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I've read this question, but there isn't an official (reasoning) answer there.

I do realize that when I post fast, or when I change IPs I keep getting asked to prove my humanity, but I want to know why. Doesn't logging in prove it enough?

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If you're posting fast enough to trigger this often, try to breathe once in a while. If your IP address is changing frequently enough to cause this problem, I'd complain to your provider. –  Aaron Bertrand Jul 5 '12 at 19:33
@AaronBertrand: I sometimes get this when traveling by train; here in Norway you get free internet on the train, but you IP address changes from time to time as wireless networks are switched as you journey along. Perfectly valid reason why your IP address changes. –  Martijn Pieters Jul 5 '12 at 19:48

2 Answers 2

up vote 18 down vote accepted

No, logging in is not enough. A program can log in (there are plenty of web scrapers that do just that) - but a program will find it much harder than a human to solve captchas as well.

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Alright, how about high rep users? Users above 10k will very unlikely produce bots –  Second Rikudo Jul 5 '12 at 19:34
@Truth - Um. What if it were a compromised account? What is someone got the login details and used them with a bot? You need to think about the bad people out there - the ones that don't work within the "rules". –  Oded Jul 5 '12 at 19:36
@Truth It's somewhat reduced for high rep users already, supposedly. –  jadarnel27 Jul 5 '12 at 19:36
@Oded it looks like "no enough" should be "not enough", but it won't let me make short edits. Is it possible for you to fix that word, as the answerer? –  culix Jul 5 '12 at 19:59
@culix - thanks for the heads up... –  Oded Jul 5 '12 at 20:00
As a human I have a hard time solving captchas. –  Jesse Jul 5 '12 at 20:17
@Jesse - You sure you are not a bot? –  Oded Jul 5 '12 at 20:17

It really is for everyone's benefit. It helps you because its unlikely the same person would sign in from one country one day and another country the next. It helps the whole community by preventing bots from spamming everything. Just be thankful they have a readable captcha because I've seen much worse.

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