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Isn't this a typical Quora answer? Full of filler and shitty hard-to-verify details that provide no value to the answer ("the language is encrypted twice", what

Isn't this a typical Quora answer? Full of filler and shitty hard-to-verify details that provide no value to the answer ("the language is encrypted twice", what the hell), and very little effort on answering the actual question (what is the purpose of CAPTCHA). And the community rules try to block people from writing firm "you're full of shit"-like answers, even though every other answer of Quora is full of lies like "Linux is fast, because it was designed for 16-bit computers".

jaabe 8y ago
I had my “wow” this place might not be that good experience with Quora yesterday when I was trying to google evaluate AWS workmail. Quite a lot of the “extremely good looking” answers on Quora straight up said that you couldn’t do e-mail in AWS. These were answers from after workmail was a thing by the way. So I started looking at other Quora answers on stuff I wouldn’t normally need an answer for, and it’s frighteningly how often completely wrong answers look correct. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of truly amazing answers as well, and it’s entirely possible that I just suck at it, but I don’t think I can always tell the amazing answer from the completely wrong one.
- adventured 8y ago
  My experience with Quora has been that more often than not the older the answer, the better it is. I find that answers in history, are often better than in tech. It always seems like the community that initially built Quora, stopped building it further several years ago and now it's floating out in space Wile E. Coyote style.
  - welly 8y ago
    I was going to say the same. I don't use Quora at the moment but when I did, I'd be more interested in subjective questions (history, geographical - ie. travel etc., and more philosophical questions) rather than objective and technical questions (and answers) as I've found many of them to be simply untrue.
  - distant_hat 8y ago
    Quora went significantly downhill a few years back. It was a combination of hordes of new users, bad moderation, and bad incentives (order in which answers get shown etc).
- pure-awesome 8y ago
  Sounds like a form of the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect
KajMagnus 8y ago
The answer is not just fluff. It for example links to https://github.com/neuroradiology/InsideReCaptcha https://github.com/neuroradiology/InsideReCaptcha where you can read more.
- hmottestad 8y ago
  I looked at that and it’s pretty nifty. It actually looks like google did encrypt the client side code and implement their own JavaScript VM and that the decryption key for the source is based on variables inside the VM during execution (some kind of state) in some way and other properties from the webpage (css is mentioned). It all falls into the realm of obfuscation.
golergka 8y ago
> And the community rules try to block people from writing firm "you're full of shit" That's what you get when you value niceness over competence. Just look at any typical discussion of "Linus' rants" here on HN - people (or, I must clarify, americans) seem to care more about whether you hurt someone's feelings rather than if you're right or not. I don't know a better environment for professional bullshitters to thrive.
- cotelletta 8y ago
  It absolutely is. By appealing to nicety, you can screw people over subtly enough that it doesn't register to observers as offense, and then act offended yourself when you get pushback. You can also add in some fundamental attribution error, as in "I am just looking out for everyone. You are being difficult. They are engaging in bad faith."
ebg13 8y ago
> the actual question (what is the purpose of CAPTCHA) This assessment isn't quite right. The actual question is about how the captcha differentiates between a human and a bot at the box checking stage. You're right, though, that it is both full of filler and also doesn't address the question as posed at all. > Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box? It can, by taking over the mouse...except... LUCKILY, the top answer (on my screen at least it's https://www.quora.com/Why-can-t-a-bot-tick-the-Im-not-a-robot-box/answer/Girish-Mallenahally https://www.quora.com/Why-can-t-a-bot-tick-the-Im-not-a-robo...) does actually try to answer the question. I feel like the OP submission might have just been some sort of submarine self-promotion for the "CEO of <redacted>".
- thatoneuser 8y ago
  That answer talks about mouse movements. Most captchas I do these days are mobile. So I don't trust this as a very solid answer.
  - ebg13 8y ago
    Mobile device movement variability (IMU, compass, soft vs hard press, and so on) and mouse movement variability are relatively analogous, and both can be measured and analyzed in very similar ways. It also links to a patent describing a novel mobile captcha invented by the author, so they might have some knowledge about the domain.

jaabe 8y ago

I had my “wow” this place might not be that good experience with Quora yesterday when I was trying to google evaluate AWS workmail. Quite a lot of the “extremely good looking” answers on Quora straight up said that you couldn’t do e-mail in AWS. These were answers from after workmail was a thing by the way. So I started looking at other Quora answers on stuff I wouldn’t normally need an answer for, and it’s frighteningly how often completely wrong answers look correct. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of truly amazing answers as well, and it’s entirely possible that I just suck at it, but I don’t think I can always tell the amazing answer from the completely wrong one.

adventured 8y ago
My experience with Quora has been that more often than not the older the answer, the better it is. I find that answers in history, are often better than in tech. It always seems like the community that initially built Quora, stopped building it further several years ago and now it's floating out in space Wile E. Coyote style.
- welly 8y ago
  I was going to say the same. I don't use Quora at the moment but when I did, I'd be more interested in subjective questions (history, geographical - ie. travel etc., and more philosophical questions) rather than objective and technical questions (and answers) as I've found many of them to be simply untrue.
- distant_hat 8y ago
  Quora went significantly downhill a few years back. It was a combination of hordes of new users, bad moderation, and bad incentives (order in which answers get shown etc).
pure-awesome 8y ago
Sounds like a form of the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect

KajMagnus 8y ago

The answer is not just fluff. It for example links to https://github.com/neuroradiology/InsideReCaptcha https://github.com/neuroradiology/InsideReCaptcha where you can read more.

hmottestad 8y ago
I looked at that and it’s pretty nifty. It actually looks like google did encrypt the client side code and implement their own JavaScript VM and that the decryption key for the source is based on variables inside the VM during execution (some kind of state) in some way and other properties from the webpage (css is mentioned). It all falls into the realm of obfuscation.

golergka 8y ago

> And the community rules try to block people from writing firm "you're full of shit" That's what you get when you value niceness over competence. Just look at any typical discussion of "Linus' rants" here on HN - people (or, I must clarify, americans) seem to care more about whether you hurt someone's feelings rather than if you're right or not. I don't know a better environment for professional bullshitters to thrive.

cotelletta 8y ago
It absolutely is. By appealing to nicety, you can screw people over subtly enough that it doesn't register to observers as offense, and then act offended yourself when you get pushback. You can also add in some fundamental attribution error, as in "I am just looking out for everyone. You are being difficult. They are engaging in bad faith."

ebg13 8y ago

> the actual question (what is the purpose of CAPTCHA) This assessment isn't quite right. The actual question is about how the captcha differentiates between a human and a bot at the box checking stage. You're right, though, that it is both full of filler and also doesn't address the question as posed at all. > Why can’t a bot tick the 'I'm not a robot' box? It can, by taking over the mouse...except... LUCKILY, the top answer (on my screen at least it's https://www.quora.com/Why-can-t-a-bot-tick-the-Im-not-a-robot-box/answer/Girish-Mallenahally https://www.quora.com/Why-can-t-a-bot-tick-the-Im-not-a-robo...) does actually try to answer the question. I feel like the OP submission might have just been some sort of submarine self-promotion for the "CEO of <redacted>".

thatoneuser 8y ago
That answer talks about mouse movements. Most captchas I do these days are mobile. So I don't trust this as a very solid answer.
- ebg13 8y ago
  Mobile device movement variability (IMU, compass, soft vs hard press, and so on) and mouse movement variability are relatively analogous, and both can be measured and analyzed in very similar ways. It also links to a patent describing a novel mobile captcha invented by the author, so they might have some knowledge about the domain.