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Author Topic: Does SS captcha pisses you off?  (Read 20594 times)

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« on: March 10, 2011, 07:00 »
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I just had to say that aloud - this stupid way of logging is really irritating. (SS has really a little safety paranoia...)  Lately ss captcha is either playing tricks on me (because it knows I hate it) or it changed and started to be more human then bot obstacle...  :-\ I had to reload it 3 times today.

Is there anyway to stay logged in ss? Block cookie? Hack your way into your account, bite it and not let go? ;) Anything? Expiring cookies into stock sites are such a bad idea on your own computer that only you use... Maybe someone has some cleaver software that keeps you logged in into all the websites you're using daily?


« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2011, 07:25 »
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Mostly just typing the first word (if it's longer than the second) will get you in. Also capitals and punctuation marks don't have to be typed. But it stays annoying.

« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2011, 07:34 »
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Mostly just typing the first word (if it's longer than the second) will get you in. Also capitals and punctuation marks don't have to be typed. But it stays annoying.

Oooh, this VERY useful info! For some reason the second word seems to be harder for me to decode. :) Thanks! :)

« Reply #3 on: March 10, 2011, 07:39 »
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Yes, annoying

« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2011, 08:04 »
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I really like words with Greek letters - first time I saw one I actually bursted out laughing ...

« Reply #5 on: March 10, 2011, 08:08 »
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Killing me slowly!  >:(

« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2011, 08:14 »
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it is indeed very annoying

« Reply #7 on: March 10, 2011, 08:21 »
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mine is always online, dont remember the last time that I have entered..

microstockphoto.co.uk

« Reply #8 on: March 10, 2011, 08:33 »
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.

« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2011, 08:38 »
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"Pissing me off" does not even begin to describe it  ;D

lagereek

« Reply #10 on: March 10, 2011, 08:42 »
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Yeah!!!  cant even read the bloody things.

« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2011, 09:42 »
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No, it doesn't piss me off at all because the alternative is them removing royalties a month later for someone stealing images.  So ... choices:

1) easier for bots to login and buy photos = remove royalties a la istock.
2) type half of an unreadable word.

I'll take #2.

lisafx

« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2011, 09:43 »
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+1 from me.  Captcha is only a minor annoyance most places, but Shutterstock's is particularly awful.  I'm with Christian - half the time it is completely illegible.  Have to refresh two or three times before you get one you can take a stab at.  

And FWIW, I have failed to get in on stuff like putting a comma as a period, or visa versa, so I think you do have to type the punctuation.  

« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2011, 10:01 »
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I really like words with Greek letters - first time I saw one I actually bursted out laughing ...

I had the same reaction. I pulled one up with a pi symbol, and I started cracking up. Then, hit refresh.

« Reply #14 on: March 10, 2011, 10:22 »
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The thing is, they run the contributors site off a subdomain, if they are trying to protect from image theft, they should mostly be concerned with keeping the customers legitimate.  I think they captcha the contributor site to keep users and stats engines from spidering the stats pages and increasing the server load.  Its about the only thing that makes sense from a contributor standpoint.

Also, you can bypass the whole login thing to collect your stats automatically by hijacking the cookie locally once you are logged in ;)

« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2011, 10:38 »
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Needing the deciphering skills of code breaker seems a bit much to me too. I +1 hate the log in procedure.

« Reply #16 on: March 10, 2011, 11:10 »
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Different monitors make such a difference reading the thing too.  I can hardly make it out on my laptop, but no probs on my desktop.


KB

« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2011, 12:17 »
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Thanks for posting this; I thought it was only me!   :D

I usually have to refresh half a dozen times before I get one I think I understand.

« Reply #18 on: March 10, 2011, 12:17 »
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You are not alone, I find it very frustrating as well.  It didn't surprise me when I read that Google had acquired reCaptcha as a way of using crowds to figure out stuff that their OCR can't make out.  So don't feel bad if you can't figure it out - it may be Google trying to get you to decipher something that no one can read :)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/02/28/f-vp-misener-captcha.html

From the article:

"The Captcha images it provides are also used to help decipher words that can't be identified during the process of digitizing printed material (see sidebar)."
« Last Edit: March 10, 2011, 12:34 by Megastock »

sc

« Reply #19 on: March 10, 2011, 12:32 »
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You actually don't have to type in the illegible word correctly.
Just type in the number of characters and type the legible word and it should work.
Did for me this morning when the first word(?) looked like a film strip.

« Reply #20 on: March 10, 2011, 13:53 »
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captcha sucks, no stock site has been hacked by bots.  Istocks fraud was an actual human being using a stolen credit card noth something captcha could have stopped.  At least let me stay logged in until I log out. sooooo annoying!!!!

grp_photo

« Reply #21 on: March 10, 2011, 14:26 »
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Yes it does! Most annoying thing that it is often unreadable at all!

