Patreon captcha nightmare

[IanMacdonald]

Just did a test on this in a virtual machine, and the issue is definitely that it will be very hard to get past it with a 'clean' browser, that is one that hasn't previously had tracking cookies injected by the dripping fangs of Google. 

Test used fresh copy of Firefox ESR, Google DNS (8.8.8.8 ) no proxy and no plugins other than OpenH264.

Would have posted this on Patreon but I just couldn't be bothered trying to get past the damn thing.    Our browsers are set to start from a tabula rasa (apart from bookmarks) at startup. I suppose I could keep a 'dirty' browser profile just for this, but hey I can't be damned.

[chickenHeadKnob]

I am not sure but I don't know if a clean browser is causing this captcha, it might depend more on the websites that throw them. I have started getting this type when signing in to bell.ca when paying my cell bill (logon). And that with a thoroughly cookie filthy machine. I actually prefer this type of captcha to the distorted text kind. It has a where is waldo puzzle game feel.

[Brumby]

The fun part comes when you can see an example of the target subject in one of the scenes, but the captcha doesn't have it tagged as one.  Had that happen to me a couple of times when the target subject was "signs".

[rdl]

I find that recaptcha very annoying. It typically takes me 5-10 minutes to get past it. I used to use the audio option but that stopped working. All I get is a message complaining of automated queries. Following the link results in, of course, no help at all.



https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq#my-computer-or-network-may-be-sending-automated-queries

Funny how those "automated queries" have no effect on using the whack-a-mole picture version.

[tooki]

So… is this a complaint about Patreon using a captcha, or is it a complaint about picture captchas? (Because the latter are in no way limited to Patreon.)

[Brumby]

My comment was in no way directed at my experiences on Patreon.  It was prompted from my experiences elsewhere.

[IanMacdonald]

Disqus started using one of these, and it created so much neg feedback that they removed it very quickly. Don't think it was on for a day. 

Worst aspect is that many of the questions are unsolvable, for example is a pickup truck a car? Is a bridge a road? Does a street sign include the pole? Is a building with a name in an unknown language a store?  Is a restaurant a store? etc. 

The difficulty does vary between sites. I've seen some where only one page comes up, another where 18 pages came one after another.

https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004119043--Why-am-I-seeing-CAPTCHAs-when-signing-in-

35/149 says it all, really.  There must be a few people fuming over this advice after they've needlessly caused a problem with their computer by following it.

[German_EE]

I hate these things with a passion. There is one site that I use for old schematics and service manuals and I have to solve one of these damn puzzles for each page I download. Sometimes I can spend ten minutes clicking on pictures until the system is happy that I'm not a robot.

Distorted text, OK, maths puzzles, OK, but whoever thought of this idea needs to get a really bad stomach complaint and the toilet door won't open until they complete one of their impossible puzzles 

[David Chamberlain]

Just click the car pics and then varify. Whats hard about it?

[IanMacdonald]

Just click the car pics and then varify. Whats hard about it?

Spelling verify right, evidently.

[rdl]

To ensure a high bar of security and privacy for everyone using Patreon, we use Google’s Re-CAPTCHA software.

Seriously?
To improve security they expect people to disable things like NoScript, uBlock Origin and other extensions that were added specifically for better security? Disconnect from your VPN? Don't use TOR to obfuscate your ip address?
This improves privacy how?

Sounds like a scheme cooked up by google.

[madires]

You get the same experience if you set your web browser to automatically delete all cookies when closing. It seems that reCAPTCHA tries to force you to keep the cookies for your convenience. Otherwise you'll have several minutes of frustration each time when you have to pass the test to log into some web page. It's very annoying! And it shows that the owner of the web page wants to track you. So much for "the privacy of our customers/users is very important to us" marketing BS.

[German_EE]

I now can't access theregister.co.uk without completing one of these damn puzzles. Do the site administrators really think that I'm going to spend up to five minutes clicking pictures just to access a news site?

They've just lost a signed up reader.

[thm_w]

Worst aspect is that many of the questions are unsolvable, for example is a pickup truck a car? Is a bridge a road? Does a street sign include the pole? Is a building with a name in an unknown language a store?  Is a restaurant a store? etc. 

Just go with whatever seems obvious/easiest. It is not relying on some "right" answer but checks that you picked similar answers to the other humans filling it out.
I would say yes to all of those, except for the pole is not included as the sign.

[BrianHG]

I red flag my IP by just repeatedly clicking verify until I get permanently booted.  Then, I email admin and say their site kicked me off, or, to whomever send me that site address, I tell them I cant get on.  Send me an open valid website address.

I do realize I lost access to some places, but, with noscript and all Google analytics blocked out, they are getting a fraction of my web data, though, when forced to use chrome, it was found that anything you type into chrome anywhere all get's sent to google so their AI can learn and advance.