GET RID OF THE F****** CAPTCHA!

GET RID OF THE F****** CAPTCHA!

Various things about Spring that do not fit in any of the other forums listed below, including forum rules.

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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
Posts: 14673
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 02:43

GET RID OF THE F****** CAPTCHA!

Post by Forboding Angel »

I'm not sure which of you had the great idea of adding that giant piece of fail, but tbh I don't really care. I just spent 15 tries to log into this forum regardless of the fact that my password was right every single time, I couldn't log in because of this fucking idiotic captcha that no one can read much less understand.

GET F****** RID OF IT!
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MidKnight
Posts: 2652
Joined: 10 Sep 2008, 03:11

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by MidKnight »

Forboding Angel confirmed for bot. :P
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Pxtl
Posts: 6112
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 01:43

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Pxtl »

While I agree that the captchas are often inscrutable, the fact that we're seeing them at all means that bots are aggressively targeting this forum and trying to hack our accounts. In that case, I'd say we need *more* anti-bot security, not less.
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Peet
Malcontent
Posts: 4383
Joined: 27 Feb 2006, 22:04

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Peet »

Forboding Angel wrote:I'm not sure which of you had the great idea of adding that giant piece of fail, but tbh I don't really care. I just spent 15 tries to log into this forum regardless of the fact that my password was right every single time, I couldn't log in because of this fucking idiotic captcha that no one can read much less understand.

GET FUCKING RID OF IT!
  • This does not belong in the development forum
  • This forum has had that feature for a very long time, possibly since the update to phpbb3 - it wasn't just added recently to piss you off
  • Do you expect a post with that tone to actually be cogent?
  • You've posted in a thread identical to this, why create a new one?
  • Having to type in a captcha is way better than having your account hijacked - which is literally the alternative
These are all reasons why a reasonable person would not have written that post. I think the role of said reasonable person is one you should adopt.
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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
Posts: 14673
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 02:43

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Forboding Angel »

And a reasonable Captcha doesn't require 15 tries before finally giving you something intelligible that you can actually answer.

And what IS new is the fact that I had to reformat my laptop so no more cookies to keep me company. Every single time I get logged out of my forum account, it's a battle to get logged back in. None of you will remember this, but way back when my account was first created, I couldn't get it to go through to the point that in the lobby I had to ask someone else to create the account and then give me the password for it.

This isn't exactly my first issue with this forum. Makes me wonder how many legit people have said fuckit due to the issues with creating accounts and logging in.
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zwzsg
Kernel Panic Co-Developer
Posts: 7049
Joined: 16 Nov 2004, 13:08

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by zwzsg »

Glasses are dirt cheap these days, go buy a pair.

How can you expect anything to work on the internet when you have such deficient eyes is beyond me.
SeanHeron
Engines Of War Developer
Posts: 614
Joined: 09 Jun 2005, 23:39

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by SeanHeron »

Erm - I don't think that comment is quite appropriate Zwzsg...
When I had to enter capcha because my account had been attempted to be brute forced, I had considerable difficulties till I got it right as well (god forbid I'd have to do that on every login...). And no, I don't need glasses...
But still think the capcha needs to stay - at least in some form (I can't guage how good bots are at cracking them...).
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smoth
Posts: 22309
Joined: 13 Jan 2005, 00:46

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by smoth »

why not just get it to remember your login? I seldom ever login unless I accidentally on the logout button.
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Jazcash
Posts: 5309
Joined: 08 Dec 2007, 17:39

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Jazcash »

smoth wrote:why not just get it to remember your login? I seldom ever login unless I accidentally on the logout button.
I get logged out now and then for weird reasons.
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lurker
Posts: 3842
Joined: 08 Jan 2007, 06:13

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by lurker »

It doesn't give you a captcha unless you're giving it wrong passwords, does it? I just tested and didn't get one.

Edit: Grabbed a captcha and converted to grayscale, still no issues reading it, and colorblindness is the only usability issue I can think of that applies to an RTS. I guess your brain's weird.
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SinbadEV
Posts: 6475
Joined: 02 May 2005, 03:56

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by SinbadEV »

lurker wrote:It doesn't give you a captcha unless you're giving it wrong passwords, does it? I just tested and didn't get one.
I have consistently been given the captcha (too many log in attempts) the first time I enter a password (which I'm sure was correct)... this has happened a lot recently because I installed a new OS, logged in from my wife's computer and my mom's computer, switched to Chrome and then back to Firefox and was using Ubuntu is "disk mode" for a couple days while I was working up the nerve to install it.
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Wombat
Posts: 3379
Joined: 15 Dec 2008, 15:53

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Wombat »

kittens !
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knorke
Posts: 7971
Joined: 22 Feb 2006, 01:02

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by knorke »

lol@move from "Development" to "General".
shouldnt this be in "Site content"?
w/e forum is a mess anyway.

