This time: fighting spam gets a refreshing twist.
Try leaving a comment or feedback in just about any website these days, and you’ll meet the ugly beast (with the appropriately ugly name): CAPTCHA (see below).
True screenshot of generated CAPTCHA. Now what the hell did we do to deserve this?!
Sadly, we got used to the idea that we need to “prove” we are actually human, and not some malicious spam script running wild. This, however, doesn’t mean we need to be forgiving for this type of torturing methods for authentication. I get sea-sick just by looking at it, let alone trying to decipher it.
This is why I got so excited (and no, it doesn’t happen a lot), when I came across a beautiful, simple (and human) solution.
Enter “Ajax Fancy Captcha” (see below).
A human way to test humans
You simply complete an easy task (drag & drop of the right icon) –
and poof! You’re human again!
Bottom line: even validations can be fun, or… at least user-friendly. Whether you use this script, or make up your own clever tricks, a solution is out there. Don’t get lazy, and don’t use the excuse of “National Security” (I’m sorry, “spam filtering”) to abuse innocent visitors.
Now let’s send that ugly CAPTCHA monster back where it belongs! Boohaha!
Keep your users happy. Every day.
dude. that is cool. i haTE captcha.
I find my self asking for two other words in captcha boxes quite often. Perhaps the questions should read as “Are you an android?”
Love the concept, great find Yanay
There only becomes problems with these “tests” once they become more of a standard. As soon as it becomes worth a spammers time to build a bot for a new verification, that’s usually what’s done. I’d love to see more human approaches like this, but I wonder if we’ll ever have a way to stop bots completely without adding extra work for the user.
Nice post!
Thanks David.
I’m pretty sure there will never be a bullet-proof method to prevent spam, but it’s OK,
as long as we keep coming up with creative and human solutions.
The more creative variations we’ll see being used, the less incentive bot-developers will have to adjust…
In any case – it’s a design problem we should be battling with, not our innocent users…
I love this version !!