[35774] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: I've just tried new.net's plugin. Don't.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Schwartz)
Thu Mar 15 20:02:40 2001
From: "David Schwartz" <davids@webmaster.com>
To: "Stephen J. Wilcox" <steve@opaltelecom.co.uk>
Cc: "Jeff Workman" <jworkman@pimpworks.org>,
"Chris Davis" <chris.davis@computerjobs.com>, <nanog@merit.edu>
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 14:11:31 -0800
Message-ID: <NCBBLIEPOCNJOAEKBEAKGEGNNNAA.davids@webmaster.com>
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> On Thu, 15 Mar 2001, David Schwartz wrote:
>
> > Did you know that you can choose which nameservers you use?
> > And you can
> > continue to use the same nameservers no matter what provider you use.
>
> Why do nanog threads always repeat themselves fifty times before they die?
Because people don't read what other people write.
> Not wishing to repeat myself either but..
>
> Why is choice so important to you?
Who said it was? I'm just saying that it's unreasonable for you to complain
about me having a choice.
> OK, I just created Wilcox's law of customer support..
>
> this states that for every choice you give users the number of potential
> problems increases proportianally.
Then don't give your users the choice. See, no problem.
> You give them different operating systems, different browsers, different
> providers now you give them different DNS roots..
>
> You just doubled the number of ways in which a (dumb) home user can break
> their systems and get all confused over why when they just installed the
> new Opal Internet software all the web pages they are used to using are
> different...
Then don't give your customers that choice. Nobody is forcing you to.
> simple to me, you and everyone on this list, but to a (dumb) home user
> thats 15 minutes to explain the problem, 15 minutes to discuss the details
> of the DNS system and 15 minutes to once again explain how this affects
> them because they dont understand a word you are saying and cant
> understand why typing in www.yahoo.com now resolves to a porn site!
>
> Following me so far? Sure, you are free to choose, very good have the
> "land of the free" feeling of excitement. But I'm suggesting its a really
> bad thing to make this decision for people who are not going to understand
> this and cause all of us nice people problems.
If giving your customers a choice causes you a headache, then don't give
them a choice. If you are selling them unfiltered Internet access, then give
them that. If you give them flat-rate support, then give them that. If you
don't support some services, then don't.
DS
