Contacting Websites
Gripe of the day – sites that insist on web forms for communication, rather than a straight email address, rarely reply promptly. Often they don’t reply at all, and of course there’s no easy way to send a polite follow-up email that refers to the original.
Yes, I know spam systems grab published email addresses, but there are ways around that: my favourite one is to place the email address into an image, similar to the verification code images that sites use to avoid automated access. The main downside with this approach is that it’s less usable and accessible (e.g. for speech conversion) than conventional text but that’s a better option than insisting people complete a web form in my opinion.
And, while I think of it, sites that only publish phone numbers that may only be called from within a specific country are equally evil.
