[thelist] Re: a REALLY responsive Web host, and A White Paper or Kit on standards based coding

[Techwatcher]

Hi, All --

Rudy said...
> <tip type="hosting">
>   one way to judge a host is to measure how long it takes you to click
> through the promotional bumph and find the comparison chart listing their
> various plans, features and prices
>   what's that you say?  can't find it?
>   okay, another way to judge a host is to send them an email asking how
> much does such-and-such and so-and-so cost (listing your bandwidth,
> storage, and software requirements) and if you get an answer the same
week,
> they're moderate to good -- of course, that'd be marketing responding, not
> tech support, which might be a totally different animal
> </tip>

The folks at Pronicsolutions.com are truly amazing in this regard,
although I think all their servers are Apache (but there is a old Cobalt
machine around). A site I coded last year went down over the weekend
because I resigned as Webfriend (the Quaker equivalent of Webmaster)
just as the domain registration expired. The non-techie Clerk of the
Website Committee, on my instructions, sent an e-mail to our host asking
for help. In 10 minutes from the time she clicked the "send" button,
they were ON THE PHONE to her! (They called me once, too, when my
support problem was urgent.) She was amazed.

They DO list features and prices for comparison, DO have an online page
where you can check netword status, and DO have a useful forum where you
can post questions (and they automatically e-mail you when they have
posted answers). I've never had any question, no matter how weird, go
unanswered for more than 4-5 hours, even when I simply posted it on the
forum. Even at the weird hours I often work.

> From: "Tom Dell'Aringa" <pixelmech at yahoo.com>
> Alright, consider the ball booted and rolling downhill. Now its up to
> the web community at large to make this really happen.
> I've set up a Yahoo! group at  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vkit/
>
> Where we can begin discussing if we can actually get a White Paper or
> a Kit or something together that the average Joe can take to his boss
> and say - hey - here is REAL data on why we should be doing this.
> Laws, graphs, etc etc.
>

Ya know, as a sometime professional marketer, I can assure you that what
WOULD work is making freely available, to everyone who visits a
newsstand or bookstore or coffeeshop, a CD of a GOOD (compliant)
browser. (Perhaps mailing several to everyone on every mailing list, a
la AOL, would be overkill!) Once the surfers of the world are using a
standards-compliant browser (which didn't take too long to download, set
itself up automatically, found the previous default browser & took over
its bookmarks, etc. -- and handled mail well), the bosses would comply
automatically. To facilitate adoption of your chosen browser, simply
wait while the current crop of virus-makers continues to make life hell
for IE users, and publish articles everywhere about the security holes
in IE.

Many non-techie folk now realize there's something bad about MS (the
antitrust suit at least helped in that regard), and would like to change
to something else. But the obstacles to change are formidable. One
reason many stick with NN 4.79 is probably an unwillingness to go with
IE (and the memory of how hard it was to get and stick with NN 4.79 is a
reason they don't upgrade).

Anyone want to do the research to find costs for huge volumes of CD, and
distribution? Or at least figure out which browser(s) to offer the
public at no charge? Enlist help of national franchise? (MacDonalds?
They've been battered by bad publicity awhile, what with secretly adding
beef stuff to their fries; profits are down...)

Cheers --
Carol
techwatcher at accesswriters.com