Captchas for Forum Searches

[Neil N]

Why, oh why, have you added captchas to forum searches? Especially for registered users.  By the time I get here, I often just want an answer to whatever problem I'm having, and having to fill out captchas so I can search just heightens the frustration.

[Dimo]

Hi Neil,

I completely agree with you that captchas can be a real nuisance and in a perfect world they should not exist. I understand your frustration and it is justified.

We are using captchas in our forums for pretty standard reasons - to prevent spam and request overload. Normally, they should appear very rarely, as there are algorithms, which work under the hood to determine if the user is a human or a bot. I tried performing a few searches one after the other and no captcha appeared.

Please check this thread about reasons why reCAPTCHA may not be validating you:

https://groups.google.com/g/recaptcha/c/8mbd8e2pNCI?pli=1

One thing that isn't mentioned there is the "multiple tabs" issue. If you have multiple tabs open for Telerik search page, the system sees this as a multiple connections from the same IP/PC and flags you for human verification.

Finally, if you are on a corporate network VPN that has only one exit IP, and if other developers on that network are also searching frequently, then it appears as high usage.

These types of causes usually go away after several hours or the next day. If you are still experiencing this frequently, please let us know.

Regards,
Dimo
Progress Telerik

[Neil N]

I'm working from home using a very well-known ISP and no VPN.  I can very reliably get a captcha by doing a search, clicking on a result, and then clicking on the browser's back button. I don't know why you're reloading the search results at this point instead of doing what every other good search engine does and treating the search results as static content. I have to remember to right click the search result link and use the open in new tab option to avoid filling out a captcha every time I hit the back button. Not always easy to remember as I'm skimming though 10-15 links and left clicking links is natural behaviour.  And what bot has a registered account with active product licenses?

[Dimo]

Hi Neil,

I consulted my colleagues from the web team and they confirmed the behavior on Back button press is by design. Actually, all the forum spam and abuse originates from existing Telerik accounts, which we deactivate as soon as we detect.

I understand that everything looks OK from your point of view and you shouldn't be penalized. I tested the same search behavior, which you described, and never saw a captcha. I am also working from home.

Overall, Google deliberately does not provide any specific information about how reCAPTCHA works, so that this information cannot be misused by spammers. This is why we have no configuration control over the tool. It is also unclear if using an ad blocker or non-default browser settings has any impact.

By the way, opening a link in a new browser tab is easier if you use Ctrl+Click (Windows) or Command+Click (Mac). In addition, when using a Mac, going back in such a scenario closes the new browser tab and goes back to the search results. I hope this information will facilitate your workflow.

Finally, we have recently dedicated development time on some forum enhancements. So I have suggested that we also research for ways to avoid such issues, even if they occur pretty rarely. I was able to find two more complaints from 2020. In one of the cases (in February) the customer confirmed that the captcha stopped appearing shortly afterwards. In the other case (in September), we have no information.

Regards,
Dimo
Progress Telerik