The web interface is mostly useful for list administrators/owners, rather
than list *members*. I run one such interface, it has saved me time: it
is the administrators that constantly requested to have (little) things done
for them... now they can go do it on the web, if they have the time ;-)
On Wed, 22 Jan 1997, Merrill Cook wrote:
> Our experience with a Web interface was that it caused lots more
> work for the list-owner, since most folks haven't a clue what
> their email address is, or they put in a shortcut address that
> bears no resemblence to the address on their mail headers (if they
> have one <sigh>) so they can't unsubscribe or post if
> restrict_post is set. So with a Web interface:
>
> 1) you have to confirm that the email address entered really is a
> valid address
This can be done client-side using JavaScript. It won't be 100%
effective, but will take out most common errors.
1. Check that address has one and only one '@'
2. Check that address being subscribed matches the domain from which the
page is being accessed, if not, popup an alert or confirm box.
3. Check that address ends in [*.net, *.com, etc.] OR a two letter
international domain. (May be accept X400 adresses too, does anybody use
those anymore?)
> 2) you have to confirm that the person at that address really
> wants to be on the list
I would do this by e-mailing an 'auth' cookie to the address. The person
would still have to confirm via e-mail, though.
> If you want to go for a full web interface for unsubscribe and all
> the rest, that's okay too, as long as you don't make "pick your
> address from the following" the default way of operating. Most
I doubt anybody intends to do that... for list *members*. For admins, it
is a time saver.
> lists won't want people (even if they know a password or are on
> our side of the firewall) having access to all the addresses on
> the list -- so you need some other way of helping people remember
> what address they used to subscribe.
Using cookies, perhaps?
I shudder at the thought of somebody not remembering his e-mail address.
Is this to be expected of people buying WebTVs??? :-|
> It's a valid goal, we just need to work through all
these > problems.
I think Jason is doing most of the 2.0 work. Jason: if you need help
with the JavaScript for the above, I can help... :-)
regards,
Carlos M. Gutierrez
carlos@ipr.net
> --
> Regards,
>
> Merrill Cook
> Louisville KY
> mcook@pcusa.org or MERRILL COOK on Ecunet/PresbyNet
> http://www.pcusa.org/pcusa.html
> -+-
>
Follow-Ups:
References:
|
|
