| PhillipB |
06-18-2003 07:35 PM |
Webmaster finally gets revenge on surfer!
This is in response to an e-mail I got today:
Quote:
FYI - just joined your site and cancelled. Wanted to tell you why.
The assigned username and passwords really stink. Come on, I mean, 12 randomly assigned incoherent letters & numbers? Who can keep those correct all the time?
I would suggest you either let individuals pick a username & password or use something much more user friendly than that. Other websites I've joined allow the individual to choose their own or at least provide something much more regular.
My opinion only.
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To which I replied:
Quote:
Hi there,
I appreciate your feedback on my site. If I may, allow me to explain something about our username and password system:
1) First of all, I'm not sure what an "incoherent letter or number" is. We only use letters and numbers from the English system. I thought about using Chinese, but that would probably give people a legitimate reason to cancel. What I believe you are trying to refer to is the word itself is incoherent. It most definitely is, for the following reason:
2) For every one member that specifically signs up and cancels because of our username/password system -- and keep in mind there aren't many because we randomly survey those that sign up and cancel shortly thereafter -- there are about 5 hackers trying to gain access to our site. These hackers sit there all day long, running extremely complex software which keeps hitting our site with every word in the English dictionary. Now before they resort to some of the more obscure words, they rely on our more intelligent customers' use of common combinations. Pet's names, yes/no, username/password, their first name/last name (that's my favorite), famous actors' first and last names, TV shows, etc. You would be amazed how many George/Bush users we had before implementing our new system.
Anyway, once one of these hackers finds a working username/password, he or she will then post that information to a "hacked password site." Within about 2 minutes, my site gets accessed by thousands of free moochers, causing my site to slow down, my bandwidth costs to scream through the roof, and my blood-pressure to rise about 5 notches. Suddenly, legitimate members begin canceling and eventually my site will stop responding entirely. All because someone decided to use Anna/Nicole as their username and password....
3) Judging from your e-mail, I have to conclude you must be using either an Atari 2600, Commodore 64, or some other obscure operating system built before the invention of the Windows and Macintosh platform. I say that because had you been using either Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, you could take the 1 second to check the box which pops up and essentially asks you "hey, do you want me to save your username and password so you never have to type it in again". Problem solved.
4) So you're using a 1984 IBM XT, with Netscape .04 (called Mosaic back then), surfing the Web via AOL and a 2400 baud modem. I'm sure you're experiencing more problems than random usernames/passwords, but I digress. It would have taken you a whopping 30 seconds to send an e-mail asking me to change your username and password to whatever you wanted. As I explain in my member's section, you are free to e-mail me should you need anything.
Long story short...you would have stayed had you really liked the site. After all, checking the username/password box or e-mailing me a username/password request isn't too difficult, is it? ;-)
Best of luck,
MH
E-mail: [email protected]
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