On Tue, Jul 17, 2001 at 10:34:22AM +0200, Thomas Wouters wrote:
After some careful consideration, as well as a chat with a few clueful colleagues, I have to disagree with you, Barry. The trick here is 'managing the expectations'. Having the message say something like
To confirm or remove your subscription request, visit <URL>
And then have that URL bring up a nice overview of what list you are subscribing to, the options you chose (regular-digest/mime-digest/etc), what email address you entered, and 'remove' and 'confirm' buttons. Frankly, it's always bothered me that you can't unconfirm a mailinglist subscription, let alone not being able to see what you are subscribing to ;P
Extra credit if you make the URL (or something similar) also work if a subscription is held for approval, but without a 'confirm' button -- just a 'remove' one. Actually, the same kind of interface for a held message would be great, too :)
I agree strongly that this is the _RIGHT_ way to do it, and it complies with W3C standards as well. Opening the URL should not just go ahead and do something, and many people may be angry if it does. It should tell the user what it's offering to do, and then allow the user to make an informed decision about whether to do it or cancel it.
After all, it's only one extra click. Keep in mind that there are foolish people out there who use mail clients from evil software monopolists that can be configured to automatically preload URLs contained in mail, and some of them do so configure them. Then everyone on the list has to deal with, "How did I get on this list? Stop sending me mail!"
-- Linux Now! ..........Because friends don't let friends use Microsoft. phil stracchino -- the renaissance man -- mystic zen biker geek alaric@babcom.com halmayne@sourceforge.net 2000 CBR929RR, 1991 VFR750F3 (foully murdered), 1986 VF500F (sold)