# Captchas: The biggest annoyance on the internet



## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

This STUPID captcha crap , what is this shit, this has to be banned , i've loosen much nerves on this piece of garbage.

I can't READ those dumb looking words.

ESPECIALLY if you're not english and there's a lot of deep dictionary words there.


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## DonInKansas (Sep 1, 2010)

That's what the reload button is for.


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## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

DonInKansas said:


> That's what the reload button is for.



Yes , keep reloading 10-20 times


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## assaulter_99 (Sep 1, 2010)

Or you can sometimes, depending on the site, make it spell it for you!  Which is sometimes worse.


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## erocker (Sep 1, 2010)

Definitely a peeve of mine. There are some sites that are way worse than those examples.


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## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

erocker said:


> Definitely a peeve of mine. There are some sites that are way worse than those examples.



I know the crossworded ones , EVEN more harder!

And this crossworded are getting more popular , replacing those colored.


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## slyfox2151 (Sep 1, 2010)

mm email verification is almost as anoying as captcha for me.


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## a_ump (Sep 1, 2010)

yea, but that stuff is necessary is it not so sites don't get spammed with bs.


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## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

assaulter_99 said:


> Or you can sometimes, depending on the site, make it spell it for you!  Which is sometimes worse.





hah


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## Phxprovost (Sep 1, 2010)

I agree, i mean I understand why it needs to be implemented most of the time but someone needs to come up with a better method


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## Soylent Joe (Sep 1, 2010)

I'm Jonny Swifteyes.

Naw I don't like them but they're the best method of stopping spambots, so on they shall live.


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## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

a_ump said:


> yea, but that stuff is necessary is it not so sites don't get spammed with bs.








What about this , an others , i don't remember right now.

And of course i know it's antispam measure.


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## m4gicfour (Sep 1, 2010)

Necessary evil. I don't ususally have problem with most types of captcha, but I HATE when they're case sensitive. So, lets take a bunch of random letters - many of which you can only discern case from size - and distort their shape and size. AGGGGGGGGGGH is that "o" a capital or not? How about that X C S P W...  

I like the ReCaptcha best. Pretty easy most of the time, and actually accomplishes something on the effort of users


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## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

case sensetivity that's the next thing you get when you type finally type it "correct"


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## Solaris17 (Sep 1, 2010)

RuskiSnajper said:


> I know the crossworded ones , EVEN more harder!
> 
> And this crossworded are getting more popular , replacing those colored.








also i hate captcha


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## RejZoR (Sep 1, 2010)

I don't mind captcha for as long as it's not using some idiotically distorted letters where you need 5 minutes just to find out you're actually looking at letters and not some fractal shit...


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## ShiBDiB (Sep 1, 2010)

Well atleast its not case sensitive


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## streetfighter 2 (Sep 1, 2010)

I want to say it's annoying, but the allure of claiming Jonny Swifteyes status is far too great...

I'll have to opt out of voting on this one.  Please choose a less awesome name for your fictional character next time. 

RE: Johnny Tightlips from The Simpsons
"What do I tell the doctor?"
"Tell 'em to go suck a lemon."


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## Perseid (Sep 1, 2010)

Nothing beats those damned cats Rapidshare had for a while.

Ugh.


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## 95Viper (Sep 1, 2010)

Reminds me of the late 60's and 70's and my affairs with some hallucinogens.


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## RejZoR (Sep 1, 2010)

ShiBDiB said:


> http://www.lockergnome.com/oztech/files/2009/06/captcha.gif
> 
> Well atleast its not case sensitive



Like it matters lol. As far as i'm concerned all the above could be numbers and i still couldn't tell what they are.


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## AphexDreamer (Sep 1, 2010)

ShiBDiB said:


> http://www.lockergnome.com/oztech/files/2009/06/captcha.gif
> 
> Well atleast its not case sensitive



WTF?

Its like trying to tell me what letters and/or number I see in a line. *_____________*


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## RoutedScripter (Sep 1, 2010)

streetfighter 2 said:


> I want to say it's annoying, but the allure of claiming Jonny Swifteyes status is far too great...
> 
> I'll have to opt out of voting on this one.  Please choose a less awesome name for your fictional character next time.
> 
> ...




Haha

Noticed just now that i spelled Johnny wrong. whatever  , still funny.

Another method could be to use a picture of something and you'll need to name it , for example a picture of cats or horses ... or fish...


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## RejZoR (Sep 1, 2010)

I like those, where you have to sum or multiply certain numbers or where you get a logical question and you have to answer it.

Like:
8 + 3 =     (and here you have to type 11)


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## Drone (Sep 1, 2010)

annoying crap. it's funny how spam can get through anyway


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## DonInKansas (Sep 1, 2010)

Then there's the stuff that's the other way around, like sites that ask for age verification by having you put in your birthdate.  Like Jimmy 9 year old doesn't know how to put 1930 for the year and look at whatever he wants. lol


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## Kreij (Sep 1, 2010)

They don't care if little Jimmy is only nine, they are just storing the entries to cover their butts in case someone tries to sue them for the content. If there are no entries showing a 9 year old tried to access the site it's proof little Jimmy lied about his birthdate.

