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Topic: Captcha is a waste of time (Sad truth) - page 2. (Read 9358 times)

vip
Activity: 1316
Merit: 1043
👻
September 18, 2012, 04:35:36 AM
#22
There are also humans who decrypt captchas for $1 / hour.
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
September 17, 2012, 08:13:00 PM
#21
  • Ask a niche related question
  • Ask about a particular site feature - what does the logo say
legendary
Activity: 3416
Merit: 1912
The Concierge of Crypto
September 17, 2012, 08:05:28 PM
#20
What are other ways to tell that there is a human or person?

Here are some ideas:

1. Ask questions that can be answered by people relating to current or world events.
2. Ask basic science or math questions.
3. Tell the human to type what he hears (for non deaf humans.) (audio captcha?)
4. Ask about colors or shapes.
5. Ask questions where the answers are about a popular topic of that niche.
6. Use mouse movements?
7. Play a simple game?
8. ?

You have to set a minimum standard also, since captchas can frustrate uneducated people (like those who can't read or spell or think.) but then that depends on your target market. And captchas will frustrate people with accessibility issues.
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
member
Activity: 88
Merit: 10
W Investment Technology Research Center
September 17, 2012, 07:10:45 PM
#18
no, it is not.
hero member
Activity: 574
Merit: 500
September 17, 2012, 06:45:30 PM
#17
Quote
Either use reCaptcha, with their API, or don't bother at all.
That's a step down. SMF's CAPTCHA is less broken than reCaptcha.

What do I use on my SMF install that makes me so bold as to say that only real humans have an account? Bad Behavior, Stop Spammer (LitecoinTalk has both of these), a reason required on signup, and a super readable CAPTCHA.
newbie
Activity: 8
Merit: 0
September 17, 2012, 05:46:06 PM
#16
I hate reCaptcha too, but the fact is that it works.

The other captchas that people throw together themselves in a weekend, though, those are just embarrassing.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1005
September 17, 2012, 05:29:35 PM
#15
I don't think it's a waste of time. Is it 100% effective? No. But it will make a HUGE difference in cutting down bot interaction. I think the humans that get frustrated with it is a small price to pay. Having to deal with the mess created by bots causes many more headaches.

I'm a PHP programmer and have also created and hosted many sites, with and without bot prevention measures. Having Captcha definitely helps cut down the spam, false registrations, etc.
+1, actually.

Sure, captcha can be circumvented.  Does that mean that every bot circumvents it?  No.   Therefore, it cuts down on bots.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
September 17, 2012, 05:18:04 PM
#14
The normal captcha and recaptcha indeed, at least 2 years back it stopped no bots (all these SEO bots like senuke, xrumer etc).
However, when it comes to image guessing it gets a lot tougher as i know.
This: https://nvpn.net/memberss/index.php is very well made i think.



Except it says "click submit" when there is no submit button. Tongue
It must be your browser setting, bottom line was that i would prefer an image captcha for visitors as well as to prevent bots.
hero member
Activity: 850
Merit: 1000
September 17, 2012, 05:14:18 PM
#13
I don't think it's a waste of time. Is it 100% effective? No. But it will make a HUGE difference in cutting down bot interaction. I think the humans that get frustrated with it is a small price to pay. Having to deal with the mess created by bots causes many more headaches.

I'm a PHP programmer and have also created and hosted many sites, with and without bot prevention measures. Having Captcha definitely helps cut down the spam, false registrations, etc.
newbie
Activity: 6
Merit: 0
September 17, 2012, 04:54:52 PM
#12
recaptcha is very predictable, altho not on the sense you expect. You only need to write down the control word correctly. You can write the other one wrong.

Interesting, thanks for this tidbit.
legendary
Activity: 952
Merit: 1000
September 17, 2012, 03:56:57 PM
#11
Captchas are a necessary evil.
I'd love not to use captchas on CoinAd.com, but the number of bots is too damn high.
sr. member
Activity: 364
Merit: 250
September 17, 2012, 03:29:43 PM
#10
The normal captcha and recaptcha indeed, at least 2 years back it stopped no bots (all these SEO bots like senuke, xrumer etc).
However, when it comes to image guessing it gets a lot tougher as i know.
This: https://nvpn.net/memberss/index.php is very well made i think.



Except it says "click submit" when there is no submit button. Tongue
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1002
September 17, 2012, 03:29:23 PM
#9
I used to administrate simple phpbb forum for not even a hundred users, it was half-private, but without proper captcha and extra anti-spam measures, it was heaven for spam bots.

You should use image background on phpbb captchas. Also, if you set a password requirement of ppper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols most bots will not be able to register. Even humans get stopped by those password requirements lol
full member
Activity: 218
Merit: 100
Firstbits: 19e3fc
September 17, 2012, 03:21:27 PM
#8
I used to administrate simple phpbb forum for not even a hundred users, it was half-private, but without proper captcha and extra anti-spam measures, it was heaven for spam bots.
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 250
September 17, 2012, 03:18:29 PM
#7
The normal captcha and recaptcha indeed, at least 2 years back it stopped no bots (all these SEO bots like senuke, xrumer etc).
However, when it comes to image guessing it gets a lot tougher as i know.
This: https://nvpn.net/memberss/index.php is very well made i think.

legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1002
September 17, 2012, 03:14:18 PM
#6
reCaptcha is good because it doesn't generate the images itself, so it isn't predictiable, and is easier to integrate.

recaptcha is very predictable, altho not on the sense you expect. You only need to write down the control word correctly. You can write the other one wrong.
After you see a couple thousand of them you can guess which one is the control word and which one isn't... Wink
And yes, only humans can bypass reCaptcha. Bots don't do so good. But they don't need to do good. 1000 captcha solutions cost $1 after all.
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1005
September 17, 2012, 03:06:34 PM
#5
I just ask everyone what the color of the sky is...

Should probably change that.  It was meant as a placeholder for a proper spam prevention measure.
newbie
Activity: 6
Merit: 0
September 17, 2012, 03:00:48 PM
#4
Breaking captcha is a sizable technology hurdle.  Some are trivial to experienced programmers, like methods that don't rotate or shift the characters randomly.

reCaptcha is good because it doesn't generate the images itself, so it isn't predictiable, and is easier to integrate.
legendary
Activity: 1176
Merit: 1011
September 05, 2012, 02:03:18 AM
#3
I don't understand why people consider reCaptcha to be so good. Of all captcha variants out there, I think reCaptcha is particularly ANNOYING, and often impossible to read even for humans.

See here: http://www.google.com/recaptcha/demo/ ← refresh a few times and see how often you get unreadable garbage.

Furthermore, it really doesn't help much, since any bot can use services like BypassCaptcha.com or DeathByCaptcha.com which resolve bulk captchas for low fees.
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