“What is a broken image link, Andrea?”

by Richard Pooley

If you have used a laptop or desktop computer to read the articles on Only Connect in the last month, you will have found this photograph squatting on top of all 379 posts:

Photo: Stoker

In fact, I was chary about uploading it into this article. Why? Read on.

The image was originally at the top of The Madness of Crowds, an article written by Stoker in July 2024. Then, in May,  Vincent Guy asked politely why “a strange bunch of cars” had "parked themselves” across the top of his February 2021 post, How I found out I was Jewish.

My shoulders slumped. I had spent hours – truly – restoring images to a few of some two hundred pre-May 2025 articles, including the cars-in-a-field one. I didn’t know why the images had disappeared in the first place (I still don’t). And now there were these cars  atop Vincent’s beautiful 19-year old mother.

Your editor is no techie but I tried, dear reader, to expunge the cars. No luck. The Help button on the Wix platform? No help. Just techie jargon that only a techie would compute. And then Disaster. The June issue was published and the rogue photo had gone forth and multiplied, and was on the top of every post…but only if viewed on a PC, laptop or tablet.

I hoped for a while that OC readers would not notice. I had been informed by a youth that “everyone uses their phone these days.” But a couple of my less youthful writers asked why there were cars on their articles. I sent out a wailing email to those more IT-savvy than me. No response. So, sitting in my stuffy study in south-west France, window and shutters closed against the 40 C canicule outside (see my other article in this edition), wondering how I would occupy my time usefully between the hours of 12.00 and 19.00, I ventured forth onto the Wix platform upon which Only Connect sits. Here is my report on that adventure, sent in triumph to my fellow keyboard tappers a mere one and a quarter hours later:

I have just solved the problem. You will all be glad to hear that Wix's AI soon gave up trying to solve it. After 15 minutes, it asked if I would prefer to talk to a human being. You bet. Enter the lovely Andrea from Iowa. At times, I did begin to wonder if she was really human. She kept texting me that if I didn't answer within 3 minutes, our conversation would end. Same wording every time. Must be a button she presses. Early on she identified the problem. It was a ‘broken image link’. I was too in awe of her expertise to ask at first what a ‘broken image link’ was*.  After much wandering through the Editor, she asked if I would consent for her to take over my laptop. Gulp! What evil stuff might she find? Would she be able to come back one day and have a look round? Again, was she Mythos in human disguise? I think it must have been my admission that I didn’t know what a ‘broken image link’ was that triggered this request for her to take control of my laptop. She was dealing with an idiot.

She did tell me I had been a naughty boy: I had used Editor to add and delete images. I hadn't, I insisted. I had just used Wix's Dashboard. She didn't believe me but then immediately apologised for criticizing me. That's when I became really alarmed. Typical AI behaviour. I quizzed her human-ess again. She started recommending the Iowa State Fair. Oh dear! But then I tried to sign off with "A bientot". No time for a grave accent or circumflex.  And she asked "what does abientot mean?" Must be human...and American. Bless her.

*A broken image link? "This occurs when a webpage tries to display an image from a specified URL, but the image is not accessible....Browsers typically display an image placeholder [like the cars-in-the-field one?) or a broken image icon" [I tried to copy one from the many still on pre-2024 OC articles but no luck]. Thank you to openasset.com for that explanation.