Category: the Rant Board
Myspace can kiss my freakin ass! Now they require captcha to even add a friend! I hate them! I wrote them a letter and gave them a piece of my mind! It's the "No blind people allowed sign!"
i must say, this is not the first case of this I've seen in the last weekk. go to livejournal.com
Yeah, it sucks! The problem is though, almost my entire bugle corps has a myspace, and I'm trying to connect with them!
personally i'm more a fan of facebook. it's a bit slow, for one reason and another, but it works. and at least there's audio for the capture stuff.
Livejournal has audio CAPTCHA, too! At least some of them are trying. Facebook didn't have audio CAPTCHA until recently though, as far as I know. And it was only because blind people were persistent in writing to them and letting our needs be heard. So keep writing to myspace! Just be sure to be calm and professional, despite your outrage at the "no blind people allowed" sign.
To add a friend? Now that is rediculous. They don't seem to care about the small blind population. We all should do something about it.
For the sake of all blindkind, please stop using the "no blind people allowed sign" analogy. I'm all for equal participation, in society as a whole in fact. And I'm all for leveling the playing field, because let's face it. The blind have an eye condition that prevents them from doing certain things in ways that may otherwise be conventional. That's a basic and fundimental way of looking at it, though it doesn't say all about blindness by far. most of you are saying that MySpace failed to consider the limitations of blind people upon implementation of an authentication scheme that would otherwise be suited for the majority of its users. So you can say that they didn't consider a small population of blind people when they put in the CAPTCHA. But don't say that they considered blind people enough to deliberately exclude them. And they most certainly didn't make you all blind for starts. All this talk really resembles a serious entitlement complex which is alarming to say the least. I wonder if the bulk of you who carry the burden of this atitude would ever stop to consider the needs of people with other disabilities aside from your miserable own. Next I suppose you'll all be complaining about how letting wheelchair users onto public buses deprives you of the right to get from point A to point B at the same rate a sighted individual driving in a car would.
My impression is that for most people in the world, including companies and websites, it's not that they deliberately go out of their way to shut us out, but it's the other way around. We go right under their radar because to hem we're probably this mysterious group of people who live in a world of our own and we're not even noticed unless people think we need help or whatever. So it's not that MySpace is deliberately shutting us out, it's just that hey plain didn't think of us in the first place.
And why would they. they are only targeting the general population.
I still think they don't need a capsha for every single task.
I suppose they think the more of those codes hey put in, the less vulnerable they are to spammers or other bots, as I thought that was what that technology was for.
lol I completely agree with Chris. It always makes me feel uncomfortable when a sighted person tells me they find blind people and those with other disabilities dramatic, short-tempered, and always going on about what they should be entitled to because they have a disability. Why waste time complaining and do something about it if you don't like what they do. I actually have two accounts with myspace; one for my band and a personal account. So I too wish that the captcha things had audio to go with them. But instead of complaining, I e-mailed them. lol It didn't take much time and maybe if all of you were to take the time and write to them, they would be more inclined to do something about it. I actually wrote to them a couple of weeks ago but still haven't received a reply from them. But I'm not going to give up because I really like myspace and no offense but facebook is just bleh! heehee
So here was the e-mail I sent them. It ends abruptly cause I couldn't figure out how to close it propperly but oh well. I hope you all will write to them as well so they can be aware that blind people use myspace too.
To whom this may concern:
My name is Michelle and I am a totally blind user of MySpace. I am e-mailing you to inquire whether it would be possible to implement an audio sound file
along with the image codes used for creating an account, changing your password and editing your profile. I understand the necessity for the image codes
but without something audible, a blind/visionally impaired user can not create or edit their profile without sighted help. I for one do not live with anyone
who has sight so am always having to call up friends and ask if they can help me read the image code. This makes it very hard to be an active myspace member.
