Carry on up the Internet: You haven't got mail

Matron: [handing Sir Bernard envelopes] By the way - your mail.

Sir Bernard Cutting: Yes, I am! And I can prove it, d'you hear! Prove it!

(Carry on Matron, 1972)

Doctors get asked at parties about people’s random ailments.  Mechanics get asked about strange noises friends’ cars are making.  So it’s not really surprising Web Developers get asked about problems with web sites.  Well, we get asked about all sorts of computer and Internet problems, there’s a better chance we know the answer to the ones about web sites.  I’ll take IT problems over ills any day of the week.

I was asked if I’d have a glance over a web site for a small club.  They didn’t seem to ever get new members because of the web site.  One of the most obvious problems was the lack of any way to contact them.  They were so worried about being swamped with spam emails that they’d not included an email address on the site.  Nor had they included an address, phone number or any other way of getting in touch anywhere on the site.  Even if someone came to the site and wanted to join or attend a meeting, they had no way to get in touch.

An easy fix for this was to set up an email address just for use on the web site.  They were also able to arrange with the hall they meet in for their post to be sent there.  Then all that they needed to do was update their web site to include the contact details.