Thank you for triggering one of my earliest and least-fond memories of my
job at W3C...
That "Webmaster" link in the CERN httpdaemon pointed to me [personally
responsible] via www0.cern.ch. After two hellatious years of demands to know
"WHERE'S SOLOFLEX!!!" and the like, I persuaded Robert Cailliau to help. One
afternoon in Paris we drafted this little polite request to seek help at the
source:
http://info.cern.ch/httpd_3.0/CGI/HTImageDoc.html
>About the error you just encountered
>You have just clicked on the words "CERN httpd 3.0" at the bottom of an
error >message.
>
>The Web site which returned this error message runs the CERN software (CERN
>http daemon) and the error was caused by one of your requests to that site.
>
>If you typed a URL to access the site, please verify that you typed it
correctly
>(pay attention to spelling and upper-case/lower-case differences). If you
just >followed a link, the Webmaster of the site may be able to help you
solve the >problem you encountered.
>
>Please use the "Back" button of your browser to return to the site which
>generated the error message.
>
>Further explanations and assistance can be found in the W3C Webmaster FAQ.
>
>About the World Wide Web
>The Web originated with Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, the European Laboratory
for >Particle Physics, in 1990. The first software was written there, and
freely >distributed, which is why the error message carries this historic
link.
>
>Web Consortium
>The development of the Web technology is currently driven by the World-Wide
>Web Consortium, W3C, , which is hosted by MIT/LCS in the US, INRIA in
>Europe, and Keio University in Japan.
>
>Web Conferences
>The International WWW Conferences are organised by the IW3C2 where you can
>find latest info on them.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
>R. Cailliau, Web Office, CERN; Sally Khudairi, W3C, MIT.
And it worked. I, of course, wanted to take a much more aggressive approach
and had a different idea how to tell those lost souls where to go, but
Robert's tact won in the end. It is worth noting that until I complained
endlessly to the *appropriate* parties, about 70% of the rants of the "who
are you and what have you done to my web site" and "how do I work this
thing?" type came from AOL users :-[
Strength,
Sally
-----Original Message-----
From: Rodent of Unusual Size <Ken.Coar@Golux.Com>
To: FoRK@Xent.ICS.UCI.Edu <FoRK@Xent.ICS.UCI.Edu>
Date: Thursday, May 27, 1999 1:01 PM
Subject: Tech support 230
>{sigh} We get a lot of lame reports in the Apache bug database.
>One of the more common is, 'Why have you installed *your* software
>on *my* Web site/my PC? I'm gonna sue, you meanies!' A lot of people
>have the slightly better sense to send these plaints to one of
>our email addresses ('I went to see Russian girls and I get
>Apache. I want my Russian girls!'), but the bugdb is slowly
>accumulating these Clewless George reports like cholesterol.
>
>I had a sudden inspiration/revelation/picture in my head about
>how to typify these: "I have no clew and I must scream!"
>With apologies to Roger Zelazny, may he RIP.
>--
>#ken P-)}
>
>Ken Coar <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/>
>Apache Software Foundation <http://www.apache.org/>
>"Apache Server for Dummies" <http://Web.Golux.Com/coar/ASFD/>
>