Monday, February 20, 2012

WHY the difficult CAPTCHA - Carnegie Mellon University explains




He is amusing and so it isn't difficult to listen to.  BUT from what I gather, I'm not sure it really applies to blogging.  The "old" system was working for me.  I have turned word verification off because I and others will not spend the extra annoying time to comment on most blogs (nor bloggers on mine) that have it.

Leave a comment, let me know what you think.

12 comments:

Helen said...

Never even considered using it ...

Margaret said...

But I didn't KNOW I had it on.. Yes, I had word verification on, (the old one) and I didn't realize this crazy CAPTCHA had replaced it.

TexWisGirl said...

i can ALMOST forgive Google/Blogger for switching to the captcha format - obviously saw the headline that google purchased recaptcha so that explains it. but because they're doing something USEFUL with it... still won't be participating, though.

however, i'd be willing to input their crappy code if Google made even a fraction of a cent donation for every word Captcha code typed to some worthy non-profit or for medical research, etc. then i'd feel like my time was going towards something.

Dutchbaby said...

I love how von Ahn is leveling the intellectual playing field across the globe by combining his benevolence and genius.

By only enabling Word Verification for posts older than ten days, ninety five percent of spam comments have been eliminated.

Thank you for posting this enlightening talk.

izzy said...

I think my verification is off-

Anonymous said...

This is just my opinion... they're getting free labor w/ us doing their work for them & selling the digital books for profit... but, like TWG said, if they'd donate some to a worthy cause, it would be different, maybe.. I don't know - I really HATE the captcha!

Dan said...

Thank you for sharing this insight. I've made a post similar to yours to encourage others to do the same. There are alternatives.

Ginnie Hart said...

Out of curiosity, Margaret, I have just turned off my Word Verification to see what happens. I usually post only once a week on In Soul. If I don't have any problems, I'll just keep it off. It'll be most interesting, I'm sure.

barbara l. hale said...

I do hate the Captchas and don't have them on my blog but I find it amazing that they have been able to actually find a way to make using them useful. Who knew?? I am pretty excited about the duoLingo. What a great idea!! I think that sounds like a win-win situation.

Fireblossom said...

He is either dazzling with brilliance or baffling with bullshit, but I'm not sure which. And i don't care about ticketmaster, digitizing, etcetera. I just hate captchas.

Margaret said...

Fireblossom -- ha ha. The two are probably closely related... brilliance and bullshit! :)

Lydia said...

I had some complaints from readers who said they could barely decipher the codes. Since removing it I am having to daily clear my spam file out, however. It averages about ten really raw and nasty spams that Blogger is nice enough to file there for me. If "comments" such as those suddenly were to begin appearing in my comments box I would def move back to the captcha system, but so far this is working for me.