Put your issues with the new ‘password’ comment system here
Scrape TV
Folks,
We changed commenting systems this week on this blog from a CAPTCHA code system to a password and here’s a chance for you to give us some feedback on that.
Do you like it? If so, tell us why.
Do you hate it? Is it impossible to use with your smart phone or iPad?
We want to here about that, too, including the specific problem you’re encountering when you’re trying to post from those devices.
May 10, 2012 - 10:30 AM
Frank mixed me up with all of his talk...
The password system has been less aggravating for me than the CAPTCHA was. CAPTCHA had gotten to the point that when it refused a code I had typed in correctly, I had to back out of that thread entirely and come back in to ever get a comment through. With the password I can simply do it again.
Let’s see if this goes through. I have been having a lot of problems with both systems lately.
I don’t know who came up with this plan, but it makes it so incredibly easy for a bot to get around, it’s ridiculous. The idea for Captcha is such that automated programs cannot pass. It requires a human response An Automated Program can copy and paste very easily.
That said, it is probably less problematic for the user to copy and paste than it is to read 4 characters and have to type those four characters.
The Biggest problem with this key handshake hullaballoo is that the timer on it is WAY too short. it expires before i can finish writing a post.
much more difficult to post now
terps,
tell us specifically the problems you’re having. The tech folks will be reading this thread, working to solve those problems. But they don’t know what to fix until they understand precisely the problem you’re having.
its a piece of tiny crap…
It doesnt work..
Ive tried 3 times to post…
click back…and comment is gone..
(my last cut and paste voided my message)
Bonehead trophy for your IT guys!!
I give up. this is my fourth post.
Easier and works as designed. But I think there is a time limit on the passwords. If I think before I post, it gives me an error.
and Scott is right..
The timer is set far too
short a time.
You can have a fairly short
post and it will have timed
out on you.
works about as good as the old system, which is to say it works sometimes.
I wonder if there’s a difference in problems depending on whether you use a Mac or a PC and which browser you use. I had a LOT more problems with CAPTCHA using a Mac and Safari than I did on a PC using Firefox. However, I rarely ever completely lost my comments on either.
Password works ok on a computer; haven’t tried mobile yet. But it still suffers from the same old problem: the password seems to “time out” between when I load the blog entry and when I finish typing out my comment. Fixing that one thing would greatly reduce my frustration levels, even if it required me to click an extra button before loading the password/captcha fields.
For now, it is still necessary to manually copy/save my comment text before trying to submit, and if I forget then my comment is probably gone for good. Actually it’s slightly worse now, because I have to remember to do it *after* I cut/paste the password, otherwise I lose it from my clipboard. And of course mobile users with limited or awkward cut/paste options are particularly hurt by this.
By the way: from an idle technical curiosity standpoint, I have to wonder how cut-n-paste of plain text is even marginally bot-proof? Just wondering…
whatever scott said, but in english
its so simple even i can do it twice!
It just did it to me again as I was trying to post this comment. I lost maybe a half dozen comments to the captchga code since it was initiated. I lost four to this system in just under two hours yesterday. They were comments thatI had spent considerable time gathering information to respond to others comments. I got a go back and type in the code error screen. When I went back, the comment was gone. This seemed to happen most frequently when a fair number of other comments were being posted at the same time./
It never lets me through. If you can read this, it will be the first time!
I like it. Hope all blogs use it!
I prefer it to the Captcha code, when it works, and hate it when it doesn’t.
I run everything twice. It’s probably a little more annoying than the captcha thing.
At least CAPTCHA didn’t delete your post if you screwed it up…it was still there waiting.
If another post is made while you are typing your own, the password will no longer be valid.
It’s really stupid. Some simple javascript to defeat it.
Watch next time it doesn’t accept your password… click BACK and you’ll notice that the required password (in the “copy this password” box) is NOT the same as the one you posted… because it changed.
Kristen @ 20, how was that? How is the captcha different on Dan’s blog than others? On others, if you screw it up, the post is gone. You start all over. Or are you using some mystical browser that keeps info for you?
Seems ok.
The CAPTCHA would delete the post if it timed out.
I use an iPod Touch, newest model, newest iOS, most of the time. Today is the first day that the password even showed up on the mobile version of this site. Otherwise, since you switched to ‘password’, if I tried to post from the mobile site, I got an error message telling me to go back and type in the password, which wasn’t there. I’ve been having to ‘switch to full site’ to post, which can be cumbersome on an iPod. I only had problems 3 or 4 times since I’ve been posting on this blog the last few months with CAPTCHA. Because of those times, I had gotten in the habit of typing my posts on Notes and then copying and pasting to the blog comments section already, which is what I’m doing now. I’m anxious to see if the password will work today.
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Password did not work 3 times on the mobile site. Had to switch to full site to post this.
If I got the captcha wrong, and used my “back” button, the post was always still there. That shouldn’t change with the password.
You’re still getting to the form post target page, it’s not accepting the form, and you’re hitting “back.” It doesn’t matter why it doesn’t accept it, the behavior of the “back” button should remain consistent.
Rick, I use nothing magical but when we had CAPTCHA and I did it wrong, all I had to do was click back and my comment would still be in the box. What did happen was sometimes it told me I’d messed up the code, and when I refreshed my post would show up anyway.
It’s a work computer and I don’t even have Chrome on it.
OK, so with the old captcha system, I would type in my comment, then copy it just in case the captcha gave me an error message and cleared the comment field, and pasted it to retry when that happened.
