Re: LYNX-DEV don't give a damn?

[Doug Lawson]

On Mon, 21 Oct 1996, David Trueman wrote:

> 
> On Mon, 21 Oct 1996, Carl Reimann wrote:
> 
> > Perhaps we should make it a netiquette issue. Nearly everybody feels
> > strongly that mailing lists should not be spammed. 
> 
> An idea that has come up locally is to have a function built in to lynx
> and bound (at least optionally) to a single keystroke that would allow 
> any user to generate a comment on the current URL (directed at doc owner 
> if known, but at address@hidden if not) that would politely
> discuss the importance of usability through lynx with references to URLs
> explaining the issue further.
> 
> Any site could compile in this feature and advertise it to their users
> if they wished to be "activists" in this area.

Sure, as long as I can disable it :-)

  Here's the problems I foresee:

  1) Without being able to specify the nature of the offending 
     HTML code, we're not offering much help, except in cases where 
     the offense is patently obvious.  So, the message has to be
     user-editable. 

  2) If lynx has to do it automatically, then presumably the user 
     doesn't know how to send mail to address@hidden,
     or to the author of the page, which means the user probably 
     doesn't have the knowledge required to make a really useful 
     comment. 

  3) Mail to 'webmaster' will inevitably get a lot of replies like:
     "Stop harassing me, that page belongs to so-and-so", which in
     many cases will be valid.

  4) Many pages have a "maito:" URL but no "rev=made", so the proper 
     place to send comments will be there, but won't be obvious to 
     lynx. 


Just my $.02 (actually, my thoughts are worth at least twice that much :-)

Doug Lawson

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