Comments on Nic Honing

Can Captchas be fun? A Web 2.0 idea.

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:06:47 +0200

At this point: yes, impossible. Machines don't know funny.

That could very well be one of those little games I was talking about and jokes are a good example how people could define their own ideas, making the problem space really really huge.

Just one thing: The computer has a 1/3 chance of succeeding by submitting random answers (1, 2 or 3). Having to try three times as much is no such big deal for bots.

Can Captchas be fun? A Web 2.0 idea.

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:57:27 +0200

Some really interesting ideas. How about this as another. Present three paragraphs, one is a joke, and funny, the other two are not. The user has to select the funny one! Easy, and fun. Impossible for a computer?

Can Captchas be fun? A Web 2.0 idea.

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:54:17 +0200

Well, to pick the right button out of twenty would be much faster than typing boring digits. And if a machine can't read a captcha, why not use the captcha-technique to generate a distorted image that has the message " 3rd button from left"? Still easier and much faster than typing "qb33Tzd9". Also more satisfying: You'll think "gosh, I am so smart that I picked the right button"...

Can Captchas be fun? A Web 2.0 idea.

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 18:54:51 +0200

Sentences like "To submit, please press the third button from the left in the second row from the top" are quite understandable for machines. A world of colored buttons reminds me of SHRDLU (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHRDLU). Note that spambots can already identify colours and positions of web page elements by inspecting the CSS.

If sentences are generated by machines, other machines (like spambots) will be able to understand them. It's the natural uttered speech that is (yet) too rich and unpredictable.

I wouldn't have fun with 20 submit buttons. A machine would :-)

Can Captchas be fun? A Web 2.0 idea.

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:27:18 +0200

I still like the idea, but I have another one.
Machines can't think very well yet, right?
Humans don't like to perform brainless tasks, especially if they take long, right?
most humans read pretty fast and do not mind pressing "submit" buttons, right?
Machines only learn when humans teach them, so using the same type of captcha (distorted digits) all over is not too smart, is it?

Here is the idea: Have six to ten (or even 100) "submit" buttons. Only one works, but it is a different one each time. Above the buttons you get a message (or a distorted image) saying: "To submit, please press the third button from the left in the second row from the top".
Less accessibility but similar: Buttons have different colours or sizes or texts and then the message could read "press green button" or even "press the smallest green button in the second row from the bottom that does not have an x in its text".

Would that work?

Can Captchas be fun? A Web 2.0 idea.

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:29:01 +0200

I like the idea.