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On Sat, 29 Apr 1995, Daniel P Dern wrote:

> 
> Call me Ishmael@luddite.com.  I'm using a shell account via a terminal 
> emulator for most of my net activity, though I do have a SLIP account
> and fire up NetScape there, and sometimes use SLIPknot on my shell account.
Be sure to send a nice long form letter explaining your environment to 
the owner of the page.  Try "help@host.domain" taking it from the URL:

Many of these people just paid $25,000 (Or MORE) for a server that will 
"Put them on the WEB" thinking that NetScape is the ONLY browser that 
anyone would ever use.  I find that the WAIS server locks up when you try 
to access it with Mosaic or Cello.  It's frustrating, but the "Artists"
keep insisting on those "Pretty Buttons".

Marketing people need to be aware that when they use unique proprietary 
features, they lose 80% of their potential WEB market.  It's a choice 
they need to make responsibly.

> In the past few weeks,

> o I've seen home pages that start with the equivalent of
>   "If you're not using NetScape with   the 1.1 extensions, this page
>    will look weird or just plain butt-ugly" 

At least they were kind enough to tell you this.  They didn't tell you 
that you may end up locking up their server or your client if you aren't 
using NetScape.  It often will (secure sockets hangs both).

>    or

>    "...you won't be able to use most of my stuff."
This is when you send that "Gee, and I was about to place a $2,000,000 
order for products that you might have offered."  And see if they clean 
up their Web Page.  That is the potential of cutting off users of 
Chamelion, Spry, and NetCruiser, as well as WARP, and LINUX.

> o I've found top-pages that consist mostly of  ISMAPs
>   IMAGEs and whatnot, with no option of us text-only browsers
I use LYNX, (due to fire-walls at work), and find it amusing to get 25 [] 
"buttons" with no labels.  I may have ordered a 1953 buick, or bought a 
condo in the South Bronx for all I know :-)

The sad thing was that I was apartment shopping, and I ended up shopping 
exclusively at brokers who offered simple (Mosaic and Lynx) access.  The 
brokers here get $1800 in fees for a 1 bedroom apartment.  Their loss.

> o I've found some sites that simply wouldn't respond. > 
> o plus sites that are so image-laden that under, say, SLIPknot or NetCruiser,
>   I found myself reverting to my older habit of "click here, go out for cup
>   of coffee."

At least because I'm on Unix, I can read "online-news" (you wondered how 
I could read so much, that's it).  I just set my MTU to a nice small 
number (290 works good), and the packets mix together beautifully.

> We might as well get a flag that intercepts the request and alerts
> the user, "This site requires features you don't have, are you sure
> you want to bother?"

It is a good Idea, if you have a page like this, to include a "respond by 
e-mail" button.  When you get hit with 2,000 "hits" from people who have 
just spent $100-$1000 to buy the software and hardware that will put them 
on the WEB, and hit your arrogant page.

You can either point them at the NetScape download address (mcom.com) and
let them know that they now have to buy ANOTHER $35 Browser before they 
can read these "Elite" postings.

MacIntosh vendors often told MS-DOS and Unix customers to "shop 
elsewhere" -- They did.

Read "Service America" by Karl Albrecht and Ron Zemke

(A McGraw-Hill employee reccommending a Warner book, will wonders never 
cease :-)

> Mm, would that request count as a 'hit'?  

Speaking of which, you may want to "Crawl Down" into one of the hits and 
tell the advertizer (who may be paying $X000/week) how useless this page 
was and how horrible the page looked.  If you are in the business of 
selling software (NetScape) you might be willing to give up a few 
commissions.  Otherwise, you Might want to use the "Common Subset".


	Rex Ballard


From rballard@cnj.digex.net Tue May  2 21:27:18 1995