Thank you so much for your understanding and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely:
Michelle
lol I wrote this before finding out about the captcha to add friends but I'll probably write to them again. haha
Michelle
well, mypsace. For one thing, they are starting to be ... interestingly paranoid about security. With facebook you can at least read a text message on your phone and verify your account so that no capcha is required whe doing anything. I do understand though that there is a small percentage of presons who are able to get a phone that talks but it can be a good alternative. Anyway, both myspace and yahoo need to do something about it. i mean they claim a lot with their publicity and such but they are indeed not addressing some needs apropriately. Heh you coul actually get programs to break into capchas too, but that is a topic that is left to further research and debate elsewhere. Now, IMO, i use facebook and eally like the way that it handles a lot of things. Pages have a fixed structure (so there is no issues with screen readers as it provides for better linear navigation). Then, you don't get the terrible blaring music that makes no sense comeing out of yours speakers. Thirdly, you don't get most security-related "bulnerabilities" and the like. Fourthly, you have more control about many things you can do and there are more add ons to your page (applications). Fithly and lastly, people are more serious about their friends than on myspace.
hay I think i found something. Under account settings, spam there's an option to allow capcha for friend requests. Maybe they had that box checked when you tried to add them.
One thing you may want to address when contacting companies about CAPTCHA is the fact that companies like MSN/windows live, livejournal, ebay (I think), fanfiction.net, and others have audio alternatives to cAPTCHAs. Maybe showing them examples will help them to see how easy it would be to implement.
Hope that's somewhat helpful.
You know, there was a time when MySpace didn't exist. I don't believe it was too many years ago. Anyway, all the visually impaired people I've met managed to survive without MySpace. Now it does exist, as somebody who isn't a member of it, I don't believe I'm suffering in any way. In fact, my life hasn't suddenly got worse as a result of me not attempting to get on MySpace. This is true of most visually impaired people I've met. So what does it matter if there are problems for visually impaired people on MySpace? If they believe the MySpace policies are causing them problems, perhaps they have bigger problems they wish not to address.
well some people like myspace, and i'm sure if there's something you like and there was an obsticle, you'd wanna find a way toover come it...
To the original poster...The friend you were trying to add might have their capcha turned on. Unless the site changes it, it's an option to have it or not.
He says his complete horn group has a My space, so what ever happened to the buddy system? I mean just ask one of the sighted friends to open your account, then you can use it just like anyone else. Also I love the poster that stated about being blind in general. I think blind people as a whole are to lazy to figure out other ways of getting things done, plus a bit of studying My space's site could lend information, big time, on how to navigate it. Also your screen reader and browser must be up to date to take advantage of some web content. Once again the buddy system? Hmm?
They weren't too keen on me either...bugger the eejit's
Stevie.
Well, I strongly disagree with the buddy system. I wouldn't want someone setting up an account for me because they could take down my password and log in as me. It's too dangerous. My advice is, if you write to the company, or if a whole lot of people write to these companies, and they choose to do nothing about it, then don't sign up for their services.
The only reason I have one is because my brother and sister have one. If you want to comunicate with friends why not instent message them. It's a lot quicker.
I agree with you on that. I'm not interested in my space, the post I said applies to all companies who use captcha.
As for blaring audio every time you click on a page, you can actually fix that.
Under your account settings, you can turn off the automatically play music when visiting others' sites feature. Vuaaahllaaah.
In response to post 16, whether or not I would try to overcome an obsticle like audio capture is determined by two factors: my perceived chances of overcoming the obsticle, and how necessary I believe it is for me to overcome the obsticle.
To be honest with all of you, I do not like MySpace either--the only reason why I got one was because of my boyfriend. I don't like it either. But I still think that we should write to them and keep telling them how we as blind people feel. I have facebook, and if you all want to add me, my facebook is macymcclain@yahoo.com
the only reason that i got a myspace was because most of my family had one. didnt have trouble signing up with them though. i just had a friend read me the captcha immage and i typed in what he read.
is it me, or is the layout confusing, i like facebook's layout better..
Yeah I like facebook because it's easier to navigate, and you can write on your own wall.
write on your own wall? hmmm. i actually think that myspaces layout is ok.
Some myspace layouts are anoying because under every section are a bunch of links to where it came from. Jaws has issues focusing on the links i want.
i've emailed them and they are working on it :). myspace does want blind people. i have talked to tom myself. so keep emailing them. i think if they get enough emails, they will make audio capchas.
Wow awesome. Another person who e-mailed instead of bitching! Coolness! heehee.
Michelle