Captcha's are annoying, but only for a few seconds. I don't get angry or lose sleep over them. If the worst thing that happens to you that day is a captcha, you had a pretty good day IMO.


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## scaminatrix (Sep 1, 2010)

It could be worse. I used to play Leisure Suit Larry In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards, and it was annoying trying to answer all the questions at the beginning when I was only 13 years old... I didn't know what a Mile High Club was at 13!

I like the sums idea, or the little pictures of animals idea, they'd both work much better.


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## HossHuge (Sep 1, 2010)

Asus requires you to do this.  1 for LAN. 1 for audio. 1 for video......


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## Bo$$ (Sep 1, 2010)

RejZoR said:


> I like those, where you have to sum or multiply certain numbers or where you get a logical question and you have to answer it.
> 
> Like:
> 8 + 3 =     (and here you have to type 11)



computers can do math too


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## Solaris17 (Sep 1, 2010)

Bo$$ said:


> computers can do math too



ya but their pictures so computers cant do the math. thats the point. a computer cant see.

one day though......:'(


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Sep 1, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> ya but their pictures so computers cant do the math. thats the point. a computer cant see.
> 
> one day though......:'(



Computers can see!  Ever see shape recognition software?  I wrote a program to identify shaped.  It worked ok.  Problem is you have to tell the computer, "now this is a triangle, and this is a triangle, and this is a triangle, and this is a circle."  Computer says, "THIS IS A SQUARE HURR."  The program worked about %50 of the time.  Long story short, computers can see, but they cannot FIGURE OUT what the picture looks like...  at least well.


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## Solaris17 (Sep 1, 2010)

PVTCaboose1337 said:


> Computers can see!  Ever see shape recognition software?  I wrote a program to identify shaped.  It worked ok.  Problem is you have to tell the computer, "now this is a triangle, and this is a triangle, and this is a triangle, and this is a circle."  Computer says, "THIS IS A SQUARE HURR."  The program worked about %50 of the time.  Long story short, computers can see, but they cannot FIGURE OUT what the picture looks like...  at least well.



i know but thats not was i was saying. i was focusing more on the latter of your post. their ability to understand is the issue. even if the software was good and teh camera very sharp and p-recise. The PC could be beaten. everyone has different hand writing. Some of us have incredibly bad hand writing a computer wouldnt be able to do that.


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## RejZoR (Sep 1, 2010)

OCX does wonders, but still can't recognize badly distorted letters. That's why they distort them so badly not even humans are able to read them. Lol...


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## Solaris17 (Sep 1, 2010)

shape recognition is not what im saying. A PC doesnt understand what its looking at. you can pre program it to know what a "P" is or a triangle. but at the end of the day their are multiple if not infinite variations of letters. A computer needs to be able to see and understand what it is seeing. it needs to be able to see numbers. understand that it is a problem. solve the problem. PLEASE show me software that can do that.


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## Perseid (Sep 1, 2010)

scaminatrix said:


> It could be worse. I used to play Leisure Suit Larry In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards, and it was annoying trying to answer all the questions at the beginning when I was only 13 years old... I didn't know what a Mile High Club was at 13!



Bah! Part of the fun of the game was getting into the game.


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## _JP_ (Sep 1, 2010)

Yes captchas are pretty annoying, but that's just about it. I usually ROFL when interesting combos appear, example:


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## Divide Overflow (Sep 1, 2010)

CAPTCHA is still _far_ less annoying than the spambots it protects against.


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## Completely Bonkers (Sep 1, 2010)

captcha is very very annoying. There are a thousand and one ways to improve it. But they can't or won't.

And the comment about computers cant do math? Nonsense. Just take basic OCR output and run it through an expression evaluator.  Try typing 8+3= in google and see what happens.

MUCH BETTER to have *flash-captive*(c)

1./ A small flash object
2./ You need to click on something (e.g. three balloons)
3./ PASS

A computer can OCR, but there is no way it can play a flash game.


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## Perseid (Sep 1, 2010)

Completely Bonkers said:


> captcha is very very annoying. There are a thousand and one ways to improve it. But they can't or won't.
> 
> And the comment about computers cant do math? Nonsense. Just take basic OCR output and run it through an expression evaluator.  Try typing 8+3= in google and see what happens.
> 
> ...



The problem with those is it make it impossible for blind users to pass them. More conventional ones can sometimes read them aloud to you(which can often help us sighted people too if the captcha is messy enough LOL).


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## scaminatrix (Sep 1, 2010)

Could a computer read this, in an image or moving/scrolling flash?


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Sep 1, 2010)

Solaris17 said:


> i know but thats not was i was saying. i was focusing more on the latter of your post. their ability to understand is the issue. even if the software was good and teh camera very sharp and p-recise. The PC could be beaten. everyone has different hand writing. Some of us have incredibly bad hand writing a computer wouldnt be able to do that.



