[thelist] The Tao of asking questions on thelist

[Richard Bennett]

hi,
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tyme" <nopun at bellsouth.net>

> TYME} I use subheadings to break up detailed posts/questions.  Eg.:
> STRUCTURE: **applicable details about site structure ***
> PROBLEM: ***
> QUESTION: ***
> CODE: ***
>
> TYME} Mind you, few of my posts are ever answered on lists.  (Don't get me
> started on the damned 15seconds ASP list.)  I like to think that it is
> because they are difficult to answer.  However, they usually are
soliciting
> people's ideas or experience as to approach.  So, no excuse.  In other
> words, I have been as frustrated, but I think my above-mentioned post
> structure is good.

I'll answer this one :o)
Although not really an answer, more a comment.
I don't know if it's just me being thin-skinned, but I'm collecting a whole
range of pet annoyances recently.
One of them is your habit of staring your text blocks with :
TYME}
It's like rubbing a cat backwards! After declaring the name, you should
start with an opening bracket:
TYME{
It makes me cringe every time I see it :o)

Another one is peoples annoying habit of writing +1 all the time, instead of
a constructive comment, or using the word "like" in the wrong way, when they
say, "I was like, wow". Oh yes, the word SO in capitals is horrible too, "I
was like, this is SO not the right thing to do" , brr, gives me the shivers!
And of course people who recycle the same joke in their signature time after
time, makes you wonder how often you can repeat a joke before it becomes
boring. I think about three times.
I think I probably just need to take a break, my nerves getting the better
of me!

I also think I owe a really large tip for all that ranting:

<tip type=javascript>
After deploying a website, there are bound to be some errors left in it here
or there.
Either you can cross you fingers, and wait for the customer to call with a
list of complaints, or you can make sure you know about the errors before
your customer does, like this:

Put together a simple server-side script on your own site, that will take
the value you pass in the URL, and log it to a flat-file (or database)
so that you can do this:
http://www.mysite.com/errorlogger.php?message=my_error_message
and it will log my_error_message to a file.

Then in your website-page in script tags, do this:

///Our custom error handler:
var version=1.0 //update this with each site update
var errorSender=new Image()

function myErrorHandler(errorMessage,url,line) {
     status='An Error Occured ('+errorMessage+' '+line+')'

errorSender.src='http://www.mysite/errorlogger.php?message='+escape('|Setup|
'+navigator.appName+'\n'+navigator.appVersion+'\n|Test
Version|'+version+'\n|Error Message|'+errorMessage+'|Line|'+line+'\n')
//this part all on one line
 return true
}
onerror = myErrorHandler

So, if any javascript errors occur, the site-user won't see the popup, the
error-message only shows on the status-bar, and it's logged to the script on
your own site, where you can see what browser/OS was used, and what the
error was.

I would advise telling your customers about this, because theoretically you
could of course log other things, like what users type into forms, but
that's likely to get you into court.

</tip>

Richard.