‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

CAPTCHAs don't prove you're human – they prove you're American (2017)

92 points · 90 comments · theanonymousone

  1. kybernetikos · · focus · HN ↗
    Other common issues - crosswalks and fire hydrants are common questions too, and crosswalks are not called that in most of the world and fire hydrants look pretty different depending on country.
    1. TFNA · · focus · HN ↗
      This is perhaps a declining problem, as young people in so many countries are growing up as proficient US English speakers due to heavy social media consumption, to the point that US English CAPTCHA challenges would just feel normal. I suspect there are more young people around the world now for whom "crosswalk" is more natural than "zebra" -- in my country, the latter is already a shibboleth that one is an oldie who learned UK English, now regarded here as an antiquated standard after teaching switched to US English.
      1. mcintyre1994 · · focus · HN ↗
        Also a declining problem because any recent LLM can solve them all for you. FWIW though I don’t know anyone in the UK who uses the term crosswalk, though I think most would probably understand it in context.
        1. arrowsmith · · focus · HN ↗
          I've noticed that "Santa" is really starting to displace "Father Christmas" in British English. When I was a kid if you said "Santa" you'd have been scolded for using the American name, but listening to kids now I hear them say "Santa" all the time. I blame TV.

          "Crosswalk" sounds extremely American to me and I've never heard anyone say it in Britain, but maybe I'm just getting old.

          1. mcintyre1994 · · focus · HN ↗
            That’s a fair example, I think I’ve always seen Santa and Father Christmas as interchangeable and wouldn’t necessarily associate one of them with being the American one. A hypothesis I’d be curious about - I wonder if there’s a correlation between how commercialised something is and how Americanised it becomes. In that case I guess we won’t be calling them crosswalks any time soon.
Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.