questions, to begin with

[KodeZwerg]

.....
I agree. The verification procedure is ludicrously difficult. Beside the standard decipher-letters-captcha I get, for example

• In the proverb, what does the pot call the kettle? (Hint: Answer is a color):
• Who travels in a tardis? The ______ (6 letters):
• One .... to rule them all?:

I seriously do not know any answer. No wonder Pascal users are in decline; if it’s too difficult to join the forum.

Wow, are you saying they are questions used when joining this forum ? While I can answer them, I would say they are very culture specific and that is a bad thing IMHO. I  guess its getting harder and harder to tell the difference between people and bots. Harder Pascal specific questions would not be acceptable because we want to encourage new comers, so, just what test should be applied ? Thats a serious question.

Please not laugh I show in attachment my "answer this to join forum"-quiz.
While it looked for me as a math question, ofc I failed that test. I entered 3 since I was thinking the quiz wants to hear from me "what is 9 - 6"  :'(
The way of how it's written was confusing me...

[Bogen85]

Please not laugh I show in attachment my "answer this to join forum"-quiz.
While it looked for me as a math question, ofc I failed that test. I entered 3 since I was thinking the quiz wants to hear from me "what is 9 - 6"  :'(
The way of how it's written was confusing me...

Nine - up side down (9 implied, so 6)... good one...

Your answer of 3 was logical...

[dseligo]

Beside the standard decipher-letters-captcha I get, for example

• In the proverb, what does the pot call the kettle? (Hint: Answer is a color):
• Who travels in a tardis? The ______ (6 letters):
• One .... to rule them all?:

I seriously do not know any answer. No wonder Pascal users are in decline; if it’s too difficult to join the forum.

Some more questions:

Code: Text  [Select][+][-]

1. Author of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy? _______ _____:
2. The shard is a building in which metropoly?:
3. According to legend, which city was not build in a day?:
4. First name of the artist, who painted the Mona Lisa?:

I'd say that some people quit registration because of this questions.

[Scoops]

They are questions that the average male of around 55 can answer.

Douglas adams.
I have Lived in london.
Never been to Rome.
Da vinci.

black
Doctor (who)
Ring

Really questions for the English. The doctor (who) and hitchhickers guide, the bloke who thaught of these questions is from the UK. No doubt.

[Paolo]

Uhmm....

First name of the artist, who painted the Mona Lisa?
.....
Da vinci.

The latest answer is "Leonardo", not "da Vinci". 

[Martin_fr]

Please not laugh I show in attachment my "answer this to join forum"-quiz.
While it looked for me as a math question, ofc I failed that test. I entered 3 since I was thinking the quiz wants to hear from me "what is 9 - 6"  :'(
The way of how it's written was confusing me...

Nine - up side down (9 implied, so 6)... good one...

Your answer of 3 was logical...

I am still trying to figure from what in that sentence a subtraction is derived. Besides, that particular question has long been retired.

Beside the standard decipher-letters-captcha I get, for example

• In the proverb, what does the pot call the kettle? (Hint: Answer is a color):
• Who travels in a tardis? The ______ (6 letters):
• One .... to rule them all?:

I seriously do not know any answer. No wonder Pascal users are in decline; if it’s too difficult to join the forum.

Some more questions:

Code: Text  [Select][+][-]

1. Author of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy? _______ _____:
2. The shard is a building in which metropoly?:
3. According to legend, which city was not build in a day?:
4. First name of the artist, who painted the Mona Lisa?:

I'd say that some people quit registration because of this questions.

Well (until the recent advent of AI chatbots....) those question where (somewhat) effective, in that apparently spam bot maintainers had to look them up manually. And when they started their attack => new set of questions, wait, next attack, next set, couple of iterations at max.
It doesn't stop human spammers. But then by the very definition no captcha does.

You can drop them in google, and based on the given hint, the answer can be clearly identified.
Yes it is a bit of work (it is a bit of work too, to come up with them)

Any math/logic stuff (even like the 9 upside down) is easier for bots, and harder for humans.
Also math/logic/... require a good understanding of the English description, while pasting the question to Google does not.

At the moment you have to answer for registration and your first post (the latter is annoying, I know, it be nice to just to the "scrambled text", but no setting for that).
At times of high spam attacks, you may have to do it for more than one post...

Feel free to PM me, if you have alternative ideas.

[rvk]

Nine - up side down (9 implied, so 6)... good one...
Your answer of 3 was logical...

I am still trying to figure from what in that sentence a subtraction is derived.

By the substraction sign " - ".

The question could have been just this (no need for the "-").
"Nine up side down"

Also, the same kind of captcha is often used with addition and substration so I understand the confusion.

[Martin_fr]

They are questions that the average male of around 55 can answer.

Well they are Europe / maybe U.S.
I don't know much trivia from other regions.

The point is, that Google will have the answer within the quotes of the search result. And it should be easy to pick them.

[Martin_fr]

Nine - up side down (9 implied, so 6)... good one...
Your answer of 3 was logical...

I am still trying to figure from what in that sentence a subtraction is derived.

By the substraction sign " - ".

Ouch, ok. It was a dash, but of course that is the same.

[dbannon]

The trouble is that any question widely know will be easily Googled for. And the AIs will google.

I was thinking of showing a new user an image of some Pascal code with an error ?  The question is, "which line has the error" ?  Images of, say 10 lines of code, two sequential tests, hmm, 1 in a 100 get through on pure chance. Four tests ? i in 10,000 ?

And such a test would exclude real beginners.

Hmm, its a hard problem. I think the best thing is a personal interview. We will fly Martin_fr to where ever the new user is, they go out and have a meal, at the end of the meal, Martin will probably be reasonably sure as to whether the person is a human or not.

Davo

[TRon]

Hmm, its a hard problem. I think the best thing is a personal interview. We will fly Martin_fr to where ever the new user is, they go out and have a meal, at the end of the meal, Martin will probably be reasonably sure as to whether the person is a human or not.

ROFLMAO

You have just made my day (probably even week/month). Thank you for that dbannon.

fwiw: I'll suport that 

[Martin_fr]

The trouble is that any question widely know will be easily Googled for. And the AIs will google.

Yes, this will become more and more the case. In the past, there were plenty of bots that did not seem to solve them on their own.

I was thinking of showing a new user an image of some Pascal code with an error ?  The question is, "which line has the error" ?  Images of, say 10 lines of code, two sequential tests, hmm, 1 in a 100 get through on pure chance. Four tests ? i in 10,000 ?

And such a test would exclude real beginners.

And it is not possible. The forum software only offers

1) the scrambled letter picture
2) Predefined questions (text only) with predefined answers

--------
There may be plug-ins, but then it can be a pain to update the forum software, if the plug-in is behind....

[Martin_fr]

Hmm, its a hard problem. I think the best thing is a personal interview. We will fly Martin_fr to where ever the new user is, they go out and have a meal, at the end of the meal, Martin will probably be reasonably sure as to whether the person is a human or not.

ROFLMAO

You have just made my day (probably even week/month). Thank you for that dbannon.

fwiw: I'll suport that 

But what if they bribe me?

[TRon]

But what if they bribe me?

Your gain. If people go to that much trouble then have fun with it 

[Martin_fr]

Really questions for the English. The doctor (who) and hitchhickers guide, the bloke who thaught of these questions is from the UK. No doubt.

Well, it was I. And I do have serious doubts. I have a vivid memory of growing up in Germany (and my birth certificate says that I was born there too).
Admittedly, I did live in the UK for a while. But I had known both of the above before that.