New users of Microsoft Skype are reportedly outraged after being presented with a captcha that requires them to solve a complex puzzle ten times before they can sign up for the service.
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The problematic captcha is required when signing up for a Microsoft account through Skype, even after verifying your email address.
However, signing up directly with a Microsoft account was much simpler.
When downloading Skype to their device, users are prompted to either sign in with an existing Microsoft account or sign up.
However, if they choose to sign up with a new Microsoft account through the Skype app, Skype presents a captcha that is complex to solve and has annoyed many users.
A captcha is a challenge-response test used by websites and online services to check whether they are interacting with a human or a bot.
The captcha puzzle presented to those signing up for Skype, however, requires the user to continue rotating through an image of a sphere containing arrows pointing in random directions until “exactly 2 arrows” remain, pointing directly upwards.
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Moreover, the challenge must be solved not once, but ten times!
Other users report that they spent half an hour solving an alternative captcha presented by Skype.
"I had the same problem a few weeks ago and almost threw my computer out the window in frustration!" complained one Reddit user.
"At this point it's just easier to break both your arms," said another Reddit user.
"Somewhere, a psychology PhD student is preparing this dissertation about the level of frustration people are willing to tolerate to create free online accounts," says a third.
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Equally interesting is the fact that when you sign up with a Microsoft directly through the Microsoft website, the captcha challenge presented is much simpler.
All you need to do is choose an elephant among the different images presented, just twice and you're done.
