Comments on: Captchas: The Anti-User Experience? Gripes and Alternatives

By: David Millar

David Millar — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 03:54:42 +0000

I have a puzzle blog and I use a small 2×2 sudoku as my captcha. With 3 givens. The (obvious) answer is 2, but the image reads 1 2 and 1, and the text field is named ‘phone’. Tricky on all fronts for the bot and easy on all fronts for the user.

By: Kit

Kit — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 16:57:12 +0000

I. Hate. CAPTCHA.

There are a few instances where it could be useful, but now it’s everywhere.

Augh.

By: Izkata

Izkata — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:24:42 +0000

There’s an alternative version out there that someone has been using for his blog. Don’t remember who it was, though:

In the form, have an extra text input field with its CSS set to “display: hidden;” – if, upon submitting, there is any text in this field, it is spam.

He’s had one or two spam messages in years, since spambots try to fill in everything.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:06:23 +0000

Here's a CAPTCHA alternative that asks the user to click on a few specific pictures, such as dogs, flowers and cars: http://www.confidenttechnologies.com/products/c...

It's easy on people, but tough on bots because the pictures in the grid change with every session. You can customize the number of images presented on the grid and also the number of images that you require your users to click on.

To see the various customization options, go here: http://demo.confidenttechnologies.com/captcha/ and click on the word "configurable" in the text.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this alternative.

By: stefanie

stefanie — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:12:01 +0000

I don't know where I saw this , but I think this is a nice option too: an image (e.g a photo of a dog or an apple) the user has to identify to proceed.
Its not that frustrating like the the typical “cluttery-character-image”- captcha. And not that ugly .

By: Chad Allen

Chad Allen — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:22:25 +0000

Great post and I agree, Captchas need to be replaced by a more elegant non obtrusive solution. I put a couple of hidden fields in each form I create then when processing, if those fields are filled out it stops before the mail step

By: Sunny Singh

Sunny Singh — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:56:55 +0000

I've read about this technique somewhere and wondered why no-one considered using it instead of the obviously unpopular captchas (unpopular among users).

By: Daniel Serrano

Daniel Serrano — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:01:28 +0000

I've experienced similar frustration with captchas (see: ticketmaster.com) and believe that you should never put anything in the way of a user completing his/her task. I'm also for simplicity, the image with a 5+2 seems a very good solution...

By: matthewlyle

matthewlyle — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:46:16 +0000

It's a great method. Very similar to the easy question I was referring to in the article.

By: Lee Peterson

Lee Peterson — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:48:24 +0000

Maybe I'm missing something because my solution is so simple, and yet I never see it done elsewhere.

I just put a tick box that's required and place the question "Ready to send? Tick the box: [box] and click send. [send]"

I've yet to have one single spam submission using this method. It almost feels like I'm doing something wrong because it's so simple and I don't see it mentioned.

Anyone else use this method? Any thoughts on it?