To Web Designers Creating Forms --

[alfreda89]

Single women living alone do not put their address anywhere on the internet that is not a totally secure form. Some, like me, use a PO Box. So -- if you want me to use your site, enter your contest, comment on your articles, then allow PO Boxes.

When I have a separate office address again, I'll use that. In the meantime, I'm the only one in my PO Box. So it's not a group trying to spam you.

Thank you.

Comments

[aishabintjamil.livejournal.com]

Excellent point. And I feel that unless you're physically going to ship me a package as a result of me joining your list, a PO box should be all the address you need, if you need one at all.... I tend not to use sites that want an unreasonable amount of personal information from me for the kind of relationship I have with them. That goes for brick-and-mortar stores to - I quit shopping at Radio Shack years ago when they started wanting to know my address for cash sales.

However, if you really want to access the site, unless they need to mail you something, or you're entering into a contract and swearing that the information you're giving them is accurate, there's absolutely nothing to prevent giving them a non-existent address. There are lots of vacant lots. Or you can give them a work address, or a public building address (1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is a good one).

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I often do that -- give them false age, too, and occasionally a false name. But a contest, I figure they can disallow me over that. So I tend to not bother entering -- although on contests I would like to win, I often drop them a line pointing out this problem. One even wrote back to say that was completely understandable, and that they'd enter me in the contest, anyway.

My big success was a change made on a commercial site, a small one for quality, expensive herbal tinctures. I let them know why I wouldn't be using their new site, since I could no longer order without a physical address, and their site form was not secure. Maybe I was an "Oh-oh" message, and maybe others let them know, too. But they wrote back to tell me that the site was being changed!

Even big companies make the dumbest mistakes. Back when MS worked with Tandy, they did an address book. And my Ex and I, trying to use it, pointed out that there were not enough spaces in the title field to type "Mr. & Mrs." !

A major failing of having all young people on the design staff, I suspect.