« Reply #22 on: March 10, 2011, 14:54 »
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It is so annoying that I find I check Shutterstock a lot less than I used to.  Which probably saves their servers, so kudos to them   ;D

Oh yeah, the Greek letters are amazing.  I mean, what am I supposed to do with that information?

« Reply #23 on: March 10, 2011, 15:44 »
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Mostly just typing the first word (if it's longer than the second) will get you in. Also capitals and punctuation marks don't have to be typed. But it stays annoying.

Oooh, this VERY useful info! For some reason the second word seems to be harder for me to decode. :) Thanks! :)

I HATE THAT F***ING THING, STUPID NON-WORDS WITH WEIRD BITS AND PIECES AND LETTERS OVER THE TOP OF EACH OTHER!!!!!!!  AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

anyway, my little rant done, definately thanks very much !!

« Reply #24 on: March 10, 2011, 18:58 »
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Annoying? Yes, definitely. Sometimes have to refresh 3 or 4 times. But if it keeps my account secure, I'll grin and bear it.

« Reply #25 on: March 10, 2011, 21:58 »
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After all the shenanigans at IS lately, I'm not about to complain about Shutterstock's login process. 

RacePhoto

« Reply #26 on: March 10, 2011, 23:52 »
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Annoying? Yes, definitely. Sometimes have to refresh 3 or 4 times. But if it keeps my account secure, I'll grin and bear it.


I agree with you, except I usually get it by the second test even if I have some strange ones.

I must have good eyes (no I don't) or maybe a great monitor? (21" CRT?) but here's the answer and no I'm not bugged. Usually one guess is enough.

One word is easy, one word is unknown. That's how they have us working for them, viewing and guessing at words that the scanner can't read. So type in the easy word and type in the right number of characters or make a guess at the other word, and you should get in. I enter the punctuation, I don't know if it makes a difference or not. It's just a game and protection at the same time.

Here's my winner for the worst ever, that's beyond the ones with greek or scientific notation or symbols, which are pretty bad to start with. This one had me laughing. Not one letter in the whole scramble. But true to the plan, the first word was easy.



No I don't have a big problem with them using it.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2011, 11:49 by RacePhoto »


graficallyminded

« Reply #27 on: March 11, 2011, 00:16 »
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I actually got this one once:



How do I even type that symbol?  Lemme check oh wait noone cares I JUST WANT TO LOG IN SO I CAN MASH THE F5 KEY SOME MORE ON MY STATS PAAAAAAAAAGE
« Last Edit: March 11, 2011, 00:26 by ArenaCreative »

« Reply #28 on: March 11, 2011, 09:16 »
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.


rofl rofl, brilliant! :)


* edit sth went wrong :D I was referring to 'hate catpcha' captcha :D

« Reply #29 on: March 11, 2011, 09:22 »
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Thanks for posting this; I thought it was only me!   :D

I usually have to refresh half a dozen times before I get one I think I understand.

No, no, from what I see most of us have an 'issue' with this captcha. :D I usually don't whine about such things since they're mostly unavoidable, but I guess it wasn't my day that day. And I'm happy I started this thread - makes me feel better that I'm not the only one who hates that thing. :D

« Reply #30 on: March 11, 2011, 09:38 »
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I hate it! To all who post that they don't mind it along as it keeps the site secure, I have to ask.
If it works so well at keeping a site secure, how come banking sites (like Chase) and PayPal don't use it? The answer is that there are better ways that don't irritate the user base. Somebody did a hell of a sales job on Shutterstock to get them to use this Draconian measure in the name of security.

It will go away one day in the name of progress. There will be a shake up to make the site more professional, and more in line with current security standards. Can't happen fast enough for me.

« Reply #31 on: March 11, 2011, 12:21 »
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Someone should forward the URL of this thread to the folks at SS.

« Reply #32 on: March 11, 2011, 12:43 »
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Someone should forward the URL of this thread to the folks at Shutterstock.

Just sent it to their PR department. Maybe they'll tell them. :)

« Reply #33 on: March 11, 2011, 12:49 »
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I hate it! To all who post that they don't mind it along as it keeps the site secure, I have to ask.
If it works so well at keeping a site secure, how come banking sites (like Chase) and PayPal don't use it? The answer is that there are better ways that don't irritate the user base. Somebody did a hell of a sales job on Shutterstock to get them to use this Draconian measure in the name of security.

It will go away one day in the name of progress. There will be a shake up to make the site more professional, and more in line with current security standards. Can't happen fast enough for me.

