Allow users to pick with type of CAPTCHA test they see

[septim]

Title:
Allow users to pick with type of CAPTCHA test they see

Area:
comments, entries

Summary:
Allowing users to choose which type of CAPTCHA (text-based or graphic based) they will see/take through Manage Account.

Description:
Users choosing what type of CAPTCHA they will see/take allows greater accessibility.

I have dyscalculia and the text-based CAPTCHAs are full of arithmetic problems, thus I keep failing them. As of now, there's no way to choose which CAPTCHAs you will take, only what type of CAPTCHAs others will see in your journal.

Poll #10625 Allow users to pick with type of CAPTCHA test they see

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 78

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
56 (71.8%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
1 (1.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
3 (3.8%)

(I have no opinion)
17 (21.8%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.3%)

Comments

Re: +1

[matgb]

On the other hand, if spam isn't treated as top priority, pretty much beating everything else, the site eventually gets swamped by it and either dies or gets blocked by so many spam warning systems its inaccessible to everyone.

Spam kills websites. If we don't prioritise fighting spam, the whole site can die.

[septim]

I understand this. However, I can't report spam if I can't get through the site without reloading a bunch of times because I can't take the CAPTCHAs.

Re: +1

[azurelunatic]

One of the things driving my high level of caution is LiveJournal's experience, it being our code parent and all. The antispam system we inherited is basically the same as theirs from ~2007, around about the time they were experiencing epic levels of spam that only got worse. They wound up getting blacklisted by a major antispam service because they were not able to address all of the spam they were getting.

But we are not actually at a spam level where I'm concerned about that when I think about this for more than 30 seconds.

Re: +1

[matgb]

Yeah, it was that experience, plus a few of my own, that prompted me to say it how I did, at a simple level the most accessible website in the world is utterly pointless if it's blocked by all the search engines and email providers because it's a spam haven. I'm not in any way opposed to this idea, haven't thought it through enough, but I am opposed to the line of thinking that says fighting spam is a lower priority than X, Y or Z-anything short of the site falling over or stopping working is lower priority in my mind, but of course other factors need to be taken into account when lookign at the bigger picture.

Re: +1

[lightnings]

To be fair, there's been a fake youtube virus going around the spam comments on livejournal very recently, so their antispam system still isn't very good-- if DW got attacked, I think having made the captcha more accessible to its users and more vulnerable would be the least of our worries.