[jackalope]

I'm guessing your third sentence triggered a penalty. Replace "current captchas" with a blank and you'll see why.

I agree that the reCAPTCHA experience is terrible and assume many others agree with you, in part spurring the development of this new approach. I don't believe that every reCAPTCHA has a solution, or at least a consistent one, so I always feel like a percentage of time wasting is built-in. To work around it, I usually regenerate it until I get one that looks easy, but it's still frustrating. Improving the odds of getting it right the first time will help improve the experience a bit. But my biggest gripe is that they can make direct downloads impossible for resources that don't require extra protection.