use Perl

• You compounded the problem.... (Score:1)

  by merijnb (296)

  Just think of those poor people at example.com! ;-)
  • Re:You compounded the problem.... (Score:2)

    by davorg (18)

    See http://www.example.com/ [example.com]
    • Re:You compounded the problem.... (Score:2)

      by vsergu (505)

      But they lied -- I didn't type anything into my web browser.
      
      I'm still a bit uneasy about there being a web page up for reserved domains, but I guess I should be happy that it hasn't been taken over by VeriSign and plastered with ads.
• How about (Score:2)

  by VSarkiss (704)

  Be short and to the point:

  Stop!

  This page is for maintainers of web sites. If you got an error using a web site, this is not the place for you. You should send email to webmaster@example.com , where example.com is the site where you got the error.

  In my experience, just the presence of a long paragraph will cause brain lock-up for non-thinking readers.
  • Re:How about (Score:1)

    by jplindstrom (594)

    Hey, I was gonna say that! :)
    
    Brief text with boldface is the way to go. Bullet points are good for scannability too.
  • Re:How about (Score:1)

    by grantm (164)

    I was going to say that too. The words you wrote are fine - you just need less of them

    Could you perhaps deliver the message via a script that guesses the referring site from the headers and uses that instead of example.com? If you could provide a mailto link to webmaster@<referringsite>.com then at least they'd have something to click on.
  • Re:How about (Score:2)

    by gav (2710)

    I think it would be more helpful if you replaced the "Stop!" with this [mediatechpro.com].
  • Re:How about (Score:1)

    by runrig (3385)

    Even that might be too long. Maybe something like:

    If you received an error and were led here, hit the 'back' button and let the maintainers there (not here) know about it. Sorry for the inconvenience.

    If you maintain a web site and need assistance, blah blah blah...upgrade to the latest version...
• "Learn to read" (Score:2)

  by drhyde (1683)

  It's sometimes hard not to reply to those emails with a suggestion that they take lessons in reading.

  And that would be bad why? They obviously do need help reading.
  • Re:"Learn to read" (Score:1)

    by chromatic (983)

    I'm not sure the solution to people who don't read words on the computer screen is to give them more words not to read.
• The good old days (Score:1)

  by pjf (2464)

  Anyone else hanker for the days when the web was just used by academics?

  The web? I've got my reservations. People are already used to gopher, it's simple to understand, and it's widely used. Sure, Mosaic is nice, but not everyone has a graphical display, or wishes to spend a day compiling it.

  Yes, I still fondly remember the good ol' days.