Is Your CAPTCHA Killing Your Business?

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News Source: http://sem-group.net
Published: May 28, 2009 - 07:28 am
Story Found By: annie7 1453 Days ago
Category: Usability

Sure the CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) or CPA (Complete Pain in the A**) is intended to solve a valid business problem, but at what cost? Should we really make customers/prospects work this hard to contact us? Not to mention by using a CAPTCHA you will be alienating multiple groups with disabilities i.e. blind people and people with dyslexia.

5 Comments

Comments

from bonniegibbons 1451 Days ago #

Votes: 0

I like to think of myself as above-average intelligence, but I fail CAPTCHAs all the time! I also hate those challenge questions the banking sites impose because they aren’t as unambiguous as they seem. We had two best men at our wedding, and they both have nicknames and full names. And if something happens to me, my husband has no chance of remembering where I went to high school or my mother’s maiden name. I know we were married in Minneapolis, but he thinks it was St. Paul. So Akismet, with its little quiz question, seems simpler -- but users on my husband’s classical music blog quit commenting when I turned it on. The really funny part is that some of them emailed us complaining that comments were "broken" -- they weren’t being allowed to comment because they weren’t answering the question. They were correctly deducing that the question was holding them back, and yet still refused to answer it. I asked one user who knows us personally, and he said "I thought it was trying to trick me."For reasons unrelated to this, I moved the site back to Squarespace, where my decision is to rely on their spam blocking, which usually works, and subscribe to all comments so I can see if any need to be deleted.

from relentless 1450 Days ago #

Votes: 0

I think simple captchas can be ok but there’s nothing more annoying than trying to work out a difficult captcha and then also have it rejected saying it’s incorrect, want to piss your customers then this is how you can do it!

from VMOptions 1450 Days ago #

Votes: 0

I manage a variety of websites, and captcha is absolutely required on the web directory. Re-captcha seems to work well on forums, but still spammers pay people to sign up for accounts so they can load up their spam software and fire away. Regardless, you bring up some valid points to consider when using an anti spam measure. If a site has demographics which include visually impaired people, or even an older (but young at heart) crowd, one should consider captcha alternatives.

from cosmiccarl 1444 Days ago #

Votes: 0

Yes, spammers can get people in poor countries to sign up, but at least you do not have a million spam posts on your forum.

from razmatazed 1373 Days ago #

Votes: 0

err captcha.... website owners love it because of the decreased spam, however as a user i cringe when I see them and find myself constantly asking myself (after the 3rd failed try)... do I really want to do this? Is it really worth it?

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