08-06-2013, 02:43 PM | #1 | |
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Aussies launch anti-CAPTCHA petition. Is it time to kill CAPTCHAs?
What do you hate more: spam or CAPTCHAs? At MobileRead, we've been using CAPTCHAs to prevent spammers from creating hundreds of fake accounts - every day! It doesn't stop all spam, but generally it does a good job of detecting the bad guys. Unfortunately, CAPTCHAs may also hinder people with disabilities, such as vision impairments, to the point that they cannot use a website. In Australia, various disability groups have now began to set up a petition encouraging major companies to get rid of CAPTCHA tests. From the petition:
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[via IT News] |
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08-06-2013, 03:58 PM | #2 |
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CAPTCHAs should always include an audio option. With that, the number of people affected would be very small, and I'm sure there can be a workaround for those too.
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08-06-2013, 04:06 PM | #3 | |
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I am neither blind nor visually impaired, but I hate Captcha as much as anyone - although I admit I don't know what a good alternative would be. Mike |
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08-06-2013, 04:25 PM | #4 | |
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What about math solutions, or asking for the 4th (or nth) word in the article? Or various other options. (When I had a personal blog, it asked for "four plus seven" to be entered as a number in order to post a comment. I wouldn't go as far as asking for the 8th digit of pi, but asking for the ones digit when multiplying 3 times 9 shouldn't be a problem, right? Or, you could have one that lists a shape, then asks how many sides are on the shape. Another good one, could be to ask the user to answer a question from the post they are replying to. That could be pretty useful, since a spammer would have to actually read the post before replying..... |
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08-06-2013, 04:46 PM | #5 | |||
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I'll apologize for sounding insensitive, but disabilities deserve reasonable accommodation, not changes that inconvenience the rest of the world. Any petition like the one cited here had better include a better alternative than CAPTCHA for stopping spam if they want my support in eliminating it. Otherwise, it's just not a reasonable request. The math and context ideas are good, and I know some sites do use such methods, but has anyone tracked how well they work compared to CAPTCHA? ApK |
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08-06-2013, 04:49 PM | #6 | |
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Asking a question requires a delay as a human has to check their answer. |
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08-06-2013, 04:52 PM | #7 | |
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No, interpreting the phrasing of the problems is the test here, not the math.
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A spam program will eventually defeat these methods, but they will eventually defeat CAPTCHA as well. Machine vision, OCR and image processing are improving all the time. Last edited by ApK; 08-06-2013 at 04:55 PM. |
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08-06-2013, 06:08 PM | #8 |
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One of the most popular spam tools is XRumer. From what's been said elsewhere and from what we've seen, CAPTCHAs like ReCaptcha can be cracked, either automatically (through OCR/averaging) or semi-automatically (through third parties who offer the solving of captures within seconds through APIs). Text-captchas, too, are easily cracked. From what we've seen, users of said spam tools were given credits for any solved text-captcha that is then stored in a global database. Easy permutation (simple math problems changing digits) is also solved by the tool.
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08-06-2013, 09:14 PM | #9 | ||
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The idea that accessibility is a special feature for a tiny fraction of web-users is what needs to be changed. We don't often think of features like "logos are not constantly blinking" as an accessibility feature, but it is, and many of us remember having to teach commercial sites that the hard way. Not long ago, websites were often built with the assumption that the browser window had to be 1086 pixels wide or you couldn't navigate the site--smartphones killed that approach to webdesign. "People who can't use the website with its current arrangement" should always be a concern. It shouldn't matter if the cause is a disability, an older computer they can't afford to upgrade, a school environment (plenty of student computers don't have sound available at all), or some other reason. On top of that, businesses and especially governments are required to make their services available to people with disabilities; they do get some exceptions for extreme hardships or totally incompatible purposes (amusement park rides don't need to hold wheelchairs), but they don't get to just say "but it would cost more to implement the other method." |
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08-06-2013, 09:30 PM | #10 |
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My vision is fine as long as I'm wearing glasses and my hearing is also fine but I detest CAPTCHAS. I have trouble reading the misbegotten things and, much of the time, can't understand the audio clues. I'm all for banning the stupid things.
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08-06-2013, 11:18 PM | #11 | |
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Come up with a better alternative, because I assure you, you will hate weeding through the 1000 get rich quick offers and Rolex copy adds and warez site links to find the next real message in a thread even more. |
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08-06-2013, 11:19 PM | #12 |
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I'm okay with captchas especially the ReCaptcha ones that I find to be easily readable. However sites use other ones that I find impossible to read, with the numbers and letters squished into an indistinguishable mess. I've had captchas that I've gotten wrong more than 5 times. That is nuts.
As someone who has run websites with commenting features, captchas are a necessary evil to keeping your site from being overrun with spam. We were even forced to put them onto our "Contact Us" page, because we were getting hundreds of spam emails a day, obviously computer generated and entered. |
08-06-2013, 11:27 PM | #13 |
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I dislike captchas because they don't eliminate ambiguities. Hard to read, so you can't tell "5" from "S" or "P" from "p"
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08-06-2013, 11:31 PM | #14 | |||
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But nothing is accessible to 'everyone.' Or at least 'accessible' in some cases might mean requiring someone to help them. I'm sorry, but they are called "disabilities" for a reason. There are some things you are not able to do. Quote:
However... Quote:
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08-06-2013, 11:33 PM | #15 |
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