You may have been wondering why, to submit a comment to Rifftides, you are asked to type in a box two words like these samples.
A curious and, possibly, irritated reader asked,
Isn’t it funny when they want you to type in the words at the bottom – it’s like a “TEST” to see if you can make them out? Why don’t they make it easy for us?
Why is that? We can’t cheat. We are on our own computers. That is so funny isn’t it?
It’s not so funny if spammers grab your e-mail address and plague you with junk mail. Artsjournal.com Commander-In-Chief Doug McLennan explains:
They have to make them obscure enough so that computer spam bots can’t read them. That’s the whole point. Modern scanner algorithms can read images that are clear. This captcha program is supposed to be one of the best.
I hope that you feel safer. Test the system; click the Comments link below and send one. We’re always glad to have Rifftides readers’ opinions and observations.