BBC Focus Magazine

[OuzeriaBoy]

I have just spent a considerable amount of time registering to use this forum. Primarily due to the utterly incomprehensible captcha "words". They were, generally, not words. Often the characters overlapped destructively. In addition, it said that registration would be human checked but that, meanwhile, there would be an immediate email. I waited for the email. Nothing. So I tried to register with a different username. This was rejected as the email address was in use. At that point, I thought I'd try logging in and that's how I came to be here.
OK.
Rant over.

[Shadowwolf]

Hi there Ouzeriaboy and welcome along

Rigth, Catchpha. This is designed to thwart spambots which have become more proficient at breaking such measures, the simpler it is the more easily it's bypassed. Thus to thwart the software later versions of Catchpha uses non-words as well as real ones and additionally will compress the letters by removing spacing. The side-effect is that sometimes it can be hard to tell what it is, however, if it is too messed up one can always request a new phrase to try. It can be trying but if it's too easy then the bots just sail on in and spam the board, lesser of two evils I think.

The email would appear to be immediate, I tested it meself and it was right there when I checked directly after registering a test account; it is possible that a spam filter directed it to trash at your end and hence it didn't show in your inbox. There may be some other reason for its non-arrival but as far as I can tell they are going out without any issue.

Anyhoo, despite those issues here you are and I look forward to you contributions

[OuzeriaBoy]

Thankyou Shadowwolf for taking the trouble to respond. I fully appreciate the need to keep spammers out of forums. It was just that, previously, I have not met such illegible Captchas.
OB.

[MikeG]

I can sympathize with OuzeriaBoy's frustration. Catchphas frequently send me up the wall. On occasion, I have just given up trying to register and abandoned a site altogether. Some sites seem to have a more reasonable catchpha system than others. For example, the letters may may have a cross-hatch design in the background to foil spambots, but keep users blood pressure stable. Other tricks are random numbers (no letters) that overlap and are not on the same level. Third good trick, a simple math problem. e.g. 3 times 3 divided by 3. If the answer is wrong, it must be a bot. Btw OuzeriaBoy, welcome to this site. Loads of good discussions here.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Just on a personal note, I have found many of these Captcha things becoming increasingly incomprehensible in recent years.
I was presented with one only last week that actually showed two charectors that had been cut in half by the top of the screen................. ok even the most intelligent programme will struggle with that one but...... SO DO I !!
So yes OuzeriaBoy my most sincere sympathies.
However welcome to the forum, good to have you on board and very glad you put in the effort to be here.