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I just posted my first question on SU.

First attempt was vetted as it lacked tags. I understood: better not make a question without tags.

Second attempt with tags: I went through this particularly tough captcha procedure and only after that it my question was vetted as it had too many tags.

Third attempt, I removed one tag, submitted the question, and realized that SU does not yet believe that I am a Human and gave me a new captcha :-(

Is it the way it is supposed to be?

Why not reject my question for excess of tags before throwing the captcha, just as it did when it rejected my question for lack of tags?

I can think of two reasonable scenaria: (i) I am only asked to prove that I am a human in the very last step before my actions are going to produce some effect on the site and generate a new question/answer/comment/whatever; (ii) I am not re-asked to prove that I am Human before I effectively make quite a few question/answer/comment/whatever.

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  • Heh, ran into the captcha while editing this question.
    – Sathyajith Bhat Mod
    Commented Sep 3, 2010 at 16:01
  • I'm a robot when I fill in a captcha: I correctly type the short word and some random characters for the other. ^^
    – Tamara Wijsman
    Commented Sep 3, 2010 at 19:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Questions require 1-5 tags - no more, no less.

I think it makes sense for the question validation to be before the user validation - check the tag's etc before going with the captcha. Maybe there's a design choice in there somewhere we don't know about.

I occasionaly get hit by (multiple) captchas whenever I do a quick re-edit (or three) on my new posts to pick up spelling / grammer / flow / etc. I guess you triggered one by exhibiting "odd" question posting behaviour. However, this makes sense, otherwise someone with a bot would just manually answer the first captcha and switch thier bot on - multiple checks are needed to prevent this.

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  • "Otherwise someone with a bot would just manually answer the first captcha and switch thier bot on - multiple checks are needed to prevent this." I said to recheck after "my bot" has completed quite a few posts, that would be reasonable.
    – user39559
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 10:35
  • Oh, you agreed with me in the end. I needed to re-read to realize that in the third paragraph and after the "that said" you agree with my reasoning. Nice that you understood my reasoning. I suggest you invert the speech order/articulation next time :-)
    – user39559
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 10:38
  • @user39559 - you are indeed correct. I've change the order of the answer as it does make it correspond to the question better.
    – DMA57361
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 11:02
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Is it the way it is supposed to be?

Yes.

can only think of two reasonable scenaria: (i) I am only asked to prove that I am a human in the very last step before my actions are going to produce some effect on the site and generate a new a new question/answer/comment/whatever; (ii) I am not re-asked to prove that I am Human before I effectively make quite a few question/answer/comment/whatever.

I'm sorry, but I couldn't gist of the above two sentences - they seem gibberish to me. The captcha was thrown to you because you seemingly exhibited a behaviour common to spam bots - rapid post and edits.

Does this mean you're a spam bot ? No. Are you the only one facing this ? No. I encounter the same captcha a lot of times ( no surprise really, given the number of edits and at the pace at which I do them).

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  • 2
    The captcha was thrown because I didn't have enough reputation to make questions without a captcha. But my point is that it should not to ask the captcha if in the end your action is going to be rejected. When my question had 0 tags the site behaved properly. For 6 tags it behaved differently, first captcha then consistency check.
    – user39559
    Commented Sep 9, 2010 at 10:32

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