3 ms·

Anything that wastes users time is not really free.

dredmorbius 4y ago
Comparative benefit in the case of complex interactions is notoriously hard to judge. A simple case of "subject does X and gains Y benefit" can, at scale become something like "subject is tasked with X, some fraction cooperate, some fraction defect, plus there are other induced effects such as cost of provisioning / supporting service S under various attack modes". So: - Without CAPTCHA, the service might be entirely nonviable. - CAPTCHA tends to come with a large set of additional data-tracking elements and aspects. (E.g., I've got to enable multiple Google-domain JS in order to log in to several non-Google websites.) - CAPTCHA itself directly consumes people's time, and thwarts legitimate use of numerous sites by many people. - CAPTCHA and other countermeasures often mean that basic HTTP-based Web access is no longer viable. E.g., Internet Archive and Worldcat (two domains I make heavy use of) are no longer accessible via a terminal-mode browser. As I'd had (and still have) numerous terminal-mode query quick-lookup tools, this means I've now got to 1) break my terminal workflow and 2) invoke the full resources of a GUI browser (and usually a very limited set of very-heavy-weight such browsers) rather than run a quick one-liner on the terminal / command line. (I'm not going to remotely pretend that this is a frequently encountered use-case from providers' perspectives. It's a frequently-encountered use-case from my perspective, however, and impacts strongly on various command-line, terminal, batch, script, automated tools, etc., and the value that these provided for Web interactions. Yes, in many cases, because of bad-faith / bad-actor abuse of those capabilities.) - Measuring the net beneficial value of interactions is ... hard. A doctor looking up information probably has greater societal value than a bored pensioner or a pub's quiz-night team looking up answers to a game question. Discerning those at the Webserver level is ... difficult. Total requests is easy to measure, if not necessarily informative. W. Edwards Deming rolls in his grave....

Comparative benefit in the case of complex interactions is notoriously hard to judge. A simple case of "subject does X and gains Y benefit" can, at scale become something like "subject is tasked with X, some fraction cooperate, some fraction defect, plus there are other induced effects such as cost of provisioning / supporting service S under various attack modes". So: - Without CAPTCHA, the service might be entirely nonviable. - CAPTCHA tends to come with a large set of additional data-tracking elements and aspects. (E.g., I've got to enable multiple Google-domain JS in order to log in to several non-Google websites.) - CAPTCHA itself directly consumes people's time, and thwarts legitimate use of numerous sites by many people. - CAPTCHA and other countermeasures often mean that basic HTTP-based Web access is no longer viable. E.g., Internet Archive and Worldcat (two domains I make heavy use of) are no longer accessible via a terminal-mode browser. As I'd had (and still have) numerous terminal-mode query quick-lookup tools, this means I've now got to 1) break my terminal workflow and 2) invoke the full resources of a GUI browser (and usually a very limited set of very-heavy-weight such browsers) rather than run a quick one-liner on the terminal / command line. (I'm not going to remotely pretend that this is a frequently encountered use-case from providers' perspectives. It's a frequently-encountered use-case from my perspective, however, and impacts strongly on various command-line, terminal, batch, script, automated tools, etc., and the value that these provided for Web interactions. Yes, in many cases, because of bad-faith / bad-actor abuse of those capabilities.) - Measuring the net beneficial value of interactions is ... hard. A doctor looking up information probably has greater societal value than a bored pensioner or a pub's quiz-night team looking up answers to a game question. Discerning those at the Webserver level is ... difficult. Total requests is easy to measure, if not necessarily informative. W. Edwards Deming rolls in his grave....