Comments on: Humans Fail Turing Test

By: anticapthcian

anticapthcian — Fri, 18 May 2007 09:51:00 +0000

I recommend http://akismet.com or spam karma 2 for filtering – these are non-intrusive and only make bots (not users) live harder!

By: Christoph Berg

Christoph Berg — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The Turing test is a box at the bottom of the comment form, that says: “Do not put anything in this box if you are a human.”

This is not entirely true, the actual text is more complex and I had to read it twice to really get it. I imagine people commenting care about their comments and don't care to read instructions that don't seem relevant.

By: Adam Rosi-Kessel

Adam Rosi-Kessel — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Christoph: fair point. I was definitely paraphrasing. Perhaps I should simplify the text, although I do think it's pretty clear where the comment should go.

I put the additional word "comment" in the Turing test area to fool any robots that are looking for the word "comment" before a field to fill in.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Perhaps also you should make the entry box much, much smaller, so people are less inclined to use it. Are robots likely to look at the size of the text box?

By: Josh Triplett

Josh Triplett — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Along the lines of Dylan’s suggestion, why not try marking the spam-fooling text box and label with class=”spam-trap”, and adding “spam-trap { visibility: hidden; }” to your CSS? I seriously doubt that spambots read CSS. :)

By: Josh Triplett

Josh Triplett — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Also, for the benefit of any users who might have non-CSS browsers, I would also suggest simplifying the label to “Spam trap; do not use for comment:”

By: Jacobo

Jacobo — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Usually, behind such "stupid" users there's a design error. A time ago, I was receiving bug reports because, in a reporting webapp, the wrong report was generated. In reality, the page design made it look like the wrong button was the right button (even I got fooled by it every once in a while). I changed it and the complaints stopped :-)

I think that you should at least change the current text in the box below to the one you used in the story ("Do not write anything in this box if you're a human"). You can add "or your comment will be discarded as spam". It's definitely easier to read than the current text (so many negatives).

By: awksedperl

awksedperl — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

because the message of not putting text in the box is unnoticable.

By: Øivind

Øivind — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

"Put some text in this box only if you are not a human and don't want your comment to appear (comment):"

The major flaw is in the structure of your text it's too long and should use wording akin to "...don't put text in this box if you're human...[blabla]", but as pointed out by others a simpler text like "Don't put anything in this box if you're human". The (comment) part of the text just adds to the users confusion too.

The box could also benefit from some css-love to make it smaller, less prominent. Right now it looks like a space for signatures, a private message to you or something like that.

By: Mick

Mick — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I think the problem may be the location of the text telling one not the fill in the box.

My suggestions:
1. Put the text above the "do not enter box".
2. Make the "do not enter box" really, really small.
3. Change the text to something like:
"Do NOT write in the box below". The current text is kinda vague, and too long.

We should patent this and make it free before someone like Amazon does ....