With this password system, I copy the password, paste the password, copy the comment, then hit post, get “Error 1: enter password,” and go back and try again. And again. And if this posts it won’t be because I’ve done something differently to when it failed.
It also makes me retype my name/email every time!
Fails sometimes even with cut and paste. Agree with the others, too easy for a bot.
Under CAPTCHA, once I typed a comment, I would copy it, enter the code, then submit. That way if it screwed up, I could go back, paste, and re-submit. Now, I have to type the comment, copy and paste the password, copy the comment, submit, and if it hasn’t been to long since I got there, it will take it. At least half the time, I have to go back, paste, and re-submit. The worst part (besides it working even less of the time than CAPTCHA) is two copying operations increasing the likelyhood of mistakes. I think the new system definitely favors the posters who make short comments or one-lines.
So long as I highlighted and copied before submitting, CAPTCHA worked c-grade well and all the way around better than the new system.
Now it’s time to copy, paste, copy, submit, go back, paste, copy, paste, copy the comment just in case, and re-submit. You’ll get this comment eventually……
Under the CAPTCHA system, on the rare occasion I couldn’t read a letter or number, I was unable to ‘refresh CAPTCHA’ on my iPod Touch. I had to start completely over. It only happened a couple of times, so I just lived with it. Nothing to do with the password system; just thought I’d mention it. Both systems could be more iPod/iPhone/mobile friendly.
@Art Hill: “Fails sometimes even with cut and paste. Agree with the others, too easy for a bot.”
Because you’re pasting in the wrong password. The password in the “Copy this password” box isn’t necessarily the one that it wants when you submit the form.
It is the one that it wanted when the form was initially displayed.
I didn’t get the password feature on my iPhone or iPad until now
See if this works from my Droid
Grrrrr…. I’ve had 2/3 of my comments fail to post this afternoon. Dan, you’re going to either have to get rid of this new password system or lift your ban on four letter words!
OK it worked, but it was just a few words. I’m curious to see if I can post a little bit more. Yesterday I couldn’t. I wonder if the password timed out. If you see this, it worked.
Tried a longer post. Didn’t work. FAIL.
Under the CAPTCHA system the Ctrl a Ctrl c worked better for me.
The new system seem more time sensitive or something.
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Re: the comment still being there after clicking the back button.
I suspect that is browser specific.
In general summary, the new system as it presently functions sucks!
I agree with dave’s summary, but ask: Has anyone else invented any new three-syllable compound profane adjectives yet when a Sharon-length post goes up in smoke to a password error? Frustrating does not do the feeling justice.
As hard as this sounds to believe, the old infamous “CAPTCHA gremlin” is becoming a fonder memory every day.
Look, unless you are willing to all become “verified users” (meaning identifiable to the site), you are going to have to deal with some sort of CAPTCHA or coded proof you are not a spammer. That is the internet reality, Roanoke.com did not invent that.
JohnW, perhaps it will encourage brevity.
I am going to “ditto” Mark @ 11:33 am
@Sandi Saunders: “That is the internet reality, Roanoke.com did not invent that.”
No, they have just managed to continually use versions that don’t work.
I like the new system better. Copy password, paste, click post doesn’t get much easier.
Re: Comment by Sandi Saunders — May 11, 2012 @ 8:52 am
I have no problem with that.
There is forum software that are open to anyone who wants to read them but you must log-in with an assigned ID and password to make a comment.
Once logged in you can move freely around threads make comments different threads w/o a code or password for each comment.
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Re: Comment by Maloof — May 11, 2012 @ 1:55 pm
Doesn’t seem to always work that way, for me.
You solve the issue to a great extent, with Google Chrome. No matter how many times I got the CAPTCHA error then or get the password error now, I do not lose my comment. It is a tad irritating to have to keep trying when either is fractious, but it is so much easier not to lose your comment.
That’s a better idea Dave Hicks. I’ve been on other blogs eith a password and it is easier. The irony is that said other blogs, I’m only on one topic and make a post or two and it doesn’t make a lot of difference. This blog has a bunch of topics and is the one where the password is needed.
I’ve suggested moving to a forum format for a LONG time. You can subscribe to threads and be notified when responses are posted, so you don’t have to keep looking back all the time.
If you still want to keep it like a blog you can set permissions on the forum so that Dan is the only one who can START a topic, and every other registered user can only respond to existing topics.
You could even put a section if you want where anyone can start a topic.. kind of an “off topic” area.
It would be much better since what you’re doing here really shouldn’t even be a blog… you are promoting discussion, and a blog is not the proper venue for that.
F this password system. The same comment just got eaten three times. Kristen’s right! The New Coke switcheroo was a success. May we please have CAPTCHA back now?
I’m favoring Dave Hicks’ idea the most. Let’s just have a simple sign-in. If it weren’t that most people here are regulars as opposed to a bunch of infrequent people, I’d say go with a password, but we have a few people talking about a bunch of stuff so I like the idea of a login.
Using copy, paste, and repost I’vwe ony had to repost a comment six time so far in the last hour. This system is onerous and ridiculous.
The whole cpatcha/password thing is my final straw with the blogs on this site, it’s beyond frustrating and I’ve no time to sit and post the same comment a half dozen times to get it to go through. I’m giving up.
The newest system without a password is GREAT. All of my comments have gone through on the first try, so far. Cheers to the Roanoke Times tech people!