>From the presentation of information perspective, the site is not all that
good. Technically speaking, it is very good - fast loading, not a lot of BS
graphics, accessible with all browsers, including the elite few of us who
still use Lynx. I am concerned about the quality and quantity of
information on the site. Certainly, QMail is a force in the industry, and I
imagine that you and Dan Bernstein and countless others want it to be
an even more powerful force. QMail is making money, of that there can be no
doubt. Dan has a book deal, and you have a consultancy. People that use
QMail are also making money - Hotmail, Blue Mountain Arts, NetDynamics, for
instance. I like QMail, I want to continue to use QMail. I want to be
informed about QMail, and my previous experience from www.qmail.org is that
it is not a place to get informed. Yes, there is a patch list now on the
page, and I applaud that effort. I never would have looked if I hadn't been
slammed, however, because I had already written off www.qmail.org as a
dead-loss for information.
I know other people that have come away from the site with that same
impression - even worse, I've had people tell me that the product must suck
because the web site sucks. I don't argue with them because - number one,
I've had a lot of trouble getting to the information I want, number two
image is everything. It's the American Way, it's why companies advertise,
and it's why people spend billions of dollars on the Internet. QMail is not
a product that can continue to stand on it's own merits - people obviously
have a lot of trouble with it, just look at the volume on this mailing list.
It's time that information about QMail becomes as robust as QMail itself.
Hearing from me that the site sucks shouldn't make you feel bad - after all,
what do you know about me? I'm certainly no guru on QMail, which is the
foundation of my criticism for the QMail site. There isn't a nice way to
say that something sucks, lest you not get the message across. I prefer to
be blunt. I got your attention. The current site, in my opinion, hurts
QMail more that it helps. I have offered to help you, and my offer stands.
It's easy to say something sucks. It's hard to do something about it.
Let's do something about it.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Russell Nelson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, September 10, 1999 5:31 AM
> To: QMail List
> Subject: RE: Patches revisited
>
>
> Lyndon Griffin writes:
> > Yeah, I went back, now that you mention it, and I see a lot of
> work has been
> > done since I wrote it off as a dead-loss for information
> months ago. No
> > offense, Russ, but the presentation of information there is
> about as good as
> > any geoshitties site. And yes, that can be taken as an offer
> to help make
> > things better, hence the reason for starting this thread.
>
> No offense, but your web site sucks? How *am* I supposed to take that
> other than as offensive? I mean, c'mon, really. If you think it
> sucks, say so, but don't think you can say it without hurting my
> feelings. It's best to strike the phrase "No offense, but" from your
> vocabulary.
>
> I prefer to list everything on one page because it minimizes latency.
> You download the page once, which doesn't take too awful long because
> there's almost no graphics. Then you use your browser's search
> function to find things that the internal navigation links don't bring
> you to by browsing. This, instead of the usual "click, wait. click,
> wait" you get from most other web sites. You can't do much with a
> small wait, but you can usually find something to do with a big wait
> to download a big page.
>
> So, since you think you can do better, what would you do differently?
> Split the page up? That would waste people's time. Add more
> information? I'm fine with that -- "send code", as they say.
>
> --
> -russ nelson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://russnelson.com
> Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | Government
> schools are so
> 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | bad that any
> rank amateur
> Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX | can outdo them.
> Homeschool!
>
