Message From jl

Hi Everyone!

Other than ET (my pet extraterrestrial cockatiel), there hasn't been much to set my teeth on edge, this past week. ET, of course, is into his annual mating behavior, tearing up everything he can find to build nests. Then, attacking my feet as I walk through a room like it's my fault the nests won't be used.

Actually, I think he's protecting the nests, since some gremlin comes in, after he goes to sleep at night, and takes them away, defined: cleans up the mess. I'm pretty sure he suspects it's me.

And, oh yes! Then, there was the dirt bag who was using an illegal iCop seal - AND connecting it to one of our member's accreditation URL.

He ignored my requests to remove it. This guy is a real pill, anyway. He's also been accused of plagiarizing someone else's web site. He's in the USA and uses a German web host. Guess he thought he was pretty slick.

But, the German web host was WAY faster and WAY more cooperative than most web hosts in the USA. They took him down within a few hours after I wrote to them. They put most USA Web hosts to shame! Remains to be seen if he'll transfer the whole thing to another host.

Should We Even Have an Expectation of Online Privacy?

After my tirade about privacy, last week, I read an interesting article. It seems we have two sides to the privacy issue. See who you agree with.

tinyurl.com/pnv8vq

Here's MY stand: if I give information to one company/agency, etc. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be against the law for that information to be put in a public database. Each INDIVIDUAL should be able to say WHO they want to have what information.

If YOU happen to agree with me (remember, they're doing it to YOU, too) then start doing something about it. Don't just sit there, complain! If you live in the USA, you have Congressional representatives (and, I use that term loosely). Call them!

More on Contact Forms - and, How to do it Right

I received two good pieces of information regarding using online forms for contact.

First, Ed Hudson, of www.HudsonEnterprises.com told me he uses them but only for the INITIAL CONTACT. This eliminates the harvesting bots.

After he receives a message from his form, he proceeds to continue the communication - provided it's a legitimate communication - via his email address.

I don't have a problem with that. It's perfectly professional.

What ticks me off are the people who don't bother to respond at all to their contact forms - much less provide the support they claim to be providing with them.

Next, I heard from Bill Hely:

------------
Hi jl,

Your position regarding contact forms not providing a record for the sender was spot on, and something that has irritated me ever since I first used such a form.

However, it doesn't have to be that way if the person creating the form page, or the person having it created, would just use their head.

To this day I'm amazed at how few Webmasters can be bothered providing this very simple benefit to their visitors.

It's as simple as sending a contact form in the first place. On any web form there is a small block of code that takes care of the mechanics of e-mailing the contents of the form fields back to the intended recipient, usually the Webmaster. The intended recipient's e-mail address is usually hardwired into that section of code.

It's just a matter of repeating that block of code so that a second e-mail is sent, but directing the second e-mail to the address supplied by the person filling out the form.

The actual code will vary according to the programming language used. Most websites are on Linux servers and so the web form code would probably be in PHP. If your website is hosted on a Windows server the web form code would most likely be written in ASP, but it could also be PHP. Or on either server it could be in Perl, or even JavaScript.

But anyone capable of creating a web form in the first place should be able to figure it out.

I will usually modify the code so that the second e-mail contains an opening paragraph that informs the sender that this is a copy for their own records of the communication they sent to XYZ.

Here's an example in ASP which, even if you don't speak the language, should illustrate the idea.

Words beginning with a small "o" are variables whose values were established earlier in the script. For example, the value of oEmail is derived from the e-mail field on the form as filled in by the site visitor, and oBody contains the message text they typed into the form. Don't let all the objNewMail stuff throw you, that's language-specific gibberish.

Even without understanding exactly what's going on, you will notice there are two almost identical blocks of code there, one after the other. Something equivalent to the first block (though perhaps in a different programming language) would be present for any web form so as to send it to the Webmaster. But notice that the values assigned to objNewMail.From and objNewMail.To in the first block, are switched around in the second block.

Also in the second block the "Subject" is changed to something more appropriate, and the site visitor's message (oBody) to Support is preceded by a paragraph (oPreamble) to let them know what it's all about.

Best regards,

Bill Hely www.HackersNightmare.com
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WOW - it never occurred to me, either! I asked Bill if he would mind sharing the code. He sent it but, frankly, not everyone uses the same language when creating their forms.

However, Bill was kind enough to provide a way for you to see how this works. Here are the directions:

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Hi jl,

Go to www.HackersNightmare.com and click the Support link at the bottom of the page.

If you start the message body with XYZ then it will be treated as a test and only your sender's copy will be transmitted -- no message will be sent to us.

Since iCop members are sensible and responsible people, feel free to publicize the above link. Just ask your readers to start the message body with XYZ so we don't get inundated with test e-mails.

Some of your readers may learn a lesson as to why this is a good technique for them to adopt from a marketing perspective. After they submit the Web form there are two unobtrusive and non-annoying attempts at an auxiliary sale, cleverly disguised as helpful information.

And maybe someone will have ideas on how to improve it further!

Best regards,

Bill Hely www.HackersNightmare.com
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Okay - now, we can ALL be happy. Go see how great this is!

Please BE SURE to start the message body with XYZ.

Thanks so much, Bill!

Have a fabulous week and ... keep on keepin' on!

  jl

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