Rosetta Code:Village Pump/Captcha impossible to solve

I had a little mishap, it happens. Just forgot to add a closing lang-tag. No big deal, I'll fix it. Unfortunately, the writer of the section after me had embedded an external link. So I got a CAPTCHA. I've done dozens of them in my time. But this one was hard. Very hard. I guessed it wrong. Did that little ' have a significance or not? Was I looking at "rn" or "m"? I gave up after ten or so tries. Ok, let's try the audible one. Darn, WHAZZAT?! Ok, I can understand the difference between "19" and "90" can be a bit hard, but this??!!

In short, I put a message at the discussion page and gave up. Permanently. I'm never ever gonna remotely consider to add an URL and if I fall victim of an URL someone else put in - sorry pal: my code goes first.

I'm all for added security and spam deterrent, but this.. Lemme remind you of the DEFINITION of a CAPTCHA: "a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human". Let's reverse that: I'm human, the test doesn't "catch" me, so it FAILS!! Not me..

Now, if I had been the only one, I wouldn't have added this topic, but I got quite some response by people who had similar problems. So, as we in Holland say ("gee, there are foreigners contributing to these pages"), "let's throw it in the group".

I'm sorry, but it's not like we're running the CAPTCHA service ourselves. Sometimes, they decide to spew rubbish ones at you. Isn't there a way to request a different one? A little “reload” symbol? –Donal Fellows (talk) 21:40, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

There is indeed, but I feell OP's pain. I often need to put my glasses on and try several times. Are there alternatives services available?--Grondilu (talk) 21:45, 19 March 2014 (UTC)

I have a similar problem with CAPTCHA; when prompted, I almost never get to see (observe) the first time 'round the two fuzzy words (the area where they are normally shown is completely blank).   I have to resort to clicking on the audible version thingy, listen to part of something that sounds like someone with lots of marbles in their mouth (sometimes I sound like that when I'm out shoveling snow in sub-zero double-digit weather, and my speech sounds like that until my jaws start working properly), then, whilest the warbling is going on, I click on the   T   (for text) which asks for a text version (of two new fuzzy words).   Most often I don't see the fuzzy words.   I then request another set of fuzzy words, and CAPTCHA may or may not show me some.   When it does show 'em, I enter my response, and if CAPTCHA is feeling impish, my response apparently won't be accepted, and I have to repeat the process over and over and over ···.   In this cycle, if I get two fuzzy words that I previously responded to (and were accepted), my correct response this time around will be invalid and I get two new fuzzy words.   By the way, the record in this CAPTCHA game, I finally won after about 3/4 of an hour.   Before y'all start calling me silly (or worse) names, I was determined to save my extensive editing I had done while entering a new Rosetta Code task complete with some links and also a language entry (with output).   ... But I won the game!   It was akin to finishing a crossword puzzle type of thing.   Of course, I could have cut 'n paste the whole mess to the clipboard and try later, but that would just delay everything and it isn't much fun to wake up the next day with that (ugh!) chore ahead of ya --- and I hate postponing such things --- if the tooth has to come out, just get it pulled.   So a word of advice, if CAPTCHA gives you two fuzzy words that you remember from a previous CAPTCHA game, and you KNOW the answer (because your previous response was accepted), just skip the whole thing and ask for two new fuzzy words.   Another word of advice --- I can't prove it, but if you start cussing or thinking evil thoughts about CAPTCHA, I think it knows that and it starts screwing with ya.   Just saying.   The CAPTCHA game is so time-consuming that (like the first poster above), I don't add links for that very reason.   Nor am I inclined to fix or do maintenance work on (my) numerous pages that should be renamed, I have other bigger fish to fry.   I'll wait for a few months until it starts working without me having to pull my (now, very thin) hair out or grinding my teeth.   Neither works, by the way.   Incidentally, this happens on Microsoft's Windows Internet Explorer, or my main squeeze, Firefox Aurora, both of which are very lean on add-ons and plug-ins and things of that ilk.   I have noticed that CAPTCHA runs better (that is, it does its job correctly in verifying that I am a human) around 4 or 5 am CST (central USA time).   This is no way to run a railroad, making me stay up until the sun is thinking about coming up. -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 11:05, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

(breaking the posting rule of posting to one's self posting with another posting by ... er, self):   You ignoramus, the sun doesn't come up, the earth's rotation causes the horizon to lower.   So there!   Harrumph!   Harrumph! -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 11:15, 20 March 2014 (UTC)

Not to distract from the discussion, but the captcha just now gave me the word "hiſtorian", in a serif font even. I find that somehow highly amusing. --Ledrug (talk) 19:32, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

For those with bad eyes or a monitor that's had better days, the word (above) is:   hiſtorian.   Note the 3^rd letter, the   ſ.   -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 21:46, 21 March 2014 (UTC)