I'm not sure it's keeping the whole site secure but I am hoping that it's keeping phishers from logging in to my account. To answer your question about why banking sites and Paypal don't use it, I will ask another question. If it's totally useless, why does anyone use captcha? I don't necessarily think that it is 100% foolproof, but I do think it must be somewhat effective.

« Reply #34 on: March 11, 2011, 14:39 »
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Someone should forward the URL of this thread to the folks at Shutterstock.


Hell YES!!! I didn't imagine so many ppl respond to my little rant. It would be nice if they changed their security behaviours. :)

« Reply #35 on: March 11, 2011, 14:44 »
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I hate it! To all who post that they don't mind it along as it keeps the site secure, I have to ask.
If it works so well at keeping a site secure, how come banking sites (like Chase) and PayPal don't use it? The answer is that there are better ways that don't irritate the user base. Somebody did a hell of a sales job on Shutterstock to get them to use this Draconian measure in the name of security.

It will go away one day in the name of progress. There will be a shake up to make the site more professional, and more in line with current security standards. Can't happen fast enough for me.

I'm not sure it's keeping the whole site secure but I am hoping that it's keeping phishers from logging in to my account. To answer your question about why banking sites and Paypal don't use it, I will ask another question. If it's totally useless, why does anyone use captcha? I don't necessarily think that it is 100% foolproof, but I do think it must be somewhat effective.


Because captcha is being misused here. As obviously time consuming method captcha was invented to prevent bots from registering fake accounts, writing spam and so on.
It's not developed as a mechanism for actions performed such often as logging in. It's just the wrong tool for this kind of human - system interaction.

« Reply #36 on: March 11, 2011, 15:04 »
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PicNiche keeps me logged in most of the time. But it is always an annoyance every time I have to try to dechiffer the captcha.

BTW: maybe this would be a better alternative? http://random.irb.hr/signup.php
« Last Edit: March 11, 2011, 15:08 by gaja »


graficallyminded

« Reply #37 on: March 15, 2011, 16:28 »
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I'd rather do a simple math problem :D Always love math.  Heck, I'd prefer algebra over having to type in long words that make no sense.

« Reply #38 on: March 15, 2011, 18:23 »
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Yes, highly irritating.     

« Reply #39 on: March 15, 2011, 18:26 »
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No, it doesn't piss me off at all because the alternative is them removing royalties a month later for someone stealing images.  So ... choices:

1) easier for bots to login and buy photos = remove royalties a la istock.
2) type half of an unreadable word.

I'll take #2.

You cannot buy anything from ShutterStock with a contributor account.  You HAVE to set up a buyer account.  It has very little to do with fraud and a lot to do with prevent external sites from scraping data.

« Reply #40 on: March 17, 2011, 13:39 »
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I hate it! To all who post that they don't mind it along as it keeps the site secure, I have to ask.
If it works so well at keeping a site secure, how come banking sites (like Chase) and PayPal don't use it? The answer is that there are better ways that don't irritate the user base. Somebody did a hell of a sales job on Shutterstock to get them to use this Draconian measure in the name of security.

It will go away one day in the name of progress. There will be a shake up to make the site more professional, and more in line with current security standards. Can't happen fast enough for me.

I'm not sure it's keeping the whole site secure but I am hoping that it's keeping phishers from logging in to my account. To answer your question about why banking sites and Paypal don't use it, I will ask another question. If it's totally useless, why does anyone use captcha? I don't necessarily think that it is 100% foolproof, but I do think it must be somewhat effective.


Because captcha is being misused here. As obviously time consuming method captcha was invented to prevent bots from registering fake accounts, writing spam and so on.
It's not developed as a mechanism for actions performed such often as logging in. It's just the wrong tool for this kind of human - system interaction.
Correct - the username / password provide the security at login - if someone else has these the captha ain't gonna save you - it's like having a combination lock to supplement your front door key with the combination printed on the door - absolutely no additional security but a real pain to have to do it!!

« Reply #41 on: March 17, 2011, 15:37 »
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Simply put, yes. Somedays I just can't be bothered going to the trouble of even logging in at all just to see the disappointing download stats . . .
well no, not really  ;D

« Reply #42 on: March 17, 2011, 18:05 »
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No, its not the captcha. I can live with that.

I hate the rejection reason: Your image is out of focus...
When:
I used a tripod, a remote control, manual focus and F13 and F16 for the images.  ::)

« Reply #43 on: March 18, 2011, 08:18 »
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No, it doesn't piss me off at all because the alternative is them removing royalties a month later for someone stealing images.  So ... choices:

1) easier for bots to login and buy photos = remove royalties a la istock.
2) type half of an unreadable word.

I'll take #2.

You cannot buy anything from ShutterStock with a contributor account.  You HAVE to set up a buyer account.  It has very little to do with fraud and a lot to do with prevent external sites from scraping data.

