A Awesome Captcha Alternative!

[npav]

I find the standard Captacha annoying, the words in it, have become so jumbled and hard to read, it takes many times to complete it.

The game and video ones are often an annoyance, as I am here to get my download / purchase, not watch a advertisement or play a flash game.

However, Captacha is a important part of the web, and is needed to avoid more spam than there already is.

I came across a great alternative today, It’s called Motion Captcha. A quick and simple drawing of a shape that is easy for a human wrist, but difficult / impossible for a bot.

http://www.josscrowcroft.com/demos/motioncaptcha/

What are your thoughts on this? could it be used widespread? I hope so, so much better than the current Captcha.

[Paulie_D]

Probably more bot resistant but see discussion here: https://css-tricks.com/forums/discussion/26705/avoid-the-are-you-human-field#Item_15

It’s not exactly an alternative to Captcha…just an interpretation of the same thing.

[cwork]

I actually dig that, and I hate Captcha haha.

I see spam almost everywhere I go, now, it’s ridiculous.

[Kitty Giraudel]

The idea is interesting but this can be a pain in the ass to complete. Not to mention accessibility issues…

[howlermiller]

I’ve seen ideas similar to that before. I think [PlayThrus](http://areyouahuman.com/ “PlayThrus by Are You a Human”) are a slightly more elegant approach (despite the obnoxious name).

I’ve also seen a lot of people merely an input that says something like “Which is warmer, ice or steam?” From purely a useability perspective that isn’t the worst thing you can do, but it won’t necessarily stop all the bots either. Then again, neither to Captchas.

What we really need is for some brilliant person to figure out how to stop the bots without needing to ask your users for anything. Maybe something like Jeff Starr’s [Blackhole](http://perishablepress.com/blackhole-bad-bots/)?

[PicnicTutorials]

It works on my iPhone. That was surprising. Normally stuff like that fails with touch devices. I like it. The only problem I would have is that would never go well with any of my form designs. I too hate the image captchas. I use a simple math question. This one here just gives random addition questions using number 1 through 5. http://www.websitecodetutorials.com/code/php/simple-php-captcha.php

[JoshWhite]

Apparently just a bunch of circles got me past it, but I doubt a bot is going to do that :P

But I wonder if this might be a better mobile spam solution while more linear solutions like easy math questions might be best for desktop.

[jurotek]

> I usually need to go through a few rounds before I can get one right. Very annoying.

At least you got it right unlike I. I came across some so bad that even after few rounds I couldn’t get it and gave up feeling that there’s something seriously wrong with me.

[PicnicTutorials]

Here is another way. The way I did on my site. Designers use forms for three reasons. Mainly for spam protection. And two to appear more professional. And three if you have specific info you need to gather. But if you are concerned about it being the easiest for the user to get in touch with you a simple email link is by far the easiest for them.

Here I showed how to display your email, while hiding it, and it defaults to plain text (but still hidden) with js off. Number one is my fave. http://www.websitecodetutorials.com/code/javascript/graceful-degradation-mailto-email-address-obfuscation-tutorial.php

[Senff]

> We should be making it easier for users, not harder.

But that’s the whole issue — how to make it *easier* for people but *harder* for bots.

[agaryali]

Can someone share his personal experience using game-playing captcha alternative like PlayThru from AYAH? Any pros/cons would be welcome. Thanks.

[__]

@agaryali —you’ve posted this in a couple different threads. You should start a new conversation for a new topic instead.

[Toorion]

There is perfect CAPTCHA alternative. No annoying, more simple and lively.
http://uniqpin.com

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