Last modified: 2014-04-08 22:37:00 UTC
The in-progress new signup form (https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/57823/) moves image CAPTCHAs and uses an alternate message. This can be confusing for ones that are not simply spelling a word (like FancyCaptcha). For instance, both SimpleCaptcha (built-in that can be extended but should not be used directly) and MathCaptcha (uses images of sipmle math equations) use MediaWiki:captcha-createaccount, which defaults to: 'To protect the wiki against automated account creation, we kindly ask you to solve the simple sum below and enter the answer in the box ([[Special:Captcha/help|more info]]):' The JavaScript removes that and shows an alternate message MediaWiki:createacct-imgcaptcha-ph, which is currently: 'Enter the text you see above' This is confusing because you have to do the math, not just copy the equation. Perhaps we should have a class that allows a CAPTCHA (such as FancyCaptcha) to mark that it works by copying text. This would also make this rearrangement opt-in for each CAPTCHA (Fancy, ReCAPTCHA, etc.)
SimpleCaptcha isn't repositioned by the JS since it isn't an image. We should stop repositioning CAPTCHAs dumped into template header. ConfirmEdit already implements addCaptchaAPI internally where captchas respond with an object with keys type, mime, id, url, leaving it up to callers to decide how to lay this out. Brion has a patch for create account via API to use this. We'd deprecate and ignore the existing UserCreateForm hook where ConfirmEdit returns captcha HTML.
(In reply to comment #1) That's bug 46759
The Asirra image capture is actually broken when the new signup form's JavaScript repositions and reinserts it. The short-term fix is to only reposition the FancyCaptcha. The longer-term fix is for the new form's PHP to take control of outputting all captchas, as suggested in comment #1. A proof of concept is at https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/60353/
(In reply to Matthew Flaschen from comment #0) > 'Enter the text you see above By the way, https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/I18n#Avoid_references_to_screen_layout_and_positions
It no longer moves around the non-FancyCaptcha CAPTCHA types, so e.g. Simple, Math, and Asirra appear and work.
