/Rant On

Today was frustrating.

I've been trying to get in touch with the right person at the right organization for a special project I'm working on. The project itself is neat and interesting and, sadly, incidental to today's post, so I'll put my discussion of it on hold for another day.

No, today, I want to talk about website maintenance.

The particular organization I'm currently trying to make contact with has a website. It's an attractive website, and generally navigable. I'm sure, when it was put together, it was great. And it's still pretty. But the contact links are defunct, now - I assume that whoever the email originally went to has left the organization and the link hasn't been updated. Worse yet, the wording of the link isn't the same as the email address it links to, and neither are correct.

I don't want to mention the organization specifically, but I do want to give an example, so the following email addresses are, to the best of my knowledge, not real. Don't click on them - I don't know where they go. 

Let's say you want to contact Buziness R Us. And, on the website, is a contact link to info@buzinessrus.org. Great! You click on it - and your email pops open, addressed to bsmith@buzinessrus.org. That's confusing, perhaps, but you write a very nice email, hit "send," and sigh as it comes back as undeliverable. Well, you say to yourself, maybe the webmaster changed the wording of the link, but didn't fix the code correctly, so the link goes somewhere else. You send a new message - same wording, but this time you type out the email address as it's shown on the website: info@buzinessrus.org. And it comes back undeliverable.

What do you do then? If you're me, you give up on email and pick up the phone, my least favorite way of dealing with any business. 

After a pre-recorded message, you connect with an operator, who, unsure of the person you ought to talk to, transfers you to someone a step or two up in administration, who may or may not know the answer. If you're lucky, you go through that a few times, until you reach someone who can help you, although you'd better get a working email address from that person, because he or she will forget what you wanted from them within five minutes of your call.

If you're not lucky - and, today, I was not lucky - at some point, you get voicemail, leave a message, and pray to St. Jude and St. Catherine of Alexandria that the person calls you back. 

This could have been easily avoided, had the website's contact link been good. Please, for the love of all that is holy and pure, if you work somewhere with contact information on its website, check occasionally that the information is good. If not, get someone to fix it - it isn't that difficult, really. But it could be really, really important. 

/rant off

Links!

• Libraries, Books, & Authors:
• Code at Your Library This would be a great program! 
• Dumping the Catalog It hurts so much...
• Happy birthday, Mary Kathernie Goddard! She was a typesetter, printer, journalist, publisher, editor, postmaster, and bookstore owner. She's best remembered as being the first one to print a copy of the Declaration of Independence with all the names of the signers - an important event, as it forced some of the more reticent Founding Fathers to act in accordance with their words. 
• Should Literature Be Taught In English Class? Of course, literature should be taught; but a Culture Class, teaching literature, art, music, theater, and the like, might be a better idea. It's intriguing. 
• French adults using colouring books to cope with stress I like to color. I might try this next time I feel stressed.
• Net & Tech:
• Facebook Will Use Your Browsing and Apps History For Ads (Despite Saying It Wouldn't 3 Years Ago) Privacy is getting harder and harder to protect...
• Why curiosity will rule the modern world  
• Science:
• Whooping Cough Reaches Epidemic Proportions in California 
• Now, Gujarat to cover Narmada canals with solar panels! Brilliant - not only will the solar panels produce energy, they will slow down water loss! 
• Orbital Brew: Astronauts to Get 1st Space Station Coffee Maker They will get so much more work done, now! Yes, I know they've had instant coffee, but - honestly - have you tried instant coffee? There's no way they've been getting their Recommended Daily Allowance of coffee. 
• The Center Of Our Galaxy Smells Like Raspberries And Tastes Like Rum I take that as proof that there is a God.
• Other:
• Why Would Someone On Food Stamps Have An iPhone? Related: Your Assumptions About Welfare Recipients Are Wrong
• In Thai news: Mr. Heinecke cannot have his coup and eat it too and Ominous signs for migrant workers in Thailand Interestingly, Thai junta dictates that it was an intervention, not a coup. I'm pretty sure it goes beyond "intervention" when you depose the government and use military force, though.
• The Biggest Policy Mistake of the Great Recession There is also a novel idea on how to fix the problem. 
• How Boko Haram Loses 
• Jun 16, 1884: First roller coaster in America opens 
• MISHA COLLINS AND FRIENDS WORLDWIDE SET NEW RECORD FOR ONLINE HUGS I was part of this, guys!!! Woot!!