CAPCHA

? Excuse my ignorance but I haven't a clue what you mean

Yes they are often difficult to read and quite frustrating.

Do you mean those letters and numbers in a funny pattern you need to decipher and print 'in the box below' to prove you are a real person?

I'm getting more and more confused

I keep getting them wrong and get so frustrated.

I hate the pesky things.
That's if they're what Welshwife says
They are as has been said to prove a human not a computer is filling in the details

They prevent fraud and stop hackers so I will happily do them, it's a bit of a challenge sometimes, that's all, think of it like a game. Keep calm and captcha!

Welshwife that is what I mean. I hadn't thought of the real person angle which I suppose could justify them to some extent.

Sorry to be pedantic it's CAPTCHA

They always tell me i ve got it wrong even when I know I ve got it right they are awful and I ve given up sometimes Very very frustrating sometimes a letter like I could be a number 1 or even a small L I always end up tearing my hair out

Oh now I get it!!! Honestly I thought you were talking about posts onto here

You live and learn on Gransnet . I had no idea it was called anything except one of those stupid thingummys.

I don't have the best of eyesight and it's a real struggle to decipher them. I never get it right and have to have several stabs at it and then panic that I'll get locked out.

You can usually hit a button so that you can hear it (audio) instead of reading it and trying to decipher it on screen.

They're actually very important, if we had to do a Captcha (think "capture") to register for Gransnet, there'd probably be less spam.

There is usually an audio, and on most good sites, there's some sort of 'contact', you can let them know if you have problems and thy will 'register' your IP address.
I did this once when I wanted to access the forum of a charity I was active in, and just couldn't seem to see the thing correctly.

I can understand it's use but I don't understand why it's made so decipherable
If you had to do it on GN Grannyknot you probably wouldn't get anyone on here that's interesting as I don't get any spam on GN what do you get then ?

Well, the reason they are so complicated is so that a robot artificial intelligence searching automatically for them, so as to send spam and/or hack into the site, will be unable to recognise the characters and will move on to easier meat - like the people whose password is 1234567890.

It takes a humean being to figure out what it is meant to say. If it was easy, it wouldn't work.

Have you never spotted a spam post on GNHQ, blubell ?

GN, not GNHQ.

bluebelle it's made difficult to decipher so a robot can't crack it .

're spam on GN, it's an option to tick as to why a post is being reported. I rest my case.

I know that Grannyknot of course, but when humans can't decipher it (as a lot on here have expressed) surely it's not so useful

Spam I once reported someone who was advertising selling something otherwise no, perhaps they have been removed before I see them or I m blind or daft

The first person to recognise spam reports it and it is removed, so sometimes they vanish PDQ.

I became so frustrated with the wretched thing on one site that I complained. I received a kind reply saying that they are trying to find something better to beat the 'cheats' which should arrive in the next few weeks. I may well lose the will to live before that happens so I am keeping off ayything which uses those just in case!
I saw that someone else further up said that even though you absolutely know you got it right it still does not accept it and let you through. And when it patronizes you after that with a 'Please try again' I could become incandescent so not good for the blood pressure!