Site Review 6

[Wullie]

Hi all,

We are currently going through a rebranding of our company and as such, have a new site just launched.

Any comments/suggestions are very welcome. If you don't like something, please tell me why and don't hold back.

http://www.yetihost.com

Thanks in advance,

Wullie

Fresh Look - Quality Coldfusion 7/Windows Hosting
YetiHost - Coming Soon

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[cLFlaVA]

true, those forms do get frequently abused. damn spammers.



*cLFlaVA
----------------------------
[tt]mr. pibb + red vines = crazy delicious![/tt]

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.coryarthus.com/[/url]

 

[Foamcow]

I tend to prefer mailforms unless the client insists otherwise. Some do, despite me offering to do the form for free!

The argument goes something like this.
Users are more comfortable using their own mail application rather than a form on a website, since they have no real idea what is happening to the info they enter.
Personally I think that's a flawed argument but I have had 2 unrelated clients give me the same point of view.

On a related note, consider this.

Our home PC has multiple user accounts.
I use Thunderbird to handle my email.
My wife uses Outlook.
Both are set up to be the default mail app under their respective user accounts.

Yesterday, while logged in to her account, my wife clicked a mailto link. Guess which app opened?
Thunderbird.
Now, since Thunderbird is not configured under her account it started asking for config info like mail servers etc.
She had no clue what was going on so she just gave up.

I tested this today and even though everything is set up as it should be, Thunderbird insists on acting as the default even if it's told it isn't. I'm assuming it's because it's set as the default app under my account.

That is a pain in the backside, and another reason not to use mailto links.

<honk>*:O)</honk>
Foamcow Heavy Industries - Web site design in Cheltenham and Gloucester
Earl & Thompson Marketing - Marketing Agency Services in Gloucestershire

 

[Wullie]

Personally I think that's a flawed argument but I have had 2 unrelated clients give me the same point of view.

Also consider pre-sales messages where you craft a reply, only to send it and it bounces back to you because the e-mail address was entered into the form incorrectly. How do you contact that client? They have no way to know that you did try to contact them, it just looks bad that they didn't hear back from you. You could ask them to confirm their address, but I personally ran through a site today while updating my e-mail and I still managed to get it wrong on the original and confirmation.

Then you have the ability for spammers to send you mail through your form while not needing to use an external server.

Then you have the people who would not normally contact you, but decide to just because the form is there. For example, the user who hits the home page of our site and then straight to the contact page to ask questions, without reading a single page of the site where they would find their answers. Sure sales is about dealing with customers and answering questions, but the more you can streamline the process and reduce the amount of requests, the quicker the people who need it can get a reply. We cut our support tickets and subsequently response times in half simply by adding a search that runs the ticket subject through our knowledgebase and returns the relevant results.

Wullie

YetiHost - Quality Coldfusion 7/Windows Hosting

The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails. - John Maxwell

 

[ChrisHunt]

I think it's a matter of personal preference, rather than hard and fast rules, so if you're happy with it your way, that's fine.

Personally, I've only got a form on my sites. My thinking is that if a spammer gets hold of my script, I can change its name, change some of the parameter names, and otherwise forestall them. If they extract my email from a mailto:, they've got it forever. But I'm not really relying on that form to bring in much business.

As a customer I like to know/use both. I'll usually use the mailto: and Outlook, so I get to keep a copy in the "Sent Items" folder and know what I've said and when. However, there are occasions - when surfing at work for example - when I can't use my home email client but want to send a message. Then I use the form.

YMMV, though.

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd