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I have a lot of technical questions to ask Stack Overflow, so when I start posting and editing and commenting, Stack Overflow throws up a captcha for every little action.

This is not appropriate, because:

  1. I'm already registered and logged in.
  2. I filled out a captcha successfully
    • In the last five minutes.
    • For the last five actions I took.

Please alter the robot detection system to do the smart thing and recognize when a user has recently and repeatedly passed such tests. Frequent users shouldn't have to convince Stack Overflow that they're human for every little website interaction.

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    The CAPTCHA is trying to convince you it is not a robot, not to convince you you are a robot. ;)
    – apaderno
    Sep 25, 2012 at 0:46
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    "I am NOT a robot" -- yeah, that's just what a robot would say! Sep 25, 2012 at 0:52
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    I don't get how people hit these so much. I've been using SO for a couple years and only seen the human verification page a few times (I definitely wouldn't estimate more than 10)...
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 25, 2012 at 0:56
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    @animuson the system must like you better. For me it comes and goes. I've hit it a lot in the past week (at least 10 times), but I went at least a month before that since the last time I had a spurt of them...
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Sep 25, 2012 at 0:58

1 Answer 1

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If you want to avoid the captcha you should try reading through your edits more thoroughly before submitting them. Think about it and make sure the changes you make are the ones you really want to make, and only press submit when you are completely satisfied with your edit.

Side note: In the captcha's defense, if you're rapidly making edits to a post you are acting kind of like a robot.

enter image description here

You ^^

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    The only times I ever hit these capchas is when I act like a robot. +1.
    – jmort253
    Sep 25, 2012 at 2:28
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    I like to correct my post for accuracy and grammer, and I don't think it should penalize me for doing so.
    – mcandre
    Sep 25, 2012 at 2:39
  • I've had this happen recently when making a single edit or posting an answer the first time.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Sep 25, 2012 at 2:41
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    @mcandre Although I disagree that this is a penalty, I'm not saying that captchas are always the right answer (I can't stand them) I'm just trying to suggest a way to avoid having to deal with them. Sep 25, 2012 at 2:42
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    I know others have different experiences, but the only time I have ever seen the captchas myself is when editing something rapid-fire; perhaps I just completed an edit and immediately realized I forgot some minor item, and edited it in within a few seconds. Sep 25, 2012 at 3:16
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    Why would a robot rapidly edit one post? Nov 9, 2012 at 14:13
  • @CodesInChaos - When do "people" (ie a certain subgroup of people which shall go unnamed) ever create only one robot at a time? Answer should be, "ahh... ok". Mar 9, 2014 at 14:30

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