Namebio ridiculous captcha

[alcy]

@Michael I hope u can do something about this ridiculous captcha of yours..before I smash my fone on my wall and send someone the bill

I'm stuck forced into some stupid truck picking nonsense puzzle picture like when I was 8 at school... then when i force me eyes to pick the damn stuff apparently the kindergarten teacher slaps me wrist and says ain't good enuf so then I have to do it again...
today i did it on 10 screens ... and still didnt get there...

I visit tons of sites... nobody treats me like namebio... whatever it is u do or why u have very clearly crossed all lines of paranoia about it.

I am going to shoot me in the head so sure I am not to be the only person cursing captcha like this one here... that's either just bad or set to max difficulty or hypersensitivity .

in either case it ain't working ... for God's sake man .. just get rid of the nonsense round yer fine site and let some nice folk see some sales like in the good old days

u have gone down so low with the security paranoias ads etc .... u have taken the fun and pleasure and thus the very purpose of yer informational site out of the equation. I used to look forward to going to namebio see some sales...now I just shake and pray I get an easy captcha.

ty

 

[Michael]

First of all, the CAPTCHA always goes through two stages. One is a control group where the service provider knows the correct answers and can verify your accuracy. The other they don't already know the correct answers, and you're telling them so they can use the answers for future puzzles. The minimum you could go through is two sets of images, that is true for any CAPTCHA.

Second of all, the answers you give aren't everything. They also look at things like your browser, screen size, mouse movements, etc. to try to determine if you're human. You can literally answer every single question wrong on purpose, and still get through as a human in less than a minute. Of course that cuts both ways, you could answer correctly and they might still think you're a bot. That's incredibly rare though.

Watch this video of me doing exactly that just now, answering wrong on purpose every time. It doesn't even take this long on desktop because there are mouse movements for them to interpret:

I've tested hCaptcha hundreds of times, and every time I'm being serious I get through like this:

Third of all, I've tried to make it as unobtrusive as possible. If you solve it correctly, it logs your IP address and then won't ask you to solve it again for an entire week. That means if you're at home/work and you solve it on your computer, you won't have to solve it on your phone or your tablet even, because they're all on the same external IP address. I can't make it any easier than that without making it easy for bots too.

Of course if your IP changes you might have to do it again earlier, but there's not too much I can do about that if you don't have a fairly static IP. I can't use cookies because bots can just fake those.

I didn't just wake up one day and add it to annoy you guys. I've spent hundreds of hours trying to stop the bots from crushing the site before resorting to the CAPTCHA. This is the only thing that has worked 100%. I tried it with ReCAPTCHA first, but got a lot of complaints that it is blocked in China and other countries. And it also does a garbage job of stopping CAPTCHA farms from solving on behalf of bots. So I switched to the next most popular provider which is hCaptcha. It's a lose-lose for me though, no matter what I do that actually stops bots it will cause a bunch of you to be upset.

There are really only three options here:

1. No CAPTCHA. The bots slam us into oblivion. Either the site loads painfully slow, if at all, or we go bankrupt trying to scale up our infrastructure to support millions of bot visits a day when all we should really need to support is a few thousand of you humans a day. This is a non-starter.

2. Deal with the outrageous, absolutely ridiculous task of solving one CAPTCHA a week. Maybe it takes you a few extra tries if you need new glasses, can't tell that a wing is part of an airplane, or that a subway is a kind of train. Or you can literally just click on any image without even looking at what they want you to click on, and eventually it'll figure out through other means in less than a minute that you're a human.

3. Pay a whopping $60/year for a membership, and never solve another CAPTCHA. Oh and get a lot of other benefits as well, like no ads, more data, more features, the warm fuzzy feeling of supporting a site that you use to make money, etc.

I'm sorry we had to add a CAPTCHA for free users. I don't like it either, but the data is too valuable and too many people in this industry feel entitled to crash our server trying to take it all. I would love to have months of my life back that I spent trying everything under the sun to stop the bots before resorting to this. But it is what it is. I didn't do it out of paranoia, I did it in response to an absolutely crippling attack.

You can thank whoever decided it'd be alright to hit us hundreds of thousands of times a day from tens of thousands of IP addresses, rather than paying a trivial amount for API access, for the CAPTCHA. Why do you think Estibot only lets you do one search a day without becoming a paid member? Because people did this to them as well and they got fed up with it a lot faster than I did.

I guess I could do that too... but I prefer to still make the data accessible to those who can't afford a membership. I added a login link to the CAPTCHA page as @Gube suggested for now though.

 

[Michael]

I'll tell you guys what. Anyone who has issues with the CAPTCHA and can't afford/justify a membership can go register on the site for free, send me a PM with your email address, and I'll set up a "Human Membership" for you. It won't have any benefits other than not having to solve the CAPTCHA, but if you abuse it with software you'll be banned for life.

https://namebio.com/memberships?register

If you already signed up for our mobile game, or registered on the site, you can just skip straight to the PM.

