Bad for Business?

[Tower - Justin]

I felt the need to discuss “CAPTCHA” (That annoying test used in to ensure that a response is not generated by a computer, anti-spam filter)

I understand the concept & the purpose it serves (I’ll be it a good/valid/important purpose)

That being said; is it just me…or has this become a serious pain-in-the-ass?

Where is the line drawn between anti-spam precautions & downright ridiculousness…My thoughts:











I Will be the 1st to admit that I am not completely familiar with the algorithms used by these spam bots. But are these sort of precautions entirely necessary? Can a line of code honestly differentiate between this orgy of alphanumerics?

My Concern:

Is this becoming a conversion issue? Are people potentially so turned off by this nonsense that they are dissuaded away from signing up to a particular forum/site? I think is becoming an issue...Just my opinion, what do you think?

[kimcyp]

I don't know if there's a difference in effectiveness between Captcha and the tests where you have to do something; ie add 2+2 or say if the sun is hot or cold, but I much prefer those.

The other day it took me 4 goes to get the 2 words correct on a forum, so I feel sorry for someone who maybe doesn't speak English very well and so can't even second guess the words.

[Tower-Adrian]

I agree, it is getting harder and harder to read those twisted words... or is it I am just getting older and don,t want to? nah, has to be harder.
There are a few other ways of implementing a spam catcher on your site that are much more user friendly then Captcha and I think you will slowly see more sites migrate to using those.

[MarketingGURU]

You are correct, some website want to pass some Captcha test you would not even read it...