Anyone remember that captch rapidshare had ~2 years ago, with the kittens? There were some letters and you only had to enter the letters with (the outlines of) kittens on them. That was superstupid because some kittens were in fact horses or dogs and i could never tell from the small pixelcrap...
Never wrongly entered the captcha on this forum though...
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Forboding Angel
Evolution RTS Developer
Posts: 14673
Joined: 17 Nov 2005, 02:43

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Forboding Angel »

SinbadEV wrote:
lurker wrote:It doesn't give you a captcha unless you're giving it wrong passwords, does it? I just tested and didn't get one.
I have consistently been given the captcha (too many log in attempts) the first time I enter a password (which I'm sure was correct)... this has happened a lot recently.
Exact same story here on my laptop.
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Wombat
Posts: 3379
Joined: 15 Dec 2008, 15:53

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by Wombat »

knorke wrote:Anyone remember that captch rapidshare had ~2 years ago, with the kittens? There were some letters and you only had to enter the letters with (the outlines of) kittens on them. That was superstupid because some kittens were in fact horses or dogs and i could never tell from the small pixelcrap...
im pretty sure it wasnt 2 years ago, i remember trying to pass this nightmare last year on rapid.

and i mean different kittens. cute one ! and easy to recognize.
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momfreeek
Posts: 625
Joined: 29 Apr 2008, 16:50

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by momfreeek »

Forboding Angel wrote:
SinbadEV wrote:
lurker wrote:It doesn't give you a captcha unless you're giving it wrong passwords, does it? I just tested and didn't get one.
I have consistently been given the captcha (too many log in attempts) the first time I enter a password (which I'm sure was correct)... this has happened a lot recently.
Exact same story here on my laptop.
This is exactly what should happen if someone had been trying to hack your account. Once triggered (a few wrong passwords from a hacker/bot) it then has to respond to any login attempt (right or wrong) with a captcha. It can't give the captcha before the login as it doesn't knwo the username and it can't accept a valid password as then the captcha can be completely ignored and brute force methods still work. Its a block that has to be unlocked with a captcha, not just a password.

Loosening security (easier captchas that are perhaps solvable by a computer) is clearly a shitty solution to a problem caused by active hackers trying to hack accounts.

Perhaps some form of hardened security would solve the problem for you (IP filtering?). Maybe there is a phpbb plugin that could be enabled on an optional account-by-account basis... If waiting for the hacker to get bored and stop trying is too much trouble then try reseaching solutions.
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SinbadEV
Posts: 6475
Joined: 02 May 2005, 03:56

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by SinbadEV »

momfreeek wrote:This is exactly what should happen if someone had been trying to hack your account. Once triggered (a few wrong passwords from a hacker/bot) it then has to respond to any login attempt (right or wrong) with a captcha.
Are you implying that bots HAVE been trying to hack my account on a regular enough basis for the captcha to show up correctly every time I've had to log in over the past few months? I would like someone with access to the server logs to investigate this possibility because it is worrisome.
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momfreeek
Posts: 625
Joined: 29 Apr 2008, 16:50

Re: GET RID OF THE F****** CAPTCHA!

Post by momfreeek »

I'm not the first to make that implication. Ask neddie.?

Assuming its not a bug, perhaps this would alleviate the troubles:
http://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/s ... user_name/
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smoth
Posts: 22309
Joined: 13 Jan 2005, 00:46

Re: GET RID OF THE FUCKING CAPTCHA!

Post by smoth »

SinbadEV wrote:
momfreeek wrote:This is exactly what should happen if someone had been trying to hack your account. Once triggered (a few wrong passwords from a hacker/bot) it then has to respond to any login attempt (right or wrong) with a captcha.
Are you implying that bots HAVE been trying to hack my account on a regular enough basis for the captcha to show up correctly every time I've had to log in over the past few months? I would like someone with access to the server logs to investigate this possibility because it is worrisome.
That is not an implication. It IS happening on many messageboards.
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Pxtl
Posts: 6112
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 01:43

Re: GET RID OF THE F****** CAPTCHA!

Post by Pxtl »

Yup. Everybody make sure your password is dictionary-attack-unfriendly. Avoid dictionary words, keep it longish, include numbers and (if you're really hardcore) a mix of lower and upper case.

If your password is on a "common password" list, you're screwed. "qwerty" or "123456" is just asking for it.
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