Sound good?

@alcy I don't think you understand how statistics work. If 90% of the people who responded to this thread were complaining, that doesn't mean 90% of NP users overall dislike the CAPTCHA, since this is a thread to complain it's going to be heavily biased towards complaints. It's actually probably more like 100%. You'd have to be a little nuts to like a CAPTCHA

But probably 98% of them get through it without issue. They just aren't going to post in this thread.

 

[Mister Funsky]

But probably 98% of them get through it without issue. They just aren't going to post in this thread.

Well, I just tried and made it thru after two puzzles. Maybe it is because I am on a desktop vs hand held device (images are easier to see)?

I've noticed other data providing sites increasing captcha tests...namebio is one of the friendliest. There is one that every time you use it, it adds a captcha to solve...after I reach the 5 or 6 level I just wait until the next day to access them again.

Also, I clear cookies, etc 3-4 times a day and at shutdown...that helps a great deal.

 

[twiki]

If you have an account and logged there's no captcha.

As a tech person I can tell you that such measures are sometimes unavoidable and @Michael is doing what is needed in this particular situation, to protect their business and data.

 

[Gube]

I think he added that to keep crawlers away from his data, however he might want to add a login link/button on the captcha screen so paid users are able to login straight away and avoid further captchas.
I can confirm it's very annoying, even for the few times I ever have to visit namebio

 

[Michael]

I think we both know I was making an estimate to make a point.

I know of some site owners for whom one person having issues.. not getting thru.. is enuf to react but... that's a dying breed...here u have 10 or 20 and counting.

its yer site. u have right to respond as u wish. like we can voice our views about sites here. cheers

I said I would set it up so that people who send me a PM don’t have to solve CAPTCHAs any more. What more can I do than that? I can’t take it down entirely because a dozen people are struggling with it, and then have 330k people experience degraded service because of the bot swarms coming back.

There have been more than 75k hCaptchas solved successfully so far on our site, most people are not struggling with it. And for the extreme minority who are we’ll work something out.

 

[Michael]

well all the more reason to not use them no? and yet our dear site owner of all companies picks the worst one...or as u put it the least innovative late comer.

I mean what's up with dat.

I’m open to suggestions. My only two criteria are that it isn’t blocked in any countries, and rejects solves when the IP of my visitor doesn’t match the IP of the solver (i.e. stopping captcha farms). I’m not aware of any, but you seem to know a lot about captchas so please clue me in.

I noticed you haven’t sent me a message with your email so I can prevent you from seeing any more captchas. What’s up with dat?

I’m trying hCaptcha on the Easy setting starting today. That should allow passing through sometimes with no puzzle, and also showing easier puzzle types. If that still manages to keep the bots away I’ll leave it, otherwise I might have to turn the difficulty up a bit. Perhaps “Always On” was too much. We’ll see.

 

[Michael]

I know nothing about captcha beyond using them on few sites and yer captcha is the worst of them all

I'm a user of sites. my job is not to know captchas ... just use them and judge them based on usability .. u are site owner yer job is to know captchas

it's obvious u have taken my comments as some personal thing. and u still do not understand or accept 90% plus here agree with me.

I would expect a thank u for trying to make yer site better.. not some cheap shot attacks.

I hope u find a solution. maybe one without email too. I just wanna go to yer site to see some sales like in old days... I mean why is this so hard for u to do? did something change.. just rollback couple years old version.. I dont get what's the big deal... what's the point in changing yer site if it's not for the better... just do a rollback and relax man.. dont do it for me..do it for everyone. tnx

The difference now is that the bots are getting much more aggressive. I don’t have the luxury of being an armchair quarterback, saying someone should do something without regard to the consequences it will have and whether or not it’s even possible. I have to deal with reality not opinion.

I can’t remove the captcha or the bots will run rampant and crash the server. I can’t change the captcha unless there’s one that isn’t blocked in several countries and can actually stop captcha farms. I haven’t been able to find a better solution that fits our needs. I thought you might know something I don’t since you speak so confidently about me choosing the worst possible solution.

I can make it so that you take ten seconds of your time once and never have to solve another captcha, but you didn’t take me up on it for some reason. I can tweak the difficulty settings, which I just did, and hopefully that helps. But that doesn’t stop your complaints. And you suggest with no basis that I have some kind of deal with hCaptcha and that’s why I’m not switching. So yea, it kind of does seem personal and that you don’t really want a solution that is actually possible.

I don’t like that I had to add a captcha. If I could remove it I would in a heartbeat. But the people who choose to abuse the site don’t allow it. I’m trying to get it dialed in to the point that it has the best possible user experience while still actually stopping bots. But ultimately I have to err on the side of stopping bots, or the site will be unusable for everyone not just the handful who struggle to solve the captcha.

 

[tonyk2000]

As a curiosity, I tried to visit namebio. Confirmed: it is impossible to solve the captcha. In my business model, there is no need to use namebio frequently or at all though (only to generate a list of similar domains sold if needed during a particular negotiation. Somewhat rare. GoDaddy appraisal as well as dnpric.es do also work for this purpose). So, the question - if namebio is looking for (and has) paid subscribers, how they are supposed to login now?

