slightly OT: preventing user stupidity

[Kenneth Brody]

Fairlight wrote:
[...]
> > c) creating a random character sequence each time and ask user to type in
> > to confirm post.
> 
> They do this online on websites to prevent automated signups for accounts.
> My gripe about it is that it REQUIRES you to have a graphical browser up
> because the technology is based around a graphic of text characters.  And
> usually the fonts they use are next to impossible to tell an O from a 0,
> and a G from a 6, etc.  God, those annoy me.  What's worse is when you're
> already -inside- an area where you've agreed to the ToS, and they do this
> anyway, even though you already have legitimate access for which you've
> signed up.  Argh.  Pointless.
[...]

Well, it is understandable, since putting the random code in plain text
would allow automated scripts to read that text and stuff it into the
posting.  (And simple-to-read graphics could be parsed by OCR software.)

Yes, it's a pain, but at least I can understand why they're being forced
into such procedures.

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| Kenneth J. Brody        | www.hvcomputer.com |                             |
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