By Bernard Maldonado

Solona needs Volunteers!  I’d like to talk about the details of being a volunteer captcha solver:

• Working with Solona is easy and a good way to help other people.
• As a volunteer, you decide when you want to work.  No set schedule.  Work day or night.
• Work as long as you want or as short as you want per session.
• Work from your home or from your office.
• This integrates very easily into your daily life
• You can multi task while you are waiting for a captcha to solve.
• No special equipment.  Just computer with speakers (for audio notification)
• Simple notification that captcha is present and ready to be solved.  You only solve if you can.  If you cannot, other operators will take care of it.
• No phone calls, no reports to fill out.  No check in / check out.
• You don’t have to speak or read English.  Just be able to type what you see on the screen.
• Takes about 15 seconds to solve one captcha
• Training takes about 45 minutes, usually done over Skype or phone

If you are interested in working with Solona as a volunteer operator, or know someone who may be a good candidate, please get in touch with me at MySolona@gmail.com, or bernardmaldonado on skype.

It would be especially helpful for people to volunteer who live in Australia and New Zealand due to time zone coverage.  Anyone from any country can serve.

Thank you and please contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Bernard Maldonado.

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I know this is in the instructions, written and audio, but I thought I would mention it here, as well.

It is important to use the button called “Refresh Results” within the web page when you are waiting for your Captcha code to be returned to you.

Do NOT use the refresh button in your browser, or F5 key.  Use the “Refresh Results” button within the webpage. 

You will always have good results when following this step. 

As always, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Bernard Maldonado

By Bernard Maldonado

One interesting fact about Solona Captcha Solution Service is that many people are registering from Spanish speaking countries.  In fact, Yahoo.es user groups have already translated the instructions and shared the steps and talked about how to use Solona properly.

This introduces a curious question:  What language do I use to respond to an invalid Captcha?  I am bilingual – I am fluent in English (my primary language) and Spanish (my acquired language).  So I have the ability to communicate with a user, but I don’t know which language to use, for example, when a white screen is sent.  Do I respond with “white screen” or “pantalla blanca”?  Keep in mind that my priority is to effectively communicate with each user.

First of all, I would like to apologize to anyone who did not understand a response I sent.  There are limited tools at my disposal to determine the presumed language of the user, but it’s not concrete.

There is a solution on the way!  Soon, Solona will have a new field in the “My Account” where users can select their primary language.  Then, that language value will be displayed on the Operator screen so that the appropriate language can be used if necessary in a reply.  A little further down is a planned implementation of multi language site support.  But this takes more time since there is a lot of work to do and some development.

Again, this is the kind of thing that is not anticipated, but I am happy to work out a solution.  I will post a short note letting users know that the field is available for ammending in the “my account” section.

Thank you.

Bernard Maldonado

Hello everyone.

I thought I would spend a moment to talk about something that I think is very important:  Response times.  Let’s face it, you need the CAPTCHA code now!  Not in 5 minutes, not later,  but NOW!

Here is how I define the Response Time with regard to Solona CAPTCHA Solution:  The amount of time it takes for Solona to deliver a solution for a CAPTCHA code.  In mathematical terms, it would be The time stamp that a Solona operator clicks “Send Code to User” minus the time stamp that a user’s CAPTCHA image arrives and is logged as an event in the database.

That is a pretty simple definition.  However, there some factors to keep in mind about the Response Time.

1. The solving process is not automated.  It is 100% human driven.  This means that there is a lapse of time (albeit short) between notification of the arrival of a new CAPTCHA and the screen focus of the CAPTCHA by the operator.

2. Some CAPTCHAS are more difficult than others.  That may sound silly, but it’s true.  In an effort to provide you with an accurate code, Solona checks and double checks the code against the original image.  When a particular code is difficult, and requires double checking, it requires more time.  One site in particular, that I won’t mention, uses a shadow effect in addition to overlapping the letters.  It takes more time to solve this kind of CAPTCHA.  Once the code is confirmed, Solona sends the code to your session.  Some codes are eight characters long and are difficult on top of that.  Since there’s only one chance to deliver the correct code, extra review is taken to ensure that you get an accurate code on the first attempt.

3. Next, you won’t see the code until 2 specific events happen in this particular order:  1. Solona delivers the code to you, and 2. You click the Refresh Results button which makes the code appear.  It’s possible that Solona sends the code to you, but for some reason, you don’t click the Refresh Results button for some period of time.  The CAPTCHA is already solved, but you have not seen it yet.  This does not add to the official response time since Solona has actually sent the code to you.

For statistical purposes, Solona only measures the time between the image arriving for process and the time at which Solona sends you  the code.

At this time, the 95th percentile of time responses is 1 minute 46 seconds.  Some are 40 seconds, others are 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

The important thing to remember is that your code will be solved accurately and in a timely manner.

Believe me, I strive to lower the response time.  Some improvements will be made to reduce that, but in the current configuration, it’s going to between 40 seconds and 2 minutes and 15 seconds.

Do not leave the submit page until you have your code.  It is on the way.  The vast majority of websites have generous time out limits on CAPTCHAS.  So you won’t be locked out.  Even if you are, just resubmit it to Solona and it will be solved again.

Try to follow the instructions which talk about submitting the CAPTCHA before you fill out the form.  In addition to being more secure, you are not sitting and waiting for what seems like an eternity.  If you submit the CAPTCHA, and then fill out the fields, time is used more efficiently.  Just be sure to leave the Solona session browser window open so that you can return for the code.

It is likely that Solona will publish response time data in the form of tabular data and graphs so that people know what is going on.  There are more important topics than this, but it certainly is something that I want to implement.  Also, it might happen that you can see a summary of response times in your “my account” window for the CAPTCHAS that you have submitted.

Please get in touch if you have any questions, comments or concerns.  In the meantime, I hope everyone finds Solona useful.  Keep in mind, as I do, that it is important for us to advocate for anti spam tools that are not Visually Based HIP (Human Interactive Proof) tests.

Thank you.
Bernard Maldonado
Solona Captcha Solution Service

Just a short note to let everyone know that a few changes were made to the instructions (for Windows).  There is no change in the fundamentals. 

Thanks to Gerald for making some suggestions making a couple of steps easier to understand.

Here is the link to Solona Instructions for Windows if anyone needs them.

Bernard Maldonado

I thought I would make a clarification about how Solona is organized.

There are two sides to the site: 

1. The Information Side – here is where you can find all the information about Solona, How to use Solona, FAQ’s, and other interesting facts about the people behind Solona.  Naturally, the Twitter and Blog entries are here, too.  To access this side, click the ‘Learn’ link from the front page.

2. The Users Side – this is the side that users see after getting logged in to Solona.  All you see here is the Submit  a CAPTCHA function, Contact Support, and My Account.  That’s it.  There are very few links behind the Users section.   There are no instructions or other information pages within the Users side.  Except for the log out link, you will always be contained in the Users section.  Why, you may wonder?  Because I wanted to create an efficient area for submitting a CAPTCHA.  Besides, once you know how to do it, it’s really easy.  So there is no reason to have a bunch of information pages on the Users side.  Your navigation will be uncluttered.

I mention this because the written instructions and audio instructions are all located under the ‘Learn’ Section of Solona’.  The audio instructions are in MP3 format, and are very well spoken in case you prefer to listen rather than read.

Feel Free to contact me if you need any further information.

Bernard Maldonado.