 

[NickB]

Clear cache and try and let us know.

Didn't take long as I had recently done it......cleared cache & cookies

Still no captcha for me....

I did have it the other day....took me through 3 pictures where I had to squint

 

[BradWilson]

Hmm let me think about this...

• Pay less than 16.5 cents per day to get access to a really nice website with great data.
• Never be hassled or get frustrated while logging in, which would really just cost me way more in lost time not to mention the headaches - ouch!

Conclusion - it's a no brainer sign me up - oh wait, I already did that and now I'm a totally happy camper!

Thanks @Michael you rock!!!

P.S. I might have to upgrade???

 

[biggie]

I didn't just wake up one day and add it to annoy you guys.

lol

Hi Michael

that line made me laugh out loud
not at you,
but at the retrospect, of when you woke up years ago, and thought about creating namebio

who knew, the bots would attack so fiercely, like ants on syrup
and that users would try to manipulate their way around safeguards for data that grows in value, day by day, .

you been thru some this year, so keep your head up
2021 is almost here.

imo....

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Cheers Michael for the kind offer of support for those that need it.

Developing and maintaining a site isn't easy and takes a lot of effort. I hope that it's worth your while.

 

[Michael]

whole day, i have been getting this error
https://prnt.sc/wkhon0
been 2 days.
@Michael

I've seen that a couple times as well in the past few days, I have a message into hCaptcha about it. Usually goes away for me after one or two more tries, although obviously something is wrong. Thanks.

I submitted sailz to NB, helped their database... added to their business... but this is what I get for it:

Show attachment 179161

That’s a rate limit message for searching/paginating faster than it is possible to read for a sustained period of time. It goes away by itself in a minute or two.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I stopped using namebio also because it became a headache. Shame really cause it was pretty good before.

 

[YairDD]

Mostly I finish in 1 attempt, but sometimes there is that one where you need to find the trains, but it never works. ANNOYING!

 

[Michael]

A browser with a normal secure setup (adblock, no social media tracking, no 3rd party tracking, etc) is NOT compatible with this captcha at this time. For the reasons of fairness, I should say that google captcha tends to ask me more times to find bridges or boats, but with google captcha I can at least proceed further. Not with current namebio captcha... as it constantly showed me new tasks until I closed the window.

That is not true. I literally just got through on my first try using Firefox in a private browsing window with the security settings jacked up to "Strict" and ad block enabled. It isn't cookie-based as I mentioned earlier.

Feel free to send me a screen recording so I can take a look though.

 

[tonyk2000]

Did you try in incognito mode already?

Not yet.

Actually I do not think it is worth all those efforts (at least for my limited occasional needs). Nothing wrong with namebio business model (expect making wholesale prices of expired sales public), and I highly respect @Michael and his efforts, but I am not a regular namebio user nor potential paid user... If I need comps for negotiation - there are many other ways to find those. The last but not the least, simply sending a buyer to dnjournal top100 sales link is also workable

...To each his own. Some may need a frequent access to this DB. Becoming 100% paid service? It may be a solution... Current captcha game is not a solution. Imo.

 

[kam]

For recaptcha, I have >95 % chance to go through it at my very first try.

For hcaptcha, The h is stands for hell for me. Too many close shot pictures, they're really annoying and even I think I answered correctly, the hell captcha still keep asking me to solve more and more.

 

[tonyk2000]

I don't like random people looking up prices on Namebio for free

If we think about it, some owners of the "problematic" bots may be right here, right now, reading this thread and improving. So... going to paid model AND with a limited number of lookups (for each dollar paid) may be the only solution actually.

 

[BrandChimp]

I need to answer 4-7 captcha each time I want to use namebio.

Time to support and pay

Your card was declined. I have some $ can’t use

 

[alcy]

it's obvious it's this pathetically stupid captcha type or company that causes issues...not my brain or his or anyones.

maybe if namebio owner doesnt have some contract signed to use and promote that lame captcha product clearly designed to only malfunction and create problems like on this thread then maybe site owner can flush it down the toilet where most clearly it belongs... unless there too it shall clog the pipe with its huge amount of lameness.

I know not who does allow such poor product ob market or their site.. but it is clearly not fit for people to use.

perhaps our site owner can consider another captcha .. unless there is contract signed and heavy money involved in either or both directions.

this could then become a solution both easy and working.... ty

 

[CraigD]

Things break sometimes.

@Michael you have provided a great free service, and are also offering to help NP members who are having issues gain access.

For whatever it is worth, thank you.

Kudos

 

[Samer]

@Michael,

Youre here owner, took heat for product, rarity now days

You continue striving to improve, and by all accounts the problem’s fixed. Thank you! Wish it‘d let me edit post.

You are an honorable person with the best product
you are proactive and always seek user input.

Samer