Cannot post due to CloudFlare CAPTCHA

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When I try to post my response to http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt227254.html I get a CloudFlare page titled "One more step to access www.wrongplanet.net" with a CAPTCHA. When I enter the CAPTCHA that page simply reloads with another one. I've tried at least 15 times and I'm positive that I got at least some of those correct, so there is a bug there. (At least it let me post here, thankfully.)

The page also says:

That seems to imply there has already been harmful behaviour from my IP address and I'm sure there hasn't been. My computer is clean.

We don't have information on exactly what triggers these challenges from CloudFlare for security reasons (if that information was public it would be made easier to bypass) but there have been cases where it appears to be related to what's said in the post so possibly, rephrasing what you're saying might help.

It's conceivable there is some perceived security issue with your ISP, entirely unrelated to what you're doing or to your PC, that may temporarily result in some sort of "challenge" status - clearly you've successfully posted to that thread, having created it, and you might find the challenge just suddenly goes away.
I've experienced something similar a couple of times and once, while I was previewing a post - but only on the second preview!

I've made a test post there with no CloudFlare issues so it's nothing directly related to the thread itself - although, since you're able to post here with no problems, CloudFlare appears to have acted on an issue which occurred then, when posting to that specific thread.
I wonder if you'll find that trying again there now, as some time has passed since you last tried, you will be able to post successfully?

I still cannot post it and I cannot post the text of my reply here, either, so yes, I think it is something about the text. (I saved it.) Of course, I don't know what specific words it's objecting to. I can't see anything in my post that would make it look like SPAM. Anyway, the fact that the CAPTCHA comes up is only half-bad. What's really bad is that I can't get through it - the page just reloads, even when I solve the CAPTCHA correctly.

Ah, interesting. Nice to see that confirmed.

Assuming there aren't further complains when you try, please PM me your post.
If there are, and you're able to make a screen capture of your text - try PM'ing me the jpg image instead.
Or maybe inserting spaces between the letters of remotely suspect words might narrow it down.
Just a thought - does your post contain any web page references? I recently investigated a malware alert raised by Chrome on a specific post containing a link to an image - it seems the site name was the trigger there.

Yeah - that does sound like a bug. Normally you're told an entered CAPTCHA is incorrect, before or when being re-prompted for it.
Relatively recent though: it didn't happen with me and we have had other reports of being prompted for a CAPTCHA which were more about why than any failure.

Here's the post text on PasteBin: http://pastebin.com/zxWQevfU

I cannot PM it to you, either - same problem. Clicking "Preview" also triggers it. Not surprising, since CloudFlare wouldn't know the difference between them - it just works at the HTTP level, as I understand. I've reported this directly to CloudFlare support as well.

Wow, the plot thickens.
As you'll doubtless recognise, I have successfully posted your post below, and with no CAPTCHA challenges from anything at any stage (and you'd be right about the preview aspect too).
I think reporting this issue to CloudFlare is the better decision...

[a verbatim copy/paste of your PasteBin content follows]

No, I don't, but thanks for the links.



It's only a suspicion, of course, and I cannot prove it, nor would anyone ever admit it. But I think so, firstly, because it seems to serve their purpose very well - it redirects sympathy towards the victim into support for the law. This displaces any rational response people might have had to the law. Secondly, like I said, I cannot think of any other reason to do it. Dox47's links do a better job of explaining this problem than I could.

The response to the Indian gang-rape is unprecedented, at least in my memory. If a law is named after that victim it will be passed. Can you imagine the public outcry if it's not? Can you imagine being the political who has to announce that the law was rejected? The contents of that law are entirely irrelevant - for political reasons, it must be passed! That is a major problem, isn't it? (Similarly, for political reasons, the suspects must be hanged - any trial will be purely a show trial.)

Apparently, invoking my name breaks the internet...

I am kinda curious now, Radley Balko is a major police abuse blogger, and Popehat is a legal blog specializing in free speech, so depending upon where FMX is posting from either one could be on somebody's sh*t list and be listed as suspect keywords. Not sure how that would tie to Cloudflare though.

FMX, is it possible to try making your problematic post through your other source - the one you've used for the huge majority of your WP posts?
I don't know why it might make a difference to successfully creating that post, but it is a difference and may be significant.

I cannot use my "regular" IP address, but I've tried another one and still get the same error. I doubt it's related to the IP address, since I've been posting from it both before and since the error and only that particular text triggers the problem. I'm also using http:// instead of https:// now (since HTTPS doesn't work) and that hasn't made a difference.

It's not quite Dox47's name, either, but removing the ="Dox47" from the quote tag allows me to post (see the linked thread). If I add even

quote=""

I get the CAPTCHA page.

Looks like if I disable the Disconnect extension for Chrome I can get past the CAPTCHA. It's probably blocking some cookies and CloudFlare is not handling this well.

I suggested to CloudFlare support that they should detect this scenario and show the user an appropriate message and they said they'll pass on that feedback. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it actually get improved, though.

I don't know how many WP users are accessing WP via Chrome - several, I expect - but this is the first time I've seen a report of BBCode quoting syntax causing problems with access.

I'm puzzled as to why a Chrome extension would trip over or mangle BBCode (or why it would even need to fiddle with the body of a post), sufficient to cause site access issues, and I suspect it would be more productive to speak with the developers of the Disconnect extension.

Oh, the Disconnect extension has nothing to do with CloudFlare showing that CAPTCHA page in the first place (first issue), but it does prevent it from setting a cookie when I successfully solve the CAPTCHA, which makes the CAPTCHA appear again and again (second issue). Yes, it's very strange that adding quote="" would trip it up. I didn't mention that part to CloudFlare support. It's only happened once to me so far, so if I can get past the CAPTCHA it's not such a big deal.

I love how the CAPTCHA seems much easier to read when the server thinks you’re connecting from a non-English-speaking country

I'm having the same issue and I use chrome too with extensions.