By Lee Scott
The fact that I am not a robot was recently proven by the Beaufort County Library System. The process for that verification started when the Friends of Beaufort Library notified me that the Library was starting to send out e-mails to card holders and the community about information that might interest them. If you wished to participate then all you had to do was click on the link that would connect you to the Beaufort County Library website. Once there, it was explained that the library was going to use Mail Chimp, an e-mail marketing service, to deliver messages to cardholders and if I was interested I needed to sign up. The first step in the Mail Chimp process was to provide my e-mail address and my name. The next step asked me to click on a box that said “I am not a robot” and to take a test to prove I was human.
The first screen had about nine pictures on it. The directions said: “Click on the pictures that reflect a bowl of soup.” Well, I clicked on two of them easily, but that third one looked like either a bowl of spaghetti or a bowl of soup. I clicked on it and then hit send.
Well, it must have been wrong because they asked me to retry. This time the pictures were of a variety of animals and I had to figure out which one was similar to the one in the main box which was a cat. With sweat pouring off my brow, I clicked on pictures of different cats; although truthfully one of them might have been a lion. It was then I was told I was on the e-mail list. Eureka, I had passed! This “test” actually replaces the distorted text used by many websites. You know those strange boxes that say “Type the letters and symbols in the box”. In the box you find something like the following (jKl50gF.) So then you ask Is that the letter “L” in lower case or is that a one? What about the “0”? Is that the letter “O” or the number “0”? Personally, I have no problem with the Beaufort County Library wanting me to prove that I am not a robot. It makes sense to send e-mails to actual humans. And of course, now I have proof that I am not a robot.
