Poll: How do you feel about marketing captchas?

[Jamash]

As long as the marketing captchas accept "Cuntybollocks" as a valid description of any and all brands, I'll begrudgingly tolerate them.

The captchas I have a real problem with are the ones for Bookmakers which are trying to encourage me to gamble away my money.

I think this is a massive double standard for The Escapist, as we're reminded that the minimum age for the site is 13 and we should act as if our audience is 13 years old, and we also have to keep what we say in compliance with US law, but then we have captchas trying to coerce us into betting on sports events, which is not only illegal in a lot of US states, but is also illegal in the UK for anyone under the age of 18.

How can it be OK for Solvemedia to target adverts and promotions for Bookmakers at 13 year olds, but Escapist users who have no ulterior motives with regards separating people from their money through gambling have to watch what they say because a 13 year old may read it or it may violate a US law?

 

[loc978]

Hate 'em, and refuse to acknowledge them (like all ads, they're a necessary evil on this site). I reload the damned thing until I get something that isn't an ad. Speaking of, there's an example of such on this very post. Fuck fantasy football, the NFL, and football in general... after 7 clicks on the "new puzzle" button, it's apparently duvet day.

 

[TehCookie]

I refresh until I get a non-ad one I hate them that much. Of course to do that involves rapidly clicking since just one will bring you the same ad.

 

[lacktheknack]

I don't deal with them much (YAY PUB CLUB), but when I do, they're fun. "Describe this brand:" "Shredded doormats with rabbit droppings." "Thank you!"

 

[lord.jeff]

I find them annoying but can't say I find them any worse then the old captchas, and at least it isn't as bad as the mouseover enlarging ads.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

I don't.

No really, I ignore them. Occasionally I find them amusing by mocking the brand in them, but in general they aren't any any different from regular captchas.

 

[rob_simple]

They piss me off purely because, more often than not, I get some American brand that doesn't exist in the UK and I have no fucking idea what to say about it.

Then I discovered you can write pretty much anything in the box and I started to have fun with them instead.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if there is a penalty for getting the drop-down box ones wrong? Because I always need to guess them and I've just been assuming I'm very luck and getting them all right.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Don't care about them, really. Never seen any other than the 'describe that brand with one word' type, and since you can use pretty much any word to describe those, I always put in 'unknown', or whatever feels fun at the time.

 

[Madman123456]

I'm at a point where i hate pretty much every new idea to bring me new advertisement. I have advertisement in the flashlight on my phone. Actually, the places and things where don't have advertisements are becoming rarer then places where i don't have to ignore advertisements.

The human race will eventually develop an extra organ within the optical center of the brain that identifies and marks any advertisement to be ignored by the optical center.

 

[The White Hunter]

I don't mind "Describe the brand" ones, because "wgrwhrhbklnerg" is a valid response.

I don't like multiple choice ones where you have to pick which company is having a sale or whatever.

i ahte those ones too because it's always an american company and I have to fucking google it to find out.

Otherwise I just put "Itchy" or "Indifferent" or "hungry".

 

[Vivi22]

I don't mind "Describe the brand" ones, because "wgrwhrhbklnerg" is a valid response.

I think there are fewer and fewer of those showing up because they realized people just fuck with them and they get nothing of value from them.

On a related note, I will fuck with the Captcha system in every way I possibly can because fuck that noise.

 

[Resetti's_Replicas]

Well, if the choice is being advertised to, or doing it over a million times because I can't read the letters then yeah, I'll take the adverts any day.

 

[an annoyed writer]

I hate those and I think they should light themselves on fire and die. However, they're not the least of the site's problems with the cap: Look at this:

What is this shit? Are you guys trying to look like the goddamn pirate bay? I know the site needs money, but have some damn standards! Direct links to malware is kind of a bad thing!

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

They make want to tear through someone's marketing department in a fit of primal blood-rage. I never understood how anyone could think that such overt marketing was effective, since most people will shut out more overt tries at 'manipulation' (kind of an overstatement, but marketing, to some extent, is manipulation) to a certain extent.