Dear Escapist: Can you please restrict captchas to account registration?

[McMullen]

Look, I've made a lot of posts here. Not as many as most have, but I think that by this point it's clear that I'm human. Why then are you still sending me captcha challenges every few posts?

The old captcha wasn't so bad, but these new ones frequently fail to load, which prevents me from posting. Your captcha policy is like the hamhanded Ubisoft DRM your news articles are picking apart all the time: it only really keeps the legitimate users from posting.

If you restricted it to registration and the first ten posts for any user, I am sure it would be just as effective as it is now, without the inconvenience to your users.

Or at least, could we go back to the ones that actually loaded?

 

[MrTub]

Yep same here, I freaking hate this new captchas cause I have to reload the page like 15 times before they even show up.

 

[geK0]

I haven't had any issues loading my Capchas, what browser are you using?

I prefer the new capchas because I can actually read them : \

 

[Lucem712]

I think these captchas are scores better than that crap before. Especially the advertisement/fill in the blank ones. I don't have to keep looking for one that I can actually read and they don't seem to be showing up as often.

I haven't had any trouble with them using even the very small browser 'Epiphany' or the latest release of Chrome/Chromium

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I haven't had any issues loading my Capchas, what browser are you using?

I'm having the same problems with not seeing them, and I'm using Chrome. The SOLVEmedia ones are just lousy; I've tried to post in a half-dozen threads today, and this is the only one where I have actually been able to see the captcha.

OP: That sounds reasonable enough. I actually didn't mind the old captchas, but the new ones such. And what is the point of the ones for products? I haven't had one yet, but from what I have gleaned you can put anything in the answer space.

 

[Lionsfan]

I prefer these captchas over the other ones, at least you can read them on the first try...

And if it prevents 15 Live streaming website threads from being started I'm fine with it

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

Master Inglip will not be pleased!

But, I think the reason is more to stop spam bots, even still someone could make 50 accounts, and spambot all of those accounts...

I have had trouble with Captcha before, so I usually copy long forum threads I'm making before I click post. These new ones annoy me, though, and they do take a few seconds to load in most cases. Why can't we just have the old ones back?

THEY CHANGED THE CAPTCHA!
-My reaction when I saw the new ones.

 

[Brandon237]

accounts get hacked
hacked account spam
profit

sorry no dice.

BUT i agree they should do them less. Had to do it every second post earlier, which wasn't great.

The chance of having your account hacked on a small site like the Escapist unless you are a monumental moron with how you give out your password is so slim that seeing the occasional spam would be a lot less inconvenient than having to do captcha every 3 posts >.<

Seriously, after 500 posts, kill the bastard.

 

[Brandon237]

accounts get hacked
hacked account spam
profit

sorry no dice.

BUT i agree they should do them less. Had to do it every second post earlier, which wasn't great.

The chance of having your account hacked on a small site like the Escapist unless you are a monumental moron with how you give out your password is so slim that seeing the occasional spam would be a lot less inconvenient than having to do captcha every 3 posts >.<

Seriously, after 500 posts, kill the bastard.

its happened here before. And it can happen to anyone.

This is a real case of first world problems.

It happened before... how many times may I ask?
Now was stopping a few hacked accounts worth giving everyone captchas all over the show? I REALLY think not. and if you have slow internet (which I do) then loading the thing can be a *****. Often I post and the page has a long, sluggish reload and shows me the captcha it secretly spawned while I was typing.

 

[Suicidejim]

Look, if robots assimilate your brain we don't want to have to put up with your spamming. Which is presumably what robots with the power to reprogram people would make them do.

 

[McMullen]

Just takes one spam bot getting through to have a forum full of pen15es all over the place, sorry guys. I'll see what else, if anything, we can do though...

 

[viranimus]

Actually when I did have to deal with the captchas I perfered reCaptcha as you know, it was doing something productive. (and no I dont see marketing as being productive) Perhaps to make people determined not to pay for pub club it could be altered to be on a random per diem schedule rather than centric around posts

Though I never really got the complaints about captchas being difficult in the first place.

 

[viranimus]

There's no captcha on this post, thankfully. My biggest gripe with them is the ad captchas they're using now, not the fact that they're there. Yeah, they're fucking annoying, I'll agree, but at least they weren't trying to sell you shit.

Just takes one spam bot getting through to have a forum full of pen15es all over the place, sorry guys. I'll see what else, if anything, we can do though...

The car forum I moderate deals with it not by inconveniencing the userbase with captchas but by simply deleting the spam and banning the spambots.



I can 100% assuredly tell you that you're wrong on this. One spambot isn't going to inundate the entire forum with penis spam, the worst offenders on CFN only manage seven posts before they deactivate. The average is about three posts.

Except weve had spambots make it over 100 posts before they start trying to sell you watches or canadian escorts or the like.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

it only really keeps the legitimate users from posting.

How would you know it isn't stopping the spambots?
And seriously, I prefer a marginally longer loading time to unintelligible squiggle-words.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Just takes one spam bot getting through to have a forum full of pen15es all over the place, sorry guys. I'll see what else, if anything, we can do though...

Please go back to the old captchas with the red border. The new ones are sometimes animated (which is a ***** to load on slow internet) and sometimes refuse to show up at all. I respect you mods as the shield which guards the realm of men, but surely your extensive internet experience has shown you a better program than the new one.

EDIT: ReCaptchas, that what the buggers are called. Those are fine, and give me an unwarranted sense of giving back to the community. I don't mind if you mix in the ads, but PLEASE replace the SOLVEmedia ones.

 

[McMullen]

There's no captcha on this post, thankfully. My biggest gripe with them is the ad captchas they're using now, not the fact that they're there. Yeah, they're fucking annoying, I'll agree, but at least they weren't trying to sell you shit.

Just takes one spam bot getting through to have a forum full of pen15es all over the place, sorry guys. I'll see what else, if anything, we can do though...

The car forum I moderate deals with it not by inconveniencing the userbase with captchas but by simply deleting the spam and banning the spambots.



I can 100% assuredly tell you that you're wrong on this. One spambot isn't going to inundate the entire forum with penis spam, the worst offenders on CFN only manage seven posts before they deactivate. The average is about three posts.

We currently employ the so-called draconian captcha in addition to hand deleting the posts as we see them, and they still regularly get through. I suspect the amount of web traffic you are monitoring is somewhat less...

 

[Fayathon]

I'm gonna gather hate for this, but if you really can't stand the captchas then you could go pubclub, we don't get them.

Also, to head this off:

inb4 why should I pay them to get rid of captcha and any variant, I don't want to hear it, I'm just suggesting a course of action that gets rid of OPs problem, nothing more.

There's no captcha on this post, thankfully. My biggest gripe with them is the ad captchas they're using now, not the fact that they're there. Yeah, they're fucking annoying, I'll agree, but at least they weren't trying to sell you shit.

Just takes one spam bot getting through to have a forum full of pen15es all over the place, sorry guys. I'll see what else, if anything, we can do though...

The car forum I moderate deals with it not by inconveniencing the userbase with captchas but by simply deleting the spam and banning the spambots.



I can 100% assuredly tell you that you're wrong on this. One spambot isn't going to inundate the entire forum with penis spam, the worst offenders on CFN only manage seven posts before they deactivate. The average is about three posts.

No offense intended, but I doubt that your site sees the traffic that The Escapist does, making you a low priority target for spammers/bots. Think in terms of how many hits this site gets in comparison. The moderation here does a great job of filtering spam, especially since they could just say 'fuck it' and implement a captcha every post and not allow linking at all to deal with the problem.