Stupid stupid registration question

[ZiNgA BuRgA]

(01-14-2011 03:00 PM)Banalyst Wrote:  Because it is how money is being made.

I don't think people eat fast food because restaurants make money.  At least not directly.

(01-14-2011 03:00 PM)Banalyst Wrote:  Why is spamming so lucrative, if it is that bad?

That's because spamming is not "bad".  It's an annoyance to the majority, yet it is lucrative for a minority.  If it was "bad", no-one would be spamming.  And it's also why everyone doesn't go around spamming either.


All I can derive from you is that existing captcha systems are "bad" because they apparently get cracked, and automated spam just floods in.  Yet everyone still uses them to guard against automated submissions.  If it is as bad as you seem to put it, they're effectively using an anti-bot system that doesn't stop bots.  Which, using your examples, is like buying food [for yourself] you cannot eat.
Now, not everyone eats fast food - I'm certain a major proportion of people don't, at least on a regular basis (me included).  I dunno if this is the case in the obesity infested USA, but over here, there's plenty of people who don't buy fast food, one of the primary reasons of it being bad for health.
If an anti-bot system is rather useless against stopping bots, why would the majority use it?  Rhetorical question?  I think not.  Maybe there are lots of idiots out there, but I'm sure there would be many others using alternative systems, but I have seen little evidence of this.

Your system is quite an interesting idea.  And from what you seem to be saying, it's probably a good implementation.  I do question the ability of the system to stop automated solving attempts - I'm looking at algorithmic complexity to do so, and from what I can tell, it seems easier to write an algorithm to solve KeyCAPTCHA puzzles than regular CAPTCHAs (ignoring obfuscation techniques used, as obscurity != security).  You say that it can be changed, which, certainly it can be, however, I cannot assess how effective they'll be against a well tuned algorithm since I cannot predict your changes.

Ultimately, I do think your solution will block automated registrations, but not necessarily because it is resistant to bot answering.  There's a few usability issues with KeyCAPTCHA over regular CAPTCHAs which will probably hamper its success; if anything, familiarity to regular CAPTCHAs is one thing.
But perhaps your system isn't aimed at being a new standard, and more about success to another degree.
Either case, good luck.  I think we can just agree to disagree with most points here.