_ The Zero Emissions Strategy Conference

Geeks' Corner

Examples of Help From Around the Net

Inability of WWW Host to Handle Interactive Pages (WebBots, etc.)

It had been our original intention to run some fairly fancy (for us) interactive pages, in particular for the Discussion Forum, but also for searching the contents of the site (via keywords or strings). When this is done well it can lead to a much easier flow of 'conversation' on the site, as well as rather neater and more intuitively traceable Organization of the materials. It also reduces greatly the work involved in site maintenance which one gets into with non-automated setups (such as that we currently have). For these purposes, we purchased the latest version of FrontPage (97) which has some rather nice provision for this. Unfortunately, however, when all the work was done, we ran into a last minute stone wall in with our WWW site provider (Prime Host)which at first defied understanding.
The bottom line of our problem was that while we could get our rather nice pages onto the site, we were not able to get them to interact as needed... above all because our provider, for cited reasons of security, was not (as yet!) willing to accept the little interactive gizmos (WebBots, cgi script, even ticklers) that are required to provide the handling capabilities. (None of this is of course posted or anything like that. One has one choice: try it and then try to figure out why or why not!)The result of our hard (if not smart) work was the following two form sets, which look good enough but simply were not interacting as needed. We share them with you because we feel that they were rather good first steps in the right direction:
First Round Results of Discussion Forum Test Run>
Search Component Test Result - Round 1>
Faced with this -- and a desire to provide the best possible service on the conference -- we immediately sent out an SOS to a handful of people and places whom we thought might help (ll of whom, incidentally, personally unknown to us). Our cover note ran as follows:

"We are in the process of organizing an international scientific conference on sustainable development and for various reasons have been unable to get interactive conferencing, search and feedback pages (using FrontPage 97) onto our Web site (run Prime Host). As a result we have a desperate need for at least a " Reader Feedback Form" of sorts. We have been able to get the html page, apparently, up and running on our site. Only problem, it doesn't work to post the feedback. Unless I can think of something smarter, the best I can imagine would be that the whole thing is simply posted to me as a form to my email address. (Also, we don't have a "here is what you said and thanks for responding…" acknowledgement page.) Can you direct us to some place where we might get some step-by-step instructions so that we can get this on-line quickly? If you have a look at our site at http:// www.the-commons.org/zero-ems, you just may agree that it's not an unworthy cause. Kind thanks. "

For the record, if you now move over to The Discussion Forum: Commentary on (Virtual) Conferencing & Tools you will see some of the responses that came in within 24 hours (again, from people completely unknown to us). The following note will give you an example of the generosity and kindness that these fine people showed us.

Date: Wed, 03 Sep 1997 08:05:32 -0400
From: Deb Suran, deb@mimf.com
The WWW is the largest human resource in the world. If I didn't want to be a useful part of that resource I wouldn't have posted that essay -- I'll let you know if you're asking for too much .
The problems you're coming up against about CGI access and security issues are what we ran into ourselves, and why we ended up renting a server and then offering to rent forum space on it. We feel that the kind of interactivity offered by running forums is the real future of the WWW. Since you don't own your server you are stuck with either living with what Prime Host will allow you to do, or finding another ISP. I'd like to know exactly what services they're providing, and how much you're paying for those services. That way I'll be better able to give you an idea of what else is available out there in your price range. For example, are they doing the design and maintanance at your site, or does someone in your organization do that?
We tried the Front Page forum software because the guy we rent our server from put it on our server and asked us to compare it to Web Crossing -- and after he tried the Web Crossing demo now wants to license Web Crossing from us. The Front Page forum is about the worst program out there. There are several free forum programs (for Unix anyway) that do a lot more, a lot better.
>>Your reactions on our site too would be of interest around here.<< Since you asked: the forum software you're using at your site seems about average for software in the free-$50 price range (so I sure hope you're not paying an-arm-and-a-leg for using it), although it could be presented in a less scattered manner -- perhaps with an index page listing every section and discussion. In fact, your entire site seems somewhat scattered, and redundant -- there are a lot of excess pages with too much information and repetition. For example, when I click on the first "register now" icon, I get taken to yet another page telling me more about registering with another "register now" icon. That's a bit unnecessary. If it were my site I'd tighten it up, take the excess and redundant information off the pages, and simplify the entire look of the site. I'd also make most pages shorter. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Then, focus each page on just one idea or process.
Hope you find this helpful. As I said, I'll let you know if you're taking up too much of my time. Don't hesitate to ask more questions. We did the research -- you might as well take advantage of us .

__Return to Geeks' Corner HomePage