Ask HN: Why do we now need to inform Google via captcha when logging into HN? - eternalban
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mtmail
A moderator told me "A botnet has been working on stealing accounts for the
last several days." Likely a quick fix to counter that.

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eternalban
"A moderator told [you'"?

Moderators can and should say something directly. We're not commenting on HN
from a different website here.

To log in to make this post, I had to anwser 5 different captcha questions.
This is not happening by magic.

HN moderators: kindly answer the question.

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detaro
Then maybe you should contact the moderators instead of making a random post
and then getting annoyed they didn't see it.

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eternalban
Instead of making snarky comments you can helpfully post the 'contact
information' for the moderators! "Ask HN" is not a "random post", btw.

~~~
DanBC
Did you search? A search returns this link, where your question is directly
answered by a mod.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20783482](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20783482)

The guidelines say this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Instead, please send it
> to hn@ycombinator.com.

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tastroder
Just double checked since I never noticed one, I don't see a captcha, Google
or otherwise on the login page (Chrome, both on mobile and desktop).

Is anything weird about your connection / ISP / browser that might trigger
this?

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offmycloud
I just has to solve three "traffic lights" and two "crosswalks" to login into
HN. Why should I help Google train their ML algorithms for self-driving cars?
Maybe I'll just stop logging in and voting on HN. No, I was not using a VPN.

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rolph
im not saying this is the problem but have a look here and see if it helps:

[https://www.malwareremovalguides.info/google-captcha-
removal...](https://www.malwareremovalguides.info/google-captcha-removal-
guide/)

And keep in mind, any antimal tool set should work, you dont need to use the
ones endorsed on the page.

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LinuxBender
I've never seen a google captcha on HN.

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rolph
have you tried changing your HN password? Its probably good to do just by
default every so often.

