Re: Quality problems - AGREE!

Becky Burnard ([email protected])
Thu, 14 Apr 94 14:12:45 PDT


At 10:19 PM 4/14/94 +0000, Piglet wrote:
>> Jacob,
[...]
>> "Sorry you must NOT dial a "1" in front of this number..."
>> Why not just assume "no 1" and not bother with the message.
>
>Because you need to get the subscribers to stop dialing the 1 so
>that at a later date you can use numbers beginning "1" that don't
>conflict
>
>> In the case of "this xxx relocated to yyy," why not just
>> link to "yyy" instead of bothering with the message, or,
>> notify with the message and still link them there.
>>
>again, if people don't have to change it themselves,they won't!
>Then if a link became reactivated but with completely different info
>it could cause LOTS of confusion and you might not be able to find
>the correct link again.

Jacob and Dennis ARE RIGHT. It is annoying to stumble around and get stuck
on so many broken links. But it's very time consuming to maintain large
webs, particularly when they are so volatile. We are all experiencing
phenomenal growth in use of the web, and one of the beauties of the web is
that it is SO EASY to get a few pages going. It's not surprising there are
tons of broken links out there. Not only are many of the people browsing
the web NOT webmasters, but many are quite new to computers as well! I say
all this interest can only help the cause, and we should welcome them. WE
provide a service and ought to be helping these people, not slapping them
around for making mistakes!

But Piglet is right too! The user has to re-learn the new location. Perhaps
an intermediate station would offer the best result. What I've done with
our interally (and eternally!) changing webs is to put an alert at the old
URL, and provide a message and a temporary link for a period of time, then
eventually do away with the old. (BTW, that's how the phone company handles
new area codes here as well--first they work right or wrong, then a warning
and you have to redial, then you're just SOL.)

>And you may think the chances of using the
>same url is unlikely? Well, given the nameing conventions I've seen
>it's quite likely! (eg. /www/me/1.html /www/me/2.html etc....)
Again, let's give the newcomers assistance instead of thumbing our noses.

>and I suggest, Jacob, if you want to continue listening to
>discussion on this, that you start receiving the group

Not everyone is interested in receiving the quantity of email a group like
this involves. Is it such a burden to cc his name to your correspondence? I
hope you're just having a bad day! :-/

Becky

************************************************
Becky Burnard ISX Corporation
phone: (818)706-2020 fax: (818) 706-2056
email: [email protected]
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