Turing Test

Why do you need to enter a code to email us?

Many online forms now carry something called a turing test. This normally consists of an image like this:

This test comes from a man named Alan Turing who, during the 1950s, developed a series of experiments to determine how people would know whether they are communicating with a human or a machine.

Ultimately the most reliable way to know if a machine is a machine or a human is by insisting that the machine does something that only a human could ordinarily do. Only when a machine reached human level would it be able to pass the turing test and therefore we could truly call it "intelligent".

The reason that so many websites now carry a turing test is because of advancements in technology.

Spammers now use things like screen scrapers to gather information from websites. They also write computer programs called "robot scripts" which automatically scour the internet for email forms and submit spam content to these forms. Often this involves selling Viagra, Cialis and other sex aids.

By the addition of a turing test, we can ensure that anyone using our email form submission tool must be a human.

Please understand that we do not think that YOU are a spammer. We merely need to confirm that anyone using our form is a human so that we do not get huge amounts of spam as large volumes of email may reduce the quality of service we offer to our human clients.