Ask HN: Why do we now need to inform Google via captcha when logging into HN? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why do we now need to inform Google via captcha when logging into HN?

5 pointseternalban12 comments

A moderator told me "A botnet has been working on stealing accounts for the last several days." Likely a quick fix to counter that.

ive noticed a lot of old accounts with one or two posts and no other activity for months or even years, suddenly posting really spammy submissions and engaging in karma cadres, as well as abusing the account profile to post things that are not normally profile related, but are likely signs to ID compromised accounts to each other.

"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.

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

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

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

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20783482

The guidelines say this: 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.

It's in the site guidelines (which also ask you to not make posts to ask questions to them) and linked from the footer of every HN page.

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?

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.

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

https://www.malwareremovalguides.info/google-captcha-removal...

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

I've never seen a google captcha on HN.

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

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