. It is now just a matter of time before someone who is visually impaired challenges the use of CAPTCHA.

Check out their website for more details.