The ability to understand is tough.  Humans are just really good at telling what things look like.  Why is this?  Well we imagine and reform ideas in our head, so after a while you will see the letters correctly after looking at it long enough.  We do make mistakes however.  To further illustrate your point, let's imagine we make a computer that does what humans do, it pretends and predicts, and jumps to conclusions.  Well the problem arises when you have a security camera computer that thinks it sees someone holding a gun, when in reality he is holding a wallet.  Although the computer can never be perfect, we can try, and if someone writes a program to "predict" the letters, well, that would be something...

BTW the captcha helps Google translate old literature and digitize it.  I support it for the sake of doing that, but please, I don't need it when signing up for a forum, on gmail, and especially not on 4chan when I am trying to spam.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 1, 2010)

It is mildly annoying, but I understand why it is needed.

Plus, most placed don't actually require that you get it perfect, just close enough.

I usually do a quick glance and type what I first thing, and 9 times out of 10 it gets accepted.


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Sep 1, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> It is mildly annoying, but I understand why it is needed.
> 
> Plus, most placed don't actually require that you get it perfect, just close enough.
> 
> I usually do a quick glance and type what I first thing, and 9 times out of 10 it gets accepted.



There is a great guide somewhere (I actually have it) that will tell you about the real and fake words in the captcha.  It is not appropiate to post here, but to those who have seen it, do you spoof the captcha or just do it normal?  I learned the guide pretty well, which words are real and fake, and put the down the real word, and spam letters for the other word.


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## DaveK (Sep 1, 2010)

newtekie1 said:


> It is mildly annoying, but I understand why it is needed.
> 
> Plus, most placed don't actually require that you get it perfect, just close enough.
> 
> I usually do a quick glance and type what I first thing, and 9 times out of 10 it gets accepted.



Yeah, I like the ones where you don't have to get it perfect, because most of the time they're impossible to get right.


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## DonInKansas (Sep 1, 2010)

scaminatrix said:


> It could be worse. I used to play Leisure Suit Larry In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards, and it was annoying trying to answer all the questions at the beginning when I was only 13 years old... I didn't know what a Mile High Club was at 13!
> 
> I like the sums idea, or the little pictures of animals idea, they'd both work much better.





Perseid said:


> Bah! Part of the fun of the game was getting into the game.



And there was no Google to look it up either.  Good times!


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## theonedub (Sep 1, 2010)

Yesterday I got one that was a mathematical equation. I was looking at it like wtf am I supposed to type?


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## Kreij (Sep 1, 2010)

Hi, Welcome to TPU. Please type in the equation for the area of a generally shaped parabolic segment ...

Area = ??

Answer would be ... 
A = (b – k – ah2)(x2 – x1) + [(m + 2ah)/2](x22 – x12) – (a/3) (x23 – x13) 

That should stop most spammers.


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## Black Panther (Sep 1, 2010)

Kreij said:


> That should stop most spammers.



_and_ me 

I find captchas troublesome, I'm never really sure if what I'm typing is correct but weirdly enough I get it right 99% of the time...

The advantages which they bring far overpowers the meagre annoyances though.


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## Completely Bonkers (Sep 1, 2010)

Perseid said:


> The problem with those is it make it impossible for blind users to pass them. More conventional ones can sometimes read them aloud to you(which can often help us sighted people too if the captcha is messy enough LOL).



Oh, sorry, completely forgot about all the blind people reading TPU etc.! LOL 

Well just to kick that idea into touch, a computer can very easily do voice-to-text. So that fails also, esp. with language issues. I have yet to see Hindi or Slovak in Captcha. And if the user is blind, I wonder how he is going to click the right button to get the audio version. PS. There is no reason that a blind person couldnt select "blind man's captcha", but for the rest of us, we have something different. You've just admitted that there ARE two versions, so how about making the default version just a bit more user-friendly to the majority?

We shouldnt stand in the way of trying to make things simpler for the majority just to keep a few minorities satisfied.


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## 3volvedcombat (Sep 1, 2010)

Actually, I just realized something 

These captchas are spam blockers.

But I even have trouble distinguishing what some of the letters are for a couple of seconds.

I have old geezerz with 150-250% zoom on the monitor so they can actually work on the computer.

So how do people with really bad eyes, or people that arnt so smart, actually accomplish rejestering on these captcha sites.

Some people, strait out have bad eyes.

Some sites dont offer a audio play on there captcha's, breaks my heart 

Im fine though, i have johnny eyes.


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## Perseid (Sep 2, 2010)

Completely Bonkers said:


> Oh, sorry, completely forgot about all the blind people reading TPU etc.! LOL



Hey, blind people need to overclock their GPUs too, right?



Completely Bonkers said:


> And if the user is blind, I wonder how he is going to click the right button to get the audio version.



If the site is designed with accessibility in mind, a computer-proficient blind person can actually get quite adept on the Internet. I knew a blind guy who had his screen reader set to so many WPM I could barely understand it. So if the captcha is a big flash block(which it shouldn't be), blind person is screwed, but if it's a regular text box with a button he'll be fine.


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