Is CAPTCHA an Effective Bot Deterrent?

http://lockergnome.net/questions/165419/are-capcha-codes-an-effective-bot-deterrent-or-are-they-just-annoying
Tenken89, a member of the LockerGnome community, asked: "Are CAPTCHA Codes an effective bot deterrent or are they just annoying?"

Do you find yourself annoyed by the scrambled numbers and letters you have to decode in order to gain access to a site? This CAPTCHA code is intended to trick robots by replacing text with an image that's difficult for a computer to decipher. Unfortunately, it can also be difficult for most humans, as well.

The problem with CAPTCHA is that is doesn't work, at all. There are companies that make a lot of money hiring employees to read and solve the CAPTCHA puzzles for them, being presented with them one-by-one for solving. Once the human has solved the puzzle, the bot takes over again and the site becomes the International House of Spam.

What do you think? Does CAPTCHA work?

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