stupid comment verification code thingy

[Linda]

I didn't know you could ask for a new code. I will try that.

[WarpGirl]

Dang put this post in the wrong place. I'm not getting any update e-mails anymore... So sorry for the goof-up.

[Kotik]

Attention: Technobabble alarm

Just took a quick look at the generated HTML code. The whole comment thingy is a normal HTML FORM, so why not check the POST variables upon processing the php file and if the elm1 variable is not null, you can simply generate in it's content. That way the text wouldn't be lost in case of a error. Same could be done for the textbox for the name.

This would maximum require 5 lines of code - or 20 if you're really paranoid on code injection tests, but it would make the life of people a lot easier and would probably result in more deserved comments for the authors.

cheers, Kotik

[Kotik]

Looks like someone took my advise. Botched the code today and didn't lose my comment. Good work mates

[Cogito]

This used to work, I'm sure.

But just now I botched the captcha code for a comment, and the page came back with the comment box empty. I had to type the whole thing in again.

[enterprikayak]

I always always always (whether I'm on this board or elsewhere) "select" my text and hit ctrl+C before I ever submit anything. Then, if your browser window botches, or if you screw up the captcha, you have your post saved to the clipboard. Then you can just (as almost everyone knows) click in the textbox when you get back to it, hit ctrl+V to paste the saved text, and voila.

It's a good habit to get into (on any website) anytime you've typed out a comment/post you don't think you feel like re-typing out if your submit fails for any of a million reasons.

That said, I do like Kotik's idea for our site.

[Cogito]

I used to do exactly the same thing. Then because it started saving my comment for me, I got lazy, and then got burned when it stopped doing it. I guess I'll have to get un-lazy again, but life is much easier when computers do this sort of stuff for you.

[justTripn]

The same thing just happened to me. I had copied and saved my comment just in case. Also the stupid comment verification code thingies are getting REALLY HARD.

[enterprikayak]

Why do spammers even exist? They're so frikking annoying. Think how much effort is being expended on Planet Earth at any given second fighting....spam???? I mean WTF??? It's bajillions of man hours. Everything from Symantec having teams of people hired for the very purpose, to little peeps like us who are just trying to frikking COMMENT ON STAR TREK FANFIC...why do the spammers have to come even HERE???!

Woo. Didn't expect that rant to come out there. Sorry.

[Cogito]

Sorry to raise this thread from the dead, but I thought that people still struggling with the captcha thing might find this video from the inventor of the captcha interesting.

[Alelou]

That was both fascinating and entertaining. I feel a lot better about those damned things now.

[Kotik]

Ok, now I'm effing po'ed I just lost a longish comment again because of this ridiculous how-can-i-annoy-my-users-today-capcha crap. Get the hell rid of this this junk! Where the heck is the problem of just tying this to the forum accounts, it's no bloody rocket science for hell's sake! Why is it impossible to keep the comment if the bloody code is wrong? It's a bloody HTML form! As it is now, authors are being cheated out of comments, because, I'm surely not the only one, who cannot be arsed any longer to put up with this ridiculous sh*t! Seriously, get rid of that! No wonder we suffer from site-dryout. Our posting process is random, our forum is overrun by russian spammers and if you want to post a comment, you're annoyed the raw crap out of by a ridiculous captcha thing. Way to go

[Distracted]

It's frustrating to all of us, Kotik, but your post is highly insulting to the admins who volunteer their precious free time to keep this site running. Pm somebody in charge of programming if you'd like to make civil and constructive suggestions, but refrain from taking your frustrations out on the rest of us, please. Flaming is specifically prohibited on this site.

[panyasan]

I was just thinking that it looked like the spam problem was fixed. I haven't seen any spammers since the spam filter was installed.

[Kotik]

It's frustrating to all of us, Kotik, but your post is highly insulting to the admins who volunteer their precious free time to keep this site running. Pm somebody in charge of programming if you'd like to make civil and constructive suggestions, but refrain from taking your frustrations out on the rest of us, please. Flaming is specifically prohibited on this site.

I'm sorry for my outburst. Most here know that I'm very outspoken and packaging my thoughts in diplomatic stilt-speak takes an effort. I had spent a lot of time to write a review for weeble's latest chapter only to see it eaten by the dog, because the unreadable code was wrong. I lost it there. A change had been made last year to keep comments, even in case of a wrong captcha code. Why was that removed? That was what I relied upon. Even if I didn't put it in very printable words - such annoyances surely are partially responsible for the fact that our forum activity is glacial at best and reviews are rare. It's such an easy thing from a programming point of view to keep the comment. I'm lost for ideas for why that very helpful change was removed again
I can only ask for that captcha thing to be removed. It is nigh-on unreadable for someone with normal eye-sight like me. How is Tom supposed to cope with it? And how am I supposed to enter greek characters on a german keyboard? I've seen greek symbols, chinese pictograms and mathematical symbols in that thing.