Saturday, March 10, 2012

I’m having problems proving I’m not a robot.

Lots of blogs seem to have these little word verification things these days.  I appreciate the concept—to keep spam comments or evil robot comments off of your blog.  And I used not to mind it too much.  Back when it was easy to prove I wasn’t a robot. 

But then something changed.  And I want the old word verification back.  Because nine times of of ten, I fail with these new ones.  Every now and then I get one that doesn’t cause me too much difficulty.

robot 1

But I can never relax, because this is always what’s coming the next time.

robot 2

Hello?  I have NO CLUE what that says!  I mean I get the fuzzy “this,” which doesn’t take a rocket scientist.  But the other word, with it’s combination of fuzzy and misshapen and dark blotch behind?  I stand zero chance of getting that one.

And if I don’t get it right (and how on earth would I know what is right and what is not, it’s all gibberish anyway!) then they put up another.  And another. 

You know how sometimes when you’re trying to log online to your credit card account to pay your bill you can’t quite remember your password, and you’re just too lazy to get up and go find where you’ve written it down, and so you guess, and guess, and guess again?  And then an announcement pops up onto the screen that says that you’ve exceeded your maximum number of guesses and now your account is locked and you will have to call and talk to a real human being to sort things out?

Well, I’m afraid a similar thing is going to happen to me with the word verification nonsense.  Only the pop-up is going to announce that the software has proven conclusively that I am a robot.  And that I am now blocked from commenting on any more blogs. 

So I just want to say, in advance, that should I stop commenting on your blog, it’s because I’ve been tried in the court of word verification law, been found guilty of being a robot, and been sentenced to  life without comments.

robot 3

I rest my case…

6 comments:

  1. ME TOO! So funny. I was mentioning this to Brian the other day... I seriously cannot remember the last time I got one right on the first try. I've actually developed this theory that they TELL you that you got it wrong on the first try regardless of your answer - then they play fair on the second try. Every. Single. Time.

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  2. I did a post a few years ago on this SAME thing!! Since then, it hasn't gotten any better. I need a decoder ring just to figure out what the letters are. Also, nice usage of legal terminology. As the wife of a half-baked lawyer, I ALWAYS appreciate references to the law.

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  3. I am SO WITH YOU!!! They just got massively worse internet-wide in the last month, too. And you used to be able to make your settings on Blogger so that people didn't have to do them, but now you apparently can't!

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  4. Actually, I feel like I can often just guess on some of those and they let me through even when I'm pretty sure I couldn't have put in the numbers/letters intended...They are fairly annoying either way.

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  5. Many of the calls I get for work are people who are so irritated with the verification words or the credit card verification process that they JUST want to speak to a human being. Upside? It keeps us human beings in jobs...... even if the people who call in DO think I am a computer at first and yell "FILE CABINETS" in my ear.

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  6. Ditto....the robots must be getting smarter!!

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