When I published p2pnet, now under new ownership but nonetheless still showing 99.9% of my original content, I always did my best to support Canadian stuff, so naturally that included identi.ca, an open source microblogging service similar to Twitter in many, but not all, aspects.
Based on StatusNet, and built on the OStatus (formerly OpenMicroBlogging) specification, Identi.ca allows users to send text updates up to 140 characters long, but, identi.ca has features “not currently implemented by Twitter, including XMPP support and personal tag clouds,” notes the Wikipedia, adding:
“In addition, Identi.ca allows free export and exchange of personal and ‘friend’ data based on the FOAF standard; therefore, notices can be fed into a Twitter account or other service, and also ported in to a private system similar to Yammer.
So I’m all for it, and the fact I’m also Canadian is by the way.
However, my efforts to register met with nearly three hours of frustration, mainly, but not entirely, due to the fact like so many other sites, it insists on using Captcha, which employs visual verification, ie bitmapped images, to sort out the wheat from the chaff, that’s to say separate the spambots, mainly from real people.
With the plethora of sites and individuals trying to use posts of all kinds to hype themselves and their usually spurious websites, ‘services’ and applications, Captcha and the like have become indispensable for many people running blogs and webpages.
However, for anyone who is blind, seriously visually impaired (as am I) or dyslexic, it can be a real pain in the maximus gluteus.
It does have an audio playback function, but I couldn’t make out what it was ‘saying.’
You can also keep on getting it to recycle the images until you reach one you can make out. But that’s yet another annoyance.
However, says,WebPro news, “Spammers have found a way to crack captchas so they can steal your email address.
“As if the vice of spamming isn’t bad enough, they are using a virtual stripper named Melissa to get real people to unwittingly participate in their evil craft.
“They created a game that is delivered via malware that is installed on your computer. When you launch Internet Explorer you are introduced to a game. In the game players are shown captchas (text embedded in an image), which are intended to stop computers from signing up for accounts like free email addresses. Each time they fill one out then a virtual woman takes off more of her clothes. Then spammers get their way and you get more junk mail.”
But captcha wasn’t the only impediment; you’re also required to complete an online form, aso like many other sites. But when you can’t see the blank spaces, let alone fill them in, what do you do?
I’m relatively new to this impaired vision stuff and I’m sure that over time, solutions will present themselves or be presented.
Meanwhile, thanks to my friend and Identi.ca mechanic Bob Jonkman, and my daughter, Emma, who enlightened me about reloading Capcha, I’m now registered with identi.ca.
So stay tuned and watch for me there 🙂
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[Follow me on Twitter @jonnewton8 and newonx on identi.ca.
