Comment by IYasha
3 years ago
It's not a matter of "why" it's a matter of "how". Cloudflare could have done way less intrusive and nerve-wrecking DDoS protection. But no, they had to make people suffer.
Also, I'm using Falkon browser every day - ever heard of that? I have to switch user agent to be allowed in some places which is ridiculous.
Can you think of a feasible alternative?
Why not just "enter grainy distorted 123 + 456"? No JS, no tracking. It takes literally milliseconds to generate and present. I've seen this work on large scale. Why is it mandatory to run tons of JS anyway?
It may be profitable to use CAPTCHA for AI training, but that's not only annoying, it's also unethical because one (like me) may be unwilling to engage in such activity. Also, CAPTCHAs involving houses, number plates or bikes are absolutely invading someone's privacy.
Owners of websites (e.g. shops) themselves have more options to show captchas only in critical moments: when performing heavy searches, registering, checking out, posting. Again, it doesn't have to be intrusive or disruptive. But I understand this way takes more professional approach and probably requires programming, which is not what _every_ store owner can probably afford.
> Why not just "enter grainy distorted 123 + 456"? No JS, no tracking. It takes literally milliseconds to generate and present. I've seen this work on large scale. Why is it mandatory to run tons of JS anyway?
Probably because it takes fractions of a cent to solve those grainy distorted captchas?
Whereas its not so trivial to get an extra IP address, extra computer, etc.
I can’t think of any alternative that would still be as onerous a bar to spammers and bots but also be less restrictive for genuine users. Other then linking real IDs, which has its own can of worms.
I have to emphasize here that I don't mean to throw away DDNS/multi-gateway protection, just criticizing the user interaction.