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Google's Recaptcha frequently asks me to identify squares in which a street sign is present. Is the pole on which the street sign is attached considered part of the sign? I feel like I never get this question correctly, regardless of the option that I choose. This is an example: would I choose just the squares containing part of the red sign, or also squares containing only the pole below?

sign

Here's a bad example of the actual interface (bad because all squares with pole also contain sign):

enter image description here

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    In the second image you can/ should choose the block with the pole because it has half of the circle in it. Otherwise I do not think it is necessary, you can even leave one block and get through the captcha challenge.
    – Deepak Kamat
    Jun 19, 2017 at 16:42
  • Yeah, called that out in the post: bad because all squares with pole also contain sign
    – taway
    Jun 19, 2017 at 17:18
  • Probably this post is a good fit for reCAPTCHA's official discussion group - groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/recaptcha
    – Deepak Kamat
    Jun 19, 2017 at 17:22
  • Choose squares that have a good piece of the sign in it, not the pole
    – Zach Saucier
    Jun 19, 2017 at 17:35
  • I always get screwed by that question. For the record, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_name_sign says: "A street name sign is a type of traffic sign used to identify named roads, generally those that do not qualify as expressways or highways. Street name signs are most often found posted at intersections, and are usually in perpendicularly oriented pairs identifying each of the crossing streets." So I'm not sure that anything in that picture qualifies as a street sign.
    – Orwellophile
    Jan 30, 2018 at 9:44

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I've been doing alright by selecting the reCAPTCHA tiles that contain a street sign or a piece of a street sign, but not selecting the tiles that contain only a sign pole. Sometimes the signs are not written in English, so you have to be careful to read the signs in order to distinguish between a street sign and something else.

If you can distinguish between a street sign and something else, the reCAPTCHA algorithm frequently gives you another chance if you also select the tiles that contain only a sign pole and shows you another set of tiles, possibly to train the user to not select tiles containing only a sign pole in order to minimize the number of sets of tiles required to pass the reCAPTCHA challenge.

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    What is the definition of "street sign"? is it only street names? does "street sign" include or exclude traffic control signs? highway signs? its giving me "Street sign" puzzles always and repeats "street sign" many times before giving another puzzle type.. i'm growing very frustrated. I liked the checkbox "i'm not a bot" but now that checking that box ALWAYS gives me these puzzles I hate it.
    – Tyson
    Aug 27, 2018 at 11:58
  • @Tyson The pole is part of the sign, but I don't care. I just select the sign and skip the pole and it works anyway. If you select the pole sometimes you end up selecting more than half of the whole image just to get all the little pieces of the poles selected.
    – karel
    Aug 27, 2018 at 12:00
  • I understand not to select the pole. I pick all squares of any sign that’s a “street sign” but apparently this is a trick question, and some of what I consider a “street sign” is not. I do not select signs with advertising nor building signs. I’m trying to determine “which” signs google considers to be a “street sign”
    – Tyson
    Aug 27, 2018 at 12:29
  • @Tyson Street signs are traffic signs for controlling traffic, not advertising signs or any of that @&!#.
    – karel
    Aug 27, 2018 at 12:32

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