best contact method  
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Tim Haynes
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 18:22:00 Top
html, best contact method What is the best method of contacting someone through a form on a website?
Someone told me that mailto was useless. Thanks in advance.
 
Steve R.
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 18:49:00 Top
html >> best contact method Tim Haynes wrote in message ...
> Someone told me that mailto was useless.

There's nothing *wrong* with the mailto way, in fact many people prefer it,
but it depends on what information you want to collect. If it's just a
means of contact then mailto is fine. It's better to have your email
address as the mailto link rather than *contact me* as for some people who
use some browsers the *Contact me* method doesn't work, but they can always
'copy 'n paste' the visible email address.

So that your are not 'spammed' from the email address contact it's best to
*munge* it using javascript or HTML code, as you can create from the links
below.

Try ...
http://www.mways.co.uk/prog/hidemail.php can be HTML, so will work with
those few folk who disable javascript.

http://www.ecardiff.net/unescape.asp Javascript only.


 
Tim Haynes
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 19:51:00 Top
html >> best contact method Steve R. fell into a slight daze and imagined the following:

> Tim Haynes wrote in message ...
>> Someone told me that mailto was useless.
>
> There's nothing *wrong* with the mailto way, in fact many people
> prefer it, but it depends on what information you want to collect. If
> it's just a means of contact then mailto is fine. It's better to have
> your email address as the mailto link rather than *contact me* as for
> some people who use some browsers the *Contact me* method doesn't
> work, but they can always 'copy 'n paste' the visible email address.

And what If I want to use a form?
 
 
Eric Bohlman
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 20:14:00 Top
html >> best contact method "Steve R." <stevie_ritchie(NOSPAM)@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:uG2Wb.920$email***@***.com:

> Tim Haynes wrote in message ...
>> Someone told me that mailto was useless.
>
> There's nothing *wrong* with the mailto way, in fact many people
> prefer it, but it depends on what information you want to collect. If
> it's just a means of contact then mailto is fine. It's better to have
> your email address as the mailto link rather than *contact me* as for
> some people who use some browsers the *Contact me* method doesn't
> work, but they can always 'copy 'n paste' the visible email address.

But there *is* a problem with using mailto as the *only* contact method: it
assumes that there's an e-mail client set up on the browsing machine, and
that this client has SMTP access. This *won't* be the case if someone is
browsing on a hotel computer, or a library computer, or an Internet cafe
computer (which, in some countries, is the most common form of access). In
those cases, it's likely that the user is going to be using a Web-based
email account, and mailto can't access those.

Don't, by the way assume that a user using a library computer is
necessarily too poor to afford Internet access of their own; they might
simply be in the library (especially a college/university library) to do
research.
 
 
Steve R.
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 20:32:00 Top
html >> best contact method Tim Haynes wrote in message ...
> And what If I want to use a form?

If you want to use a form then just create or *borrow* some of the mark-up
that you've seen on one which you like. All I was responding to was the
fact that someone told you mailto was useless ... and it isn't.


 
 
rf
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 20:49:00 Top
html >> best contact method
"Steve R." <stevie_ritchie(NOSPAM)@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Va4Wb.1000$email***@***.com...
> Tim Haynes wrote in message ...
> > And what If I want to use a form?
>
> If you want to use a form then just create or *borrow* some of the mark-up
> that you've seen on one which you like. All I was responding to was the
> fact that someone told you mailto was useless ... and it isn't.

It is useless if your viewer is in a public library, or in an airport, or an
internet cafe, or does not have an an email account by way of using for
example hotmail for their email needs.

For other ways mailto is useless refer to the archives of this and other
newsgroups.

Cheers
Richard.


 
 
Leif K-Brooks
PostPosted: 2004-2-10 21:07:00 Top
html >> best contact method Tim Haynes wrote:
> What is the best method of contacting someone through a form on a website?
> Someone told me that mailto was useless.

Use a server-side script.
 
 
 
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