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Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusing?

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Is the "Middle number" question too confusing?

Poll ended at 2009-12-04 19:56

Yes
7
41%
No
6
35%
3
4
24%
 
Total votes: 17

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edbarx
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusing?

#31 Post by edbarx »

jheaton5 wrote:Given the individual differences among varous users, how would you generate a list of acceptable responses?
The basis of my suggestion is that humans are much more capable at image recognition compared to a bot. The noise I am referring to, is the "image" generated when there is no video signal. Modern TV sets tend to block that.

Obviously, one has to use simple images and users should be presented with a multiple choice question.
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusing?

#32 Post by jheaton5 »

got it. I thought you were randomly generating pictures.
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusing?

#33 Post by edbarx »

Generating the images:

Noise pixel: (R, G, B)
Image pixel: (r, g, b)
Mixing factor: f where 0 <= f <= 1

Resultant red component = f*R + (1 - f)*r
green = f*G + (1 - f)*g
blue = f*B + (1 - f)*b

f can be varied until the image is barely distinguishable.
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#34 Post by ryanfaescotland »

Yup too confusing. It's pretty clear after getting it wrong but you shouldn't have to get a question wrong to get through. Even "what is the middle number rounded up?" would make it clearer. Man this is the sort of thing that will niggle away at me all day now, a little part of me wants to go re-register so I can get it right first time. :(

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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#35 Post by dilberts_left_nut »

Maybe it should require typing in the contents of

Code: Select all

man man
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#36 Post by temcat »

As a newcomer and non-native English speaker, the question is too confusing. It is *the* most confusing anti-bot question I have encountered.
My first reaction to the term "middle" was to find the number that is physically in the middle of the list, but the list has an even number of items, so that was ruled out. You should have worded the question more precisely and used common mathematical terms. I bet you wouldn't get more bots because of that.

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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#37 Post by barrow_matt »

It got me, after reading the question a few times I just tried 2 then got an error message basically telling me the answer is 3. At least I didn't have to re-enter any details.

I can see how it could be very confusing for someone whose first language isn't English.

0 is definitely a number!

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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#38 Post by craigevil »

The entire point of the question is to confuse spambots. Unfortunately they seem to be able to find the answer better than most normal people.
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#39 Post by 4D696B65 »

craigevil wrote:The entire point of the question is to confuse spambots. Unfortunately they seem to be able to find the answer better than most normal people.
A person who programs spambots is able to figure it out in seconds then takes minutes to program the bot to register 45000 names since last summer. :roll:

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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#40 Post by barrow_matt »

4D696B65 wrote:
craigevil wrote:The entire point of the question is to confuse spambots. Unfortunately they seem to be able to find the answer better than most normal people.
A person who programs spambots is able to figure it out in seconds then takes minutes to program the bot to register 45000 names since last summer. :roll:
^ This. It's confusing to most people as it simply doesn't make sense so you have to have a guess but once you know the answer it is fixed so can easily be repeated.

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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#41 Post by vbrummond »

I answered this question at a glance. 3 is physically in the middle. Only an odd amount of characters can have a something physically in the middle. Such as 12|34, there is no middle. 12|3|45, 3 is in the middle.
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Re: Is the "What is the middle number?" Question too confusi

#42 Post by beardedragon »

Even in binary 0 is a place holder, not a number. Simple math.
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