Captcha update

I'm still finding Typepad's documentation sloppy.

This has been an ongoing issue for me - ever since I first started using the service. I can't count the number of times I've had tech-competent clients (hi Jim, hi George!) contact me for help because they couldn't get Typepad to do what it said itself it should do.

Tell me, dear readers, what would be your assumption if you saw the following in your blog's configuration settings?

Unauthenticated Commenters:

• Require email address

If selected, unauthenticated commenters will be required to submit an email address along with their comment.

• Require CAPTCHA

If selected, unauthenticated commenters will be required to pass a test that helps validate that they are a person and not a machine.

Would it not appear to you that, simply leaving the last box unticked, you would avoid the use of captchas on your site?

Wrongo, yakbreath.

In fact, Typepad has decided that, in some instances, a captcha will be issued regardless of how that specification is set. This info appears nowhere in the configuration settings - only in the knowledgebase:

Comments that meet the following criteria will trigger the CAPTCHA:

• If the comment is posted to a weblog post that is more than 30 days old
• If the comment was submitted too quickly after a previous comment from the same IP address and triggers a throttle
• If the comment contains more than three URLs in the comment body
• If information submitted with the comment matches TypePad's comment spam blacklist
• If the comment is posted in a definitely different language from that set for the weblog
• If the comment was submitted from an open proxy

Now, I understand that Typepad is using the captcha as a measure to protect their servers in case of a spam attack. I do find it hard to believe they couldn't implement a less annoying solution, but I'm especially frustrated that the configuration setting is so misleading. Come on Typepad, any user who beta-tested that config page could have told you that description was inadequate and misleading. Are you still not allowing actual users to test your changes before you roll them out? I mean, this has been a pretty common problem in the past.

Just for my own info, if any of you commenting are confronted with a captcha and you don't fit any of the above reasons, would you let me know please?

Comments

[Light & Dark]

@Rob, that's exactly my issue with them too - plus the fact they're an extra step. I dislike anything that puts more steps then necessary in front of a potential commenter.

To me, captchas are a lazy of protecting a comment form. There are other methods that don't require inconvenience and intervention from the reader.

Thanks for stopping in - good to see you again!

Paul

[Rob]

Captchas are annoying mainly because they are too distorted for anyone with less than perfect eyesight.

[bogie]

That Captcha thing bugs me when it pops up under the circumstances you mention - especially when it is my own damn website and I am logged into Typepad at at the time. I have a really hard time seeing the damn things, and don't have speakers on the computer, so the help for the handicapped doesn't help.

[Kathryn]

Thank you for clearing this up for me. I noticed the same thing on my own site a while ago. I double-checked my own settings and sure 'nuf, it was unchecked. I figured it was a blip. This explains it.