I too hate form based email systems.
But why not simply "recognize" addresses? You guys keep a collection of email addresses in various SQL tables. Use your data. I'm doing this in procmail. I've got a tiny script whose sole function is to take an email address, do a "SELECT COUNT(*)" in the two tables in which I keep addresses, and return the number. Procmail then knows whether the support request is coming from a customer. If it is, an autoresponse is generated with a ticket number. If it's not in the database, an autoresponse is generated saying that if they're a customer they should update their contact information on our admin web site, and the email is forwarded to sales. The only catch would be ... I suspect Tucows has alot more addresses in its database than I have in mine. :) A solution the brings up and tears down a SQL session for every email might not be particularly resource friendly. Still, you could get around that in a number of ways; an address "daemon" that would leave a single db connection open and answer requests from the simple client run by procmail or your ticketing sw, and/or a separate table keyed on the email address, updated a couple of times a day from the "real" database.... I'd be happy to help implement a solution. :^) And while you're at it, could you PLEASE make your ticketing system stop putting illegal characters in Message-IDs? Every autogenerated message created by your ticketing software has a space (char 32) at the end of the Message-ID, and gets marked as spam as it enters my network. It's very frustrating. :) p On Tue, Apr 16, 2002 at 09:42:11AM -0400, Ken Joy wrote: > > Well, that's been suggested before; I myself *hate* form based emails on > websites, and will often not work with a company that only offers that form > of 'contact us'; what do others out there think of the idea? > > Ken > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Toxik - Fabian > > Rodriguez > > Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 8:55 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: Force support via reseller interface - was: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > > > > Why accept support requests by direct email *at all* ? > > > > Force support emails to be sent by a form in the reseller interface.. > > Have the current adress be an autoresponder saying it's for resellers only > > and they should go to the reseller interface for support. > > > > Fabi�n Rodr�guez - Toxik Technologies, Inc. > > www.toxik.com � (514) 528-6945 @221 > > OpenPGP: 0x5AF2A4D5 > > -- Paul Chvostek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Operations / Development / Abuse / Whatever vox: +1 416 598-0000 it.canada http://www.it.ca/
