Poll: Advertising Captchas

[templar1138a]

I understand that this isn't a normal User Review, but think of it as a user reviewing the website. Meta!

I do not have a problem with Captchas. They're effective in filtering out spam bots that, at best, post annoying chain letters and, at worst, post links to malware to prey on the gullible.

I do not have a problem with advertisements. The money from them keeps the site running. Advertisements are a part of daily life (at least in the States, as I've been told that the amount of advertising in the UK and Europe is significantly lower) and are generally easy to filter out.

However, like naphthenic acid and palmitic acid, I have a problem when those two benign components are combined. The metaphoric napalm in this case is the advertising captchas that have been showing up in the Featured forums. I even have to fill out one for "The all-new Chevy Sonic" for this posting.

See, unlike regular advertising, captcha advertising requires the viewer to directly interact with it. We can't just ignore it (a fact I'm certain the advertisers are exploiting). And worse, the slogan becomes imprinted upon our brains as a result of writing it. Not that imprints like that can't be forgotten, but the first time I had to fill out one of these captchas, I felt like I was being tainted. Like joining in with the crowd that's picking on the class weakling because you feel like you have to, but it just feels wrong.

What do others think of this? Feel free to elaborate. Maybe the admins will take notice.

 

[pickerofnits]

Sorry, I'd love to reply deeper into this but time is limited. See the video below for a little background on Captcha and reCaptcha. Trust me, you'll find it at least interesting.

Massive-scale online collaboration: Luis von Ahn on TED.com! [http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1295]

I would rather help capture knowledge than repeat advertising slogans.

 

[Hectix777]

They should at the very least make it relevant to the site. We're about games and advancing the medium, so why not place Captcha ads for games, at least it's a little more bearable than talking about a car. Better yet, I'm willing to bet that a good chunk of the audience here on the Escapist are people like me, guys who want to break into the medium but are not sure where to go for the knowledge, the politics of the system, etc. etc. Maybe they could advertise things like game design colleges(REAL ONES, not Full Sail and their lot!) or colleges in computer science. Or better yet let non-publisher run sight s like Penny Arcade or Gamasutra advertise, or even books like Breaking Reality.

I mean if we're supposed to be about games, we should stick to some level of consistency, yeah?

 

[lord.jeff]

I don't see how it's anymore annoying they the regular captcha, so I have no complaits.

 

[isometry]

Making established users on the escapist fill out captchas is pure laziness. If there is really a significant problem with hacked accounts being used as spambots, the solutions are (1) force stronger passwords and (2) just moderate the few occassions when it happens.

Eventually someone will write an obvious paper showing advertisers that users are driven away from pages that use captchas, and corporate drones will act like this is a non-trivial discovery that they could have in no way anticipated.

 

[Bobic]

The escapist gets more money and we get a readable captcha. I really don't see what the problem is. Feeling tainted because you had to write out a slogan seems like a massive over reaction to something that should have zero effect on anyone.

Plus, some just say describe this brand with any word, which gives room for fun jokes that no one will ever read. WOOPEE!

 

[DJjaffacake]

I don't know if this is just affecting American escapists (apparently no, since the poster before me is British) but I haven't been getting any adverts in my captchas.

But yeah, I agree with this guy

They should at the very least make it relevant to the site. We're about games and advancing the medium, so why not place Captcha ads for games, at least it's a little more bearable than talking about a car. Better yet, I'm willing to bet that a good chunk of the audience here on the Escapist are people like me, guys who want to break into the medium but are not sure where to go for the knowledge, the politics of the system, etc. etc. Maybe they could advertise things like game design colleges(REAL ONES, not Full Sail and their lot!) or colleges in computer science. Or better yet let non-publisher run sight s like Penny Arcade or Gamasutra advertise, or even books like Breaking Reality.

I mean if we're supposed to be about games, we should stick to some level of consistency, yeah?

 

[DudeistBelieve]

The escapist gets more money and we get a readable captcha. I really don't see what the problem is. Feeling tainted because you had to write out a slogan seems like a massive over reaction to something that should have zero effect on anyone.

Plus, some just say describe this brand with any word, which gives room for fun jokes that no one will ever read. WOOPEE!

Your right, however some people just don't like being advertised to.

 

[dyre]

That's a pretty big overreaction. Typing "the all-new Chevy Sonic" is annoying because it's so damn long, but if it gets some revenue for the Escapist, I don't care much. A small price to pay to balance the needs of the forum user and the needs of the site.

