this would allow for the Openness interaction for normal users, and only add captchas in when the system detects a potential spammer (notice the use of the word potential, as it could just be a dumb user).

if the frequency goes up you could add artificial delays into server responses etc.

also should use a different captcha system each time. captchas have been show to be vulnerable to attach by spammers, though good character recognition software or large databases of valid responses etc.

this seems to work for most sites, and is fairly easy to implement. The basic challenge response type of login system is what many sites have moved it seems

First of all, as a fellow writer on this site, shame on you for disagreeing with me. Shame. Shame. Shame.

Kidding… I understand what you are saying, there is a very real need for stuff like this, I just happen to think the existing captcha solution is horrible. It might solve the spam problem, but at a tremendous cost to the user experience.

As developers it should be up to us to provide technical solutions that work for us as well who these solutions are made for, put the users first. I could make the best spam blocker ever by disabling the “submit” button on a form, but it doesn’t necessarily make it the *right* solution.

What would the net be like without them? Let’s say you invent the next Twitter or Facebook but you don’t use a captcha. Within two days of launch, every desirable account name has already been claimed by a spambot, so nobody can sign up. But nobody wants to because your whole system is flooded with spam anyway.

One alternative approach to the login problem is what Gmail did: be invite-only for a while. This is a huge barrier to entry, much bigger than a captcha. It works fine for huge systems with a lot of press, but doesn’t scale down to individual blog comments.

The usability problem is an engineering challenge. Sites should minimize use of captchas whenever possible. Maybe there’s a place for a centralized captcha clearinghouse: prove your humanity once a week or so and anybody with a blog can tap into that info somehow.

To the commenter on audio captchas: they’re designed for the blind only. Anybody who’s using them for general use is definitely committing a usability crime.

Captchas may be hard to use, that’s a valid opinion, but they’re necessary until someone can come up with a better way to eliminate abuse. As I see it, their greatest drawback is the constant reminder of humanity’s amazing ability to screw up everything good.

Your captcha monster looks nice, I’m tempted to vote him up.

Usability FAIL!

Although, Captcha vs Audio Captcha does sound like a pretty epic battle

I hate those dang acid trip text boxes. I always feel like an idiot, when I have to put on my glasses, squint at the screen (while turning my head sideways) just to try and get my best guess estimate of what I am looking at.
And then to get it wrong……. (don’t get me started)

I got plenty of other issues to deal with. I don’t need the Captcha Monster judging me. I say Heck NO.