I tried to leave a comment on Digg recently and had trouble deciphering its CAPTCHA . I was eventually successful, but only after I got annoyed. Simply put, CAPTCHAs are evil.

There’s no need to rehash why, since plenty has been said so far. They don’t really work and they exclude lots of people even if you do use an alternative audio check. As a left-handed person, who curses every time he picks up an “ergonomically” designed scissors, I kind of imagine how it is when things are designed for a majority you don’t belong to.

However, even if you could make them completely accessible (doubtful) and would somehow be able to resolve the overlap between smartest programs and, well, less-gifted humans (impossible), I’d still dislike them. What they say to your readers is: “I’ll make you work so I don’t have to.”

Is this the message you want to communicate?

P.S: WordPress users, you really ought to take a look at Akismet , if you haven’t done so.