 

[AdmiralCheez]

Yeah, I also feel quite dirty whenever I need to type out an advertising slogan. I just don't like the new interactive advertising methods and social media ads that seem to be on the rise. I swear, I've actually read company statements telling me they want to track my internet activities / install cookies "to customize advertising specifically for your tastes," as if it's something to be desired. I DON'T WANT CUSTOM ADVERTISEMENTS! Just leave me alone. I don't click on ads, and if one of them annoys me through constant repetition, I will intentionally avoid that product.

 

[tippy2k2]

I wish I could vote but for some reason, I never seem to see these captcha things... [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/registration/subscribe]

In every one of these threads, it is required that at least one of us comes down from our ivory tower and delivers this news from atop my high horse...and the message is on a soap box and...uh...any other elitist phrase I'm forgetting...? Anyway, it's in our "Terms of Use" when we sign up I think...


The Escapist requires money to exist. The new captcha system (presumably) is a revenue source and is something we're (well, not me but you know...) stuck doing anyway. I would agree that having established users not have to do it repeatedly wouldn't be so bad but I have no clue what kind of income this is generating so I'm kind of shooting blind with that suggestion.

 

[Hectix777]

I don't know if this is just affecting American escapists (apparently no, since the poster before me is British) but I haven't been getting any adverts in my captchas.

But yeah, I agree with this guy

They should at the very least make it relevant to the site. We're about games and advancing the medium, so why not place Captcha ads for games, at least it's a little more bearable than talking about a car. Better yet, I'm willing to bet that a good chunk of the audience here on the Escapist are people like me, guys who want to break into the medium but are not sure where to go for the knowledge, the politics of the system, etc. etc. Maybe they could advertise things like game design colleges(REAL ONES, not Full Sail and their lot!) or colleges in computer science. Or better yet let non-publisher run sight s like Penny Arcade or Gamasutra advertise, or even books like Breaking Reality.

I mean if we're supposed to be about games, we should stick to some level of consistency, yeah?

Thanks, I'm glad someone appreciated the input. Maybe that's an idea worth mentioning to the admins?

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

See, unlike regular advertising, captcha advertising requires the viewer to directly interact with it. We can't just ignore it (a fact I'm certain the advertisers are exploiting).

I can't ignore those 30 second adverts at the beggining of every video on this site, so I don't see how advertisements in the captchas are any more obnoxious, especially when there's no guarantee that you'll get a captcha for each post (I didn't for this one) or that the post will be an advertisement, in fact most I've been getting just seem to be random phrases. So personally I see the video ads as more intrusive as they appear at the beggining of every video unlike the captchas.

 

[Strain42]

The only ones that bother me are the ones where I actually have to watch part of a video to get the password that I need to type, and from what I've seen lately, that hasn't been the case (it was once, though)

Really, I don't mind these corporate captchas.

1. Because I feel like it means money is going towards The Escapist so they can bring us more stuff and

2. I can actually READ these ones. I would much rather type "The all-new Chevy Sonic" on the vast majority of my posts, then spend 30 seconds on each one reshuffling until I finally get one I can actually read that says "lasagna horny" and still get it wrong because it was actually "lasagna homy"

 

[Unsilenced]

The ad captchas are creepy as f***. Watch. One day they'll say "To post, please copy the phrase: ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD"

Then we'll all be screwed.

 

[lord.jeff]

They should at the very least make it relevant to the site. We're about games and advancing the medium, so why not place Captcha ads for games, at least it's a little more bearable than talking about a car. Better yet, I'm willing to bet that a good chunk of the audience here on the Escapist are people like me, guys who want to break into the medium but are not sure where to go for the knowledge, the politics of the system, etc. etc. Maybe they could advertise things like game design colleges(REAL ONES, not Full Sail and their lot!) or colleges in computer science. Or better yet let non-publisher run sight s like Penny Arcade or Gamasutra advertise, or even books like Breaking Reality.

I mean if we're supposed to be about games, we should stick to some level of consistency, yeah?

Ad spots are bid on, however gives the most money gets the captchas, and as long as the ad doesn't have anything offensive they're not gonna bother to take it done, nor should they it's a waste of man hours to have someone sit around picking the best ads for the day, especially when it results in less money for the escapist. But why we have so many Chevy ads on a game site is still a mystery but if they want to pay for me to watch Yahtzee then I have no problem with it.