Bad Registration Procedure

Archive SparkFun Site Questions/Comments
1

The registration process concludes with this question:

“Not including quotes, type the first and second to last characters of “@!#$^%” in the box.:”

This is not grammatically correct. In the English language, the referent of one of several adjectives is ambiguous. This question can be read as:

“Not including quotes, type the first to last character and the second to last character…”

or

“Not including quotes, type the first character and the second to last character…”

Since there are only two possible interpretations, one can bumble through by trying both. This is not good user interface design. The correct way to present the question is

“Not including quotes, type the first character and the second to last character…”

2

You and hundreds of others managed to prove that you’re not bots. I’d say it’s doing its job just fine. Plus you can refresh it and end up with a different question.

-Bill

3

I should also point out that as the BOTS are programmed to correctly answer the anti-spambot questions, I see and uptick in attempted Spam posts from new users and I go an adjust the questions as a result. We had an uptick last week so now the question reads as follows: “Not including quotes, type the second and fourth characters of…”

-Bill