CAPTCHA problem

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No. not if the ppr was put in place long before the h.r was even included and an online pe tition would be seen and not heard anyway like with others away from here. The only way to get the right sort of movement here is to say; I want a complete rewrite of the rules and list the poll to include mods so that there is a third party agreement and then include Alex Plank agrees so that changes can be implement ed and modified. I hope my opinions are forthcoming enough. Good night.

What is a ppr and a h.r?
I agree the rules could use a rewrite in places, but I see that as a somewhat separate issue, and would prefer to see any complaint or poll focus on the CloudFront problem.

According to one poster here, Alex knows about the problem:
viewtopic.php?t=323044
But that hadn't been confirmed last time I looked. In a way I'm hoping it's not true, because I don't understand why he wouldn't bother to at least make an announcement about the issue, if he knew. I did notice that he's posted on WP recently (about the EU referendum).

Incidentally, my screen name is more accident than design. I used to call myself RoughDiamond on forums but I started using ToughDiamond because I kept finding the RoughDiamond name had already been taken.

The CRAPTCHA has been a problem for most of the 3 years I have been posting here. Cloudflare is the delivery system used by this site and many others, as far as I understand the type of CRAPTCHA enabled, is either selected by the person with access to Cloudflare controls, which is Alex, and/or limited by the software used by this site, which I think is very possibly outdated.

At one point I started a thread in this section just to log how many concurrent threads were running that were complaining about CRAPTCHA, I think the count reached 17 before I lost interest. So I believe Alex is fully aware of the issue but refuses to discuss it with anyone.

I recently tried to engage him in a conversation about the amount of wasted time the moderators spend dealing with spambots, which should be dealt with by system management. He responded initially but then either missed or ignored my reply.

IMO the site probably does not make enough money to warrant spending any time and effort on sorting out the problems.

^ Thanks for sharing that info. It seems very unlikely, then, that a poll would result in any kind of a positive result. The balance of probabilities is that nobody is going to fix the problem or make any kind of an announcement as to why it's not going to be fixed. A sad state of affairs, to say the least. Perhaps if enough moderators threw in the towel, the developer might feel motivated to at least discuss the problem? But I won't hold my breath.

Probably never, or whenever Wrong Planet Admins wise up and ditches Cloudflare altogeather.

If it's going to cost time and money to modify or rebuild the site, but there is very little revenue coming in, who's going to pay for it?

One note for everyone. Cloudflare seems to hate brackets (like this one) (and this one) (the third one could already block me sometimes), if you use to much of them in your post it will block you. Its also reacting if you have to much "keywords" in your posts. When i get blocked i hit backspace and cut out a large portion of my post and click preview, i do it again until it doesnt get blocked anymore and then i isolate wich portion is triggering Cloudflare and slightly edit it to pass through. Its annoying as f**k, but it works...

Peace
TK

There are always ways to get around the system. The trouble is that posters will then avoid quoting, avoid adding links, avoid using brackets (not a big problem) and limit the content/volume of their posts to avoid triggering the CRAPTCHA, and also copy their post before submitting just in case (as I will do before posting this).

While these techniques are fine for many members, it does not lead to free and easy communication but restricts it instead. So anyone who wants to use the site beyond short posts, develops their own WP coping strategy which they have to adopt if the site becomes an important part of their life, possibly the only regular form of communication. Behaviour modification is a normal and accepted way of dealing with life for most here, so it seems to be almost natural to do it here too, but it does become very tiring.

This site was invaluable to me for 2 years and I really appreciate what it has given me. Now I've mostly gone back to read only, which I did for 2 years prior to becoming an active member here. If I don't invest too much in being here, it no longer matters to me if my post is lost, error 502 shows or the site just fails to load. I can just close the tab and do something else which is more useful/less frustrating.

I'm sure that there are many other posters, who have contributed much more to WP than myself, that have left or don't post, due to these problems but that is subjective opinion on my part.

It would take very little time, and no money, to remove Cloudfront, or for the developer to make an announcement explaining why that can't / shouldn't be done.

I'm a fully qualified luddite so only replying in relation to reading other peoples posts rather than any level of technical knowledge.

Cloudflare is a delivery system, why the CRAPTHCA is implemented here, in the way that it is, is purely down to Alex as no one else has access to the controls. I have seen other members offering their help to try and make the site better and these are also ignored. Why Alex needs to keep such tight control of the site has not and probably will not be revealed.

Again, as I understand from reading other's posts. The site performance varies depending on device used, operating system and browser choice, the software is obsolescent and future compatibility is limited.

I understand your frustration TD, but don't have any solutions.

^
Sure, you're not to blame, and your post was appreciated. I wonder what will happen to the site when time catches up with its outdated software.

Yes I've noticed it doesn't like brackets. I've had little or no CloudCrap interference as long as I don't include a quote - using the "quote text" button - in the post. But if I do, brackets can be fatal, and unfortunately I find brackets rather useful. The other thing that usually triggers CloudCrap is a long post, again not usually a problem if I don't include a quote. I never thought WP would be as restrictive as Twitter - and I gather even Twitter is going to relax their restriction on post length. Oh well, maybe it'll train Aspies to be concise instead of data-dumping.

EDIT: Had to convert my pair of brackets into dashes to get this post through. Yet your 3 sets - within the quote, above - got through fine.

My post got through, but your post actually has even more brackets. And heres why - You already had the right idea with quotes. A forum quote isnt just a reference, it copies the whole post into your post just adding [BBCode]quote[/BBCode] around it. Its the forum front end that then reads these BBCodes to display things differently to the user. Like fat - [b][/b}, [url]weblink[/url} or [img]imagelink[/img} So by quoting me, and adding your own brackets your post now would consist of already 4 bracket sets on what the machine has to interpret. And its longer. My second fallback when i absolutely HAVE to use more brackets than Cloudflare wants me to, just use the other type of brackets available. Like [this one], or {this one}. Cloudflare doesnt seem to care about them that much...

I agree its a big problem for aspies who arent the stereotypical computer nerd, and who are maybe not interested in computers at all. Things like these are frustrating and annoying. Its not a big deal for me because i fix computers since uhhm ever and know how to troubleshoot a problem naturally, but its a massive bummer for someone who just tries to communicate himself and some stupid piece of buggy/sh***y software not letting him...

Peace
TK

Yes I've noticed the brackets in the BBCode before. But there are three things I don't know:

1. Does the Capcha monster give the same weight to a BBCode bracket as it does to a bracket in the text of the actual post?

2. Is there a particular number of brackets it allows before it attacks?

3. You say it doesn't care about "{", which is good news, but what's the "[" ? The only one like that I can find on my keyboard looks identical to the one used in BBCode. Are they subtly different?

Cloudflare is the delivery system, apparently, it is widely used by web sites, apparently, those other sites don't suffer with genuine members struggling with the CRAPTCHA and mods who, volunteer their time, wasting that time cleaning up after the spambots. Apparently, Cloudflare is needed to act as a virtual UPS to ship both ways, the issue is who is being asked to sign for delivery.

Purely conjecture, I believe Alex was aspiring to be a programmer when the site was first built and he was involved in the construction. He seems to no longer have that aspiration, has probably not kept up with the technological changes and is no longer capable of the task. Not to say that he's not very talented in other areas.



Thanks, as for the second part of your post, it's back to this:

It took 7 attempts and about 10 minutes to get the above post through, life is too short for Wrong Planet. I would prefer to edit to make it clearer but can't be bothered.