Yes I think that is exactly the reason. They only added the captcha after lookstat and iSyndica came onto the scene.

« Reply #44 on: March 18, 2011, 08:29 »
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Shutterstock has been less than forthcoming on this matter. Although there have been several threads on their forums complaining about captcha, they have all been removed. A forum search about captcha crashes the site. (Proxy error) Obviously they don't want any discussion about it, no matter how civil.
« Last Edit: March 18, 2011, 10:36 by rimglow »

« Reply #45 on: March 18, 2011, 09:15 »
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Shutterstock has been less that forthcoming on this matter. Although there have been several threads on their forums complaining about captcha, they have all been removed. A forum search about captcha crashes the site. (Proxy error) Obviously they don't want any discussion about it, no matter how civil.


ROFL!!!! This is just amazing. I really hate this kind of behaviour. I had just a touch better opinion on ss. Not much because most of stocks treat photographers lousy, but just a touch. F... censorship. :/ 

« Reply #46 on: March 18, 2011, 12:20 »
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I actually got this one once:



How do I even type that symbol?  Lemme check oh wait noone cares I JUST WANT TO LOG IN SO I CAN MASH THE F5 KEY SOME MORE ON MY STATS PAAAAAAAAAGE


Arena,

That is clearly The Sum of all Nens, + Tusis.

Which if I am not mistaken, equals 12.


« Reply #47 on: March 18, 2011, 14:29 »
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It's even worse if your on an iPhone like I am now.....

Don

graficallyminded

« Reply #48 on: March 18, 2011, 15:51 »
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hehe thanks for clarifying that Danno
« Last Edit: July 22, 2011, 10:36 by PhotoPhan »

« Reply #49 on: March 18, 2011, 20:01 »
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Probably the most annoying thing on SS. Sometimes I type it in perfectly and it still makes me do it again. Aaargh... Why is this necessary every time? NO other site requires this.

RacePhoto

« Reply #50 on: March 19, 2011, 11:52 »
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Probably the most annoying thing on Shutterstock. Sometimes I type it in perfectly and it still makes me do it again. Aaargh... Why is this necessary every time? NO other site requires this.


Some days (and maybe Saturday is the day?) I wake up and remember things. Two days of basketball and two to go, making all those picks and watching my brackets go down in flames...

Meanwhile, this morning I was reading the forum and remembered this:

They added the verification when outside software was harvesting data from their system. How soon people forget that detail. (including me) The recaptcha prevents bots from collecting data. Things like keywords, images, (yes YOUR images) and information from ShutterStock. It's not all about login security as much as the whole site and everything on it. Shutterstock blocked ProStockMaster, and other software years ago, that's when this started.

Found it Feb. 2007 they started warning not to give out passwords and information to outside tracking software. The recaptcha was the solution.

http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17139&highlight&sx=1

Please do NOT give out or save your username and/or password information to any website, program, or browser for tracking your download statistics. Doing so will only jeopardize the privacy of your personal information and the integrity of our payout process.

Regards,
Shutterstock
« Last Edit: March 20, 2011, 02:04 by RacePhoto »

« Reply #51 on: March 19, 2011, 14:42 »
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Excellent info. I will look at this a little differently from now on.

Thanks.

graficallyminded

« Reply #52 on: March 21, 2011, 08:40 »
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This is getting entertaining.  Sorry, I can't type Chinese

RacePhoto

« Reply #53 on: March 21, 2011, 19:40 »
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This is getting entertaining.  Sorry, I can't type Chinese


That one is easy "onrlat littleman" :D

« Reply #54 on: March 28, 2011, 20:28 »
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Well, this has been good for my sanity. I felt the world's biggest doofus, for not being able to log in to upload today. I simply cannot get it. I had to send a ticket . . .  :( Feel like a complete noob.

« Reply #55 on: March 28, 2011, 23:55 »
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rimglow - ANY forum search results in a proxy error, then a time-out, then something else - you need to redo it several times - it's just another thing that frustrates the contributors, and especially newbies trying to get info from the forums.

I personally don't care about captcha - SS allows newbies to be seen in searches which has resulted in sales for me from day one.  Can't say that for the other 8 sites I'm with.

rubyroo

« Reply #56 on: March 29, 2011, 05:44 »
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No, its not the captcha. I can live with that.

I hate the rejection reason: Your image is out of focus...
When:
I used a tripod, a remote control, manual focus and F13 and F16 for the images.  ::)

I totally agree Colette.  The captcha doesn't bother me in the slightest.  If it's too tough, it's no real effort to refresh once or twice.  But that rejection reason drives me absolutely nuts!  As you say - it's not as though we're careless about such things.


 

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