Moatrat, I sympathise with your logging in difficulties.
I have found that by using the Chrome browser, I am only required to "tick" the "I'm not a robot" box.
Other browsers require you to "tick" pictures of objects such as motor bikes, palm trees, and traffic lights, etc, before you can proceed.
As Malone has indicated, there has been a very welcome reduction in spam since the introduction of Captcha and the "I'm not a robot" box.