h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cool old Guy just returned from a sad adventure on wiki
"It is not a Captcha we are against, it is this Captcha acting irradically, misleading and preventing good intended Researchers from doing their work. "

I think I know what is going on. Correct me if I'm wrong, Pastey, as you know much more about it than me.

As far as I can see, there are three things happening.

1. Every time you update any entry, Cloudflare examinines the content to see if it is suspicious. It uses key phrases such as Kemal Ataturk and also the history of what has been received from your computer in the past.

2. If Cloudflare thinks this may be a spam attempt, it asks you for a Captcha code. You can't get past that screen until you've correctly identified the code.

3. This is the bit that I don't understand and am guessing. When you correctly identify the code, sometimes Cloudflare is happy and proceeds to allow the transfer of information so your changes get saved. Other times it isn't, even though you have deciphered the Captcha. It doesn't report what the problem is, but the way in which the message gets back to h2g2 causes h2g2 to clear the edit window.

Cool Old Guy also testing
"I agree on most points

Except for the history bit, that must be a little more compicated

Still when I change a simgle byte on a certain entry from my XP system I get Captcha. But using the DebIan I can do whatever I want on that entry.

I also have other entries on the XP now caught, not the one using the full name of Ataturk however.

On wiki they have a 'normal' Captcha it appears embedded just next to the submit buttons. Several good points: I can read the stupid picture! They do not require the useless copy and paste. And you have eccess to your not jet saved work.

Also they do not make untruthfull statements as 'one step' and 'it is your fault' like this one does."

Sounds about right as far as I'm aware Gnomon, but remember my knowledge of its set-up is a little out of date now.

What was supposed to happen when it was originally set up was that a single correct captcha added the user to a temporary whitelist, so no matter how much editing you did, it'd keep letting you through with no further asks.

What I think is now happening is that it's trying to be too clever for its own good, and isn't working as it should.

Thanks Pastey.

My entries have been released, I have not attempted to make any change in days, now I can edit them on all systems.

I have made loads of changes to some other entries, apparently there is a timeout in the 'suspicious IP' counter.

That's good to know DL. Either it's that or someone's working behind the scenes to fix things.

Cool old Guy in Peer Review
"Well it depends, I try to find out what the other writers have experienced last days, <BB< was caught yesterday .

for multi account reply DL works from IE6 (of all browsers)"

Work is in progress, that's all I can say. With the quote, "if it were easy we'd have done it ages ago". Nobody is happy with this.

But do mail tech again, letting them know about this suspicion on content scans.

Traveller in Time in a blue box
"The 'Post Team' got caught editing the nighthoover.

using Chrome"

Cool old Guy on the easy FF
"Keeping 'them' up to date (no more then one mail a day)

< A87853152 > is a local evaluation. "

I did tests concerning the captcha all day. I managed to trigger it with a few words about elections and Cameron. Even if I deleted it again the captcha came every time I tried to make any edit on the Entry.

After a number of tries I gave up and tried things in a different Entry but was not able to trigger the captcha with anything I wrote. Not even with the same sentences as in the first one.

If anyone has any ideas about that...

Cool old Guy on top
"Well that is about the same as most of it experienced.

The Captcha triggers on unknown basis, keeps the entry hostage only to release it days later without real course. And then you can make the same changes, the Captcha first triggered on, without getting cought again.

Basically it is annoying to no end, no real causes can be defined (so far). It is only likely it got triggered by some phrases and extensive changes to your work to start with.

It is possible you can change your affected entry on a totally different system as I did, however Gnomon experienced not to be able to do so.

can not think of fitting smilies to accompany this dry text. "

I don't think the system you try to make changes on has any influence. I think it is the Entry itself that is marked as the troublemaker, not the user. (I may be wrong)

The Entry still triggers the captcha on any edits I try to make (about 8 hours after it started).

I made many, many edits on both Entries but only when I mentioned the elections in the first one I got the captcha. I have no idea why I don't get in the other one.

Cool old Guy living on XP and on Debian
"Well you have to trust me then on having empiric 'evidence' about Captcha on XP while the _same entry_ can be changed without any limit on a DebIan (switching between them in less then 10 seconds. Same IP, same account, same entry.)

Having said that, I also believe Gnomon as he states he tried changing an entry on several systems but got Captcha on any occasion.

What do we learn from this: the Captcha does count offenses but is in despare need of glasses as sometimes it triggers on something while it ignores the same offence the next time. The same entry from another source may have to do with what the Captcha page suggests, your system is infected (by musof or goggle). "

It seems completely random.

I also thought that it always triggers when you make many edits, but this is also not true.

I first made 13 edits on an Entry in a short time. no captcha.

Then 3 edits 12 hours later on the same Entry and Cameron and elections triggered it and I still get it.
Then I started a new Entry with almost the same content and made over 100 (!) small edits and did not manage to trigger it in any way.

What plans are there to rectify this problem as it appears it may eventually prevent many people adding to the guide

I think it has by now been made clear that *everyone* wants to solve this problem. It's none of our own code, it's not so easy. Nobody can do more about it than they already do, sorry bob.

At the moment I try to help by making experiments and trying to find out when it does what, that's why I came to this thread. Everyone who reports their experiences already helps. Although, as we see the captcha at the moment seems not really predictable - which of course makes things even more difficult.

Thanks for being here, Tavaron.