I am pretty tired with captcha on so many forums and websites. In my opinion it mainly causes frustration instead of actually helping to keep forums and their users safe from intruders.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I have to try more than 10 times before guessing/entering the right string for simply searching the forum. Similar thing happened when requesting my password, registering a new account (where passwords need to be reentered for each attempt) etc.
I understand the captcha when it comes to the registration form since this is an open forum, but it should be possible to simplify a lot. I know that in theory it is possible to automatically analyse these images, but come on I've never heard about those methods being used in the real world.
First of all the user specified password should be kept in cache while retrying a new captcha i.e. after submitting. Ok I can live with this if the captcha is guessed easily.
Secondly use only words in the captcha that actually exist or make sence.
Third make the captcha easier to read. I know that it is possible to simply refresh until hitting one that is easy to read, but again this complicates things. I bet many users don't even know about the refresh option. This would be a matter of selecting another captcha method of course.
Finally perhaps limit captcha to 1 word only though two words are ok if they are guessed right the first time and make sense.
Actually the search function would be much better without captcha at all. After all a captcha on a search function makes me and many other users not use it and instead post a new thread with a question or comment that many users may have asked before. This often result in thread comments about searching the forum before posting duplicates.
Alternately removing all captchas from paying users.
I hope you will take my suggestions into consideration.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I have to try more than 10 times before guessing/entering the right string for simply searching the forum. Similar thing happened when requesting my password, registering a new account (where passwords need to be reentered for each attempt) etc.
I understand the captcha when it comes to the registration form since this is an open forum, but it should be possible to simplify a lot. I know that in theory it is possible to automatically analyse these images, but come on I've never heard about those methods being used in the real world.
First of all the user specified password should be kept in cache while retrying a new captcha i.e. after submitting. Ok I can live with this if the captcha is guessed easily.
Secondly use only words in the captcha that actually exist or make sence.
Third make the captcha easier to read. I know that it is possible to simply refresh until hitting one that is easy to read, but again this complicates things. I bet many users don't even know about the refresh option. This would be a matter of selecting another captcha method of course.
Finally perhaps limit captcha to 1 word only though two words are ok if they are guessed right the first time and make sense.
Actually the search function would be much better without captcha at all. After all a captcha on a search function makes me and many other users not use it and instead post a new thread with a question or comment that many users may have asked before. This often result in thread comments about searching the forum before posting duplicates.
Alternately removing all captchas from paying users.
I hope you will take my suggestions into consideration.
