I know you’re already thinking to yourself, “Where is Dave going to go with the SPAM joke?” Will he follow through on the Monty Python subject line? Will he show a can of the eponymous meat-like substance (now with Bacon!*)? Perhaps a photo of SPAM carved to resemble some bit of tech like a computer or iPod? Or will I unexpectedly shift gears into a joke about Scrapple? What devious pun lies in wait? The suspense is too much to bear.

You can relax, because today I’m taking the high road. That’s in no small part because I really dislike computer SPAM. We’ve been getting more than usual on the blogs lately, and it’s a trend that concerns me. So we’re going to try something called ReCaptcha on the blogs for a few days. For those unfamiliar with anti-SPAM technology, ReCaptcha is the box of wavy text at the bottom of the page, just above the “submit” button. The theory is that only humans (and occasionally Cylons) can decipher the distorted text back into words. SPAMbots, even the polite ones, get stuck at the door.

If ReCaptcha eliminates the SPAM and doesn’t wreak havoc with legitimate comments we’ll keep it around. If you have trouble with ReCaptcha, please let me know (obviously you might not be able to comment, but you can always email me).

* True story

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

FIRST

Posted by: 0 on October 6, 2009

maybe you should also automatically delete comments obnoxiously saying "first"...

Posted by: mika (14?) on October 6, 2009

Epic first comment

Posted by: Anon on October 6, 2009

"The almanacs" are my two words!

Posted by: Snively on October 6, 2009

I'm in agreement with Mika - I think the race for 'first' is silly and demeaning to the bloggers. Anyway, couldn't you have included a little pun, for the sake of those who enjoy them!?

Posted by: Elias (14?) on October 6, 2009

@Elias (14?)
I know I don't speak for myself when I say that I enjoy marking "FIRST!"s as "Junk" and deleting them myself, getting to chuckle when the commenter writes another and says "Hey, what happened to my first comment?"

Does the pleasure of confusing FIRST commenters outweigh the irritation of having to delete them? I don't know about everybody else, but for me, yes.

Posted by: Snively on October 6, 2009

This one time the spambot went crazy over the summer and posted like, quite literally, 700 comments on one entry. I opened my Thunderbird and I've never seen so many unread mail before, lol.

Posted by: oasis '11 on October 6, 2009

It's great having recpatcha to avoid spam but I just hope the words are interesting. Sometimes reacaptcha can get really irritating.

Posted by: Southpaw on October 6, 2009

@Southpaw: Heh, I've got the captcha for you then. This was the first one I ever saw on the blogs.

Posted by: Ahmed on October 6, 2009

Ahmed-hahaa that's brilliant/ironic. I wonder who picks/sets them? since that sounds too staged
I'll admit I just flipped through a bunch...great entertainment

Posted by: makesense on October 6, 2009

@ahmed, wow, how you managed to get that, i'm not sure

i jus clicked through like 20... none as interesting.

this recaptcha will actually be tough for me. it usually takes me 1-2 tries....i'll take this as practice for being more careful on reading exam questions....:/

Posted by: Jenny '13 on October 6, 2009

The classic Bexley video comes to mind...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep4JmLWus5o

Posted by: Mike on October 7, 2009

best part of ReCaptcha you don't read randomly generated computer text, you read actual pieces from actual books.You help digitalization of big liblary archives...It doesn't just a waste of time like other equivalents

Posted by: Baransel '14? on October 7, 2009

What was it all about?

Posted by: Anonymous on October 7, 2009

So I got 7 1/2 as a mixed number for one of my captchas, does this thing read LaTeX?

Posted by: Snively on October 7, 2009

I just chalk up the Firsters to yet another quirky MIT -slash- internet tradition (as Cristen once related, they are often difficult to distinguish). I caught the sneak peek of Zombieland on campus last week and learned that movies are always presented "in stereo!" We have lots of quirky traditions here, and I think the fact that some don't seem to make logical sense is rather the point.

But who knows -- law of unintended consequences and all -- perhaps we'll start posting most interesting ReCaptchas instead.

Oh and Snively, we give all the MITers mathematics based ReCaptchas, of course. After the trial period we move to integral equations you have to solve in order to post

Posted by: Dave on October 7, 2009

Integral equations? Hopefully they're simple otherwise it'll take longer to solve than to comment

BTW, who's making the stuff that goes into the boxes?

@Ahmed: If things are always that great, then this is really good addition to the blogs.

Not so interesting for me this time: mits minus

Posted by: Southpaw on October 7, 2009

I am fine with the word version of this technology, but the one that has letters and numbers that appear to be made of wax left on a warm stove is impossible to read. Mowgli late indeed!

Posted by: Mowgli Late on October 7, 2009

On second thought, I'm finding reCAPTCHA to be an entertaining time waster - I've been dubbed 'Eisenhower's dairyman.' Win?

Posted by: Elias ('14?) on October 7, 2009

Yay for technology! I hope this succeeds in reducing the amount of spam that you guys receive. It also gives commenters a chance to reflect upon what they have written. Two birds- one stone, eh?

Posted by: VAL ('14?) on October 7, 2009

well you know reCaptcha is helping to digitize books, magazines, and other printed material from times of old right?

Every time you comment, a bit of history is saved!

http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html

Posted by: Chris M. on October 9, 2009

Always look on the bright side of things, & soon spam will be no more (in a virtual way really)

Posted by: George-N on October 13, 2009

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