[quote="mkshawn.ca"]1st Question: Failed due to unexpected error 80004005
1st Answer:8 if i count the ? mark
2nd Answer: 7
3rd Answer: 9 if i count the ? mark & the colon
4th would not allow me to register but site remembered my login & password
I came here for help with the 1st ? Now i'm involved in debuggin a Help Site[/quote]
If the sentence was How many [b]characters[/b] in Mozilla?: then your answers could work.

The correct answer is 6. The question should be read as "How many letters (unique letters) are in the word Mozilla?" The two L's only count as one.

[quote="James"][b][size=200]Since it is about letters it is M o z i l a = 6
[/size][/b]
[/quote]

1st Question: Failed due to unexpected error 80004005
1st Answer:8 if i count the ? mark
2nd Answer: 7
3rd Answer: 9 if i count the ? mark & the colon
4th would not allow me to register but site remembered my login & password
I came here for help with the 1st ? Now i'm involved in debuggin a Help Site

[quote]Of course I would simply change the wording of the question, but as I say, that may not be possible...[/quote]
At this time it is not.

Hi, I'm a newly registered member of this forum, and I'm one of those who really struggled to get past the anti-spam question. In fact, last year I tried to register and gave up. I only returned out of desperation, and purely by chance read a comment that unlocked the cryptic answer. Here's my feedback for what it's worth.

[quote="James"]
If it was asking say "How many characters in Mozilla" then the answer would be 7. Since it is about letters it is M o z i l a = 6
[/quote]

That's an unhelpful comment. In the word 'Mozilla' the first L is a letter. The second L is also a letter. To me it makes no difference whether the question asked about characters or letters. The answer would be the same. The real issue is to highlight the unique or distinct letters, and the question never asks that. In fact, to show how counter intuitive this is, I actually went the other way. The screen actually asks to count letters in [b]Mozilla?:[/b], and I tried 8 and 9 as possible answers, guessing that maybe the punctuation should be included. It still never occurred to me to omit the second L.

As a newcomer, I accept there may be reasons for having a cryptic question that I am not aware of. So to be constructive, can I suggest an addition rather than a change? I trust that the administrators of this forum want to help people such as me, and I would have found it helpful to have a second verification option. Perhaps a button saying "Click here if you can't answer the first question." (By analogy to a Captcha screen with disability options!) Maybe the button leads to a second question, or gives a hint about distinguishing letters and characters.)

Of course I would simply change the wording of the question, but as I say, that may not be possible...

Thanks to all those with experience who help out people like me.

It may seem poorly worded to those who came to conclusion that it must only be about the combined characters total and not any other possibility. Kerz should perhaps have added in say the word unique ex: "How many unique letters in Mozilla" to make it more obvious what it was asking for.

If it was asking say "How many characters in Mozilla" then the answer would be 7. Since it is about letters it is M o z i l a = 6

What we had before mid 2018 was when you would get a captcha it was a random characters (four?) you read and typed it in box and there were some occasional complaints of not being able to read it clearly or getting it because they mistype their password first time. If this forum got very little spam attempts from new members and guests each day then perhaps we would not have been requiring new member first post approval since March 2011 and captchas in use. We used to allow guest posting in the support sections till March 2011.

The sign up question wasn't in place years ago.

The error in the sign up Question has likely caused many 100s if not 1000s of people who wanted to sign up for the forums not doing so. When a sign up question is plain wrong and poorly written or ambiguous at best to the point it needs an explanation in order to interpret its meaning and intent, then its a bad and poorly written question. Only the very persistent as the OP suggested make it through sign up. After several failed attempts I had to tell myself that the answer that will work is NOT the answer the question asks for. You have to guess at a wrong answer until you hit on the magic wrong answer that lets one sign up. It is amazing the sign up question wasn't fixed years ago.

Sorry 'bout that error. (Getting old/er.)
I thought it said that, most probably I was referring to or remembering this thread/post by James...
> http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14852062#p14852062

[img]http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2008/034/6/5/_shrug__or__dunno__by_crula.gif[/img]

[quote="LIMPET235"]Yes, We know all about it but we cannot do anything to change the question.

It's been "complained" about for months 'n' months.

It asks..."How many unique letters...." not the total # of them.[/quote]

Thanks for your reply. After a delay, the site finally let me join after giving a wrong answer.

As for asking "How many unique letters...." - it doesn't actually say that. It asks "How many letters in Mozilla".

But if they took up your suggestion it would be a big help in registering. Presumably Mozillazine don't intend to deter people from signing up. I almost gave up - I imagine many aren't so persistent and just give up.

Yes, We know all about it but we cannot do anything to change the question.

It's been "complained" about for months 'n' months.

It asks..."How many unique letters...." not the total # of them.

Actually I think I just solved it. Apparently if you say that there are 6 letters in 'Mozilla' instead of the correct 7, then it accepts this.

BIZARRE!!!!!!!

Help! I'm trying to register, but when I answer the question at the end to say how many letters in 'Mozilla' - it keeps saying my answer of 7 is wrong. Who do I contact please?