The CAPTCHA, short for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, serves a useful purpose – minimizing, or eliminating, one of the scourges of the Internet; the comment spammer. I can speak to how disruptive comment spam can become since, on a daily basis, I have to deal with 300 – 400 comment spams on this site. It’s infuriating, frankly.
I’ve often though of implementing a CAPTCHA scheme here – but then, I come to my senses. I hate CAPTCHAs and, I do everything I can to avoid sites that use them. I’m just no good at trying to work out a “u” from “v” – an “rn” from an “m”. I could go on but, you see the point, I expect.
I’m hardly alone in this, and as an alternative, many sites off an audio CAPTCHA. You’d think that this would solve the problem for people like me – but no. Generally, I have absolutely no idea what’s been read back. The end result? I’m out of there.
Visual CAPTCHA samples.
Graphic – Wikipedia.
So, is there a solution for people like me who have a low solve percentage? (in my case approaching zero ) As it turns out – there is.
Captcha Monster – “an easy-to-use, innovative Firefox add-on that completes CAPTCHA tests without you even asking it to. The add-on was designed with people who suffer from dyslexia and/or sight problems in mind, but also extends to those who are just plain fed up of having to prove they are not a site-hacking machine.”
Captcha Monster – screen shots from the developer’s site. Click to expand.
Fast facts:
Captcha Monster can work for you in different modes.
Set it to its highest level if you want it to routinely weed out CAPTCHA tests.
Run only when you are filling out forms or simply request it as you need it.
With an average solving time of 8.5 seconds, quite often the CAPTCHA window will be completed before you even see it.
98,94% success rate.
Works with virtually any CAPTCHA.
Complete automation.
Dedicated support.
Unlike many Firefox add-ons however – Captcha Monster is not a free service. Instead, the developer offers a number of monthly plans – as follows.
Basic plan – 60 CAPTCHAs a month @ $2.99 monthly.
Extended plan – 120 CAPTCHAs a month @ $4.99 monthly.
Professional plan – 760 CAPTCHAs a month @ $9.99 monthly.
System requirements: Firefox.
Download: You may download a 30 day trial version at the developer’s site: Captcha Monster.
You can checkout the FAQ page here.
A big shout to Mateusz M. for taking time to turn me on to this service.
Midget Lesbian Porn, Trannies With Knives, and Other Assorted Spam Comments
Over and above the danger it may pose to Internet travellers, by its very nature, comment spam is a pain in the patootie for bloggers who have to deal with it. Here on this site – every morning I’m forced to deal with upwards of 300+ pieces of comment spam. This morning for example – 358. These numbers do not include the 200 or more spam comments, that will arrive throughout the day.
Not a big problem you might think – just hit “delete all spam.” Done – over with – on to the next thing. Except, the downside to the quick erase method is; some genuine comments that may have a link/attachment (which will trigger the spam filter), get lost in the flush.
Recently, for example, a reader made the point that I had not posted his previous comment and questioned, if I intended to handle his current comment in the same way. Since I do not filter genuine comments, I could only assume that this reader’s prior comment had fallen victim to the “flush it down the toilet” method. An apology, of course, was in order. So, a pain in the patootie? You bet.
Even so, hard as it is to imagine – there is a bit of a silver lining to comment spam. Sure, I had to dig deep to find it – but, I have to admit – there are those rare moments when I get my morning coffee up my nose, when the unintentional humor of a spam comment catches me unaware.
Now, I don’t mean any disrespect to those who consider Midget Lesbian Porn to be the height of eroticism …………………….. (no, I better not write what I really want to say). But, the following brought tears to my eyes – tears of laughter, that is.
Midget lesbian porn – dominican-republic-travelxxxxxx/ x
hflrzwnxko@vkukou.com
Lolita midget porn videos – dominican-republic-travelxxxxxx
Midget asian porn http://dominican-republic-travel-dealsxxx
Hard core midget porn pics, QzpMldJ.
All of the links actually resolve to – http:midgetporntube4u.com/?act=public_html/dominican-republic-travel-deals.net/&
Travelling to the site – if you’re running WOT – would pop up the following warning. Just a quick question for WOT though – why would “Child safety” be unrated?
But lets move on to the following. Both of these put a cramp in my sense of how to comment, in this post, gracefully. So, I’ll just say – WHAT?
Ticked off trannies with knives (referral link removed).
Penis enlargement bible free download (referral link removed).
But the best, the spam comments that leave me in stitches, are the Google Translate fails. One would think, that if a spammer went to all the trouble of writing a complex spam comment, he’d a least get it right. Here’s a few recent examples.
So you see – even comment spam has an upside. Sort of.
A quick note: In the 20 minutes it took to write this short piece, I’ve become the ungrateful recipient of another 118 spam comments. These guys just never give up.
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Filed under Comment Spam, Porn, WOT (Web of Trust)
Tagged as Bill Mullins, comment spam, fails, Google Translate, Tech Thoughts