CAPTCHA - What the heck is a captcha?

Recently I was asked why there is a challenge on the website to determine if you are a human or computer. I know it sounds silly that our website cannot tell the difference. And, in the end, why would the website care?

Well, a few weeks back, shortly after going live, we began to get postings to our Guestbook multiple times a day of an "unsavory" nature. These postings weren't coming from a person but rather from one or more of the millions of infected "bot" computers on the Internet. These computers are running programs that their owners are unaware of and worse completely under the control of another person. All of these computers scan the Internet for websites that will allow anonymous (meaning not logged in) users to post content, such as our Guestbook and our Contact Us email link.

Needless to say, this content was highly inappropriate for a GoldWing site. And, we need to keep in mind that our chapter could be held liable for the content we display even if it was posted through no fault of our own. One of the tools available to battle these zombie computers is to use a "captcha". A what-a? A captcha is a simple, non-sensical, question and answer that only a human could figure out and provide. By providing the correct answer, you have reasonable certainty that a human was posting this information. By the way, CAPTCHA stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." Just in case you were wondering. ;)

Since putting the captcha in place, the unsavory content postings have stopped. This is what happens when you invite the entire world to your doorstep!

If you have any further question on this topic, please post replies and I will answer as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Eric, Your Webmaster