| LED Digest 1907: Does Challenge-Response Make Sense? |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam,led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com ............................................... December 9, 2004 Issue #1907 ............................................... .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== The Challenge-Response Approach ==-- ~ Kathryn Martyn "I'd love to hear from other business owners about whether they think this type email system makes sense." ~ John Barendrecht "Please get a real spam filter rather than adding to the spam problem." --== Mysteriously Missing Code, Graphics ==-- ~ Lanell Grant "Indeed the computer was running a Norton software package." --== The PayPal vs Merchant Accounts Debate ==-- ~ Tom Aman "...the cost of your own merchant account is much more than just the fixed monthly fees." ~ Peter Warnock "...big transactions throw flags on PayPal and you have to jump through hoops to get your money." ~ Willie Crawford "Personally, I offer both options..." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== Theft of Copywritten Material ==-- ~ Carlos Martinho ~ John Smart --== Browser Wars ==-- ~ Scott Wang ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Kathryn Martyn Subject: The Challenge-Response Approach > The only way to block spam 100% is to > use a challenge-response system - Scott Wang, LED 1906 I just cannot fathom this as a reasonable way for a business person to operate. It's difficult enough to win a customer but to put an extra layer of difficulty between them and me just doesn't equate, at least not in my mind. I'd love to hear from other business owners about whether they think this type of "tell me who you are before I'll reply to your inquiry" email system makes sense. I think it would be great for personal use, but business use? No thanks. If you called a business who's answering machine said, "Leave a message saying who you are and why we should call you back," would you leave a message or would you call a competitor who's a bit more user friendly? Kathryn Martyn, M.NLP Ending Emotional Eating, One Bite at a Time http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: John Barendrecht Subject: The Challenge-Response Method > The only way to block spam 100% is to > use a challenge-response system - Scott Wang, LED 1906 Terrific - now every time some spammer fakes my email address as the FROM, Scott's challenge-response system spams me 200 times per day asking me if I am a human. No spammer uses his own email address as from or return. Please get a real spam filter rather than adding to the spam problem. You don't know how annoying it is to get several hundred challenge-response emails when you didn't send the spam in the first place. (My spam filter now recognizes challenge-response as spam and deletes it.) John Barendrecht Centralhome.com Company Inc centralhome.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Lanell Grant Subject: Missing code > Imagine my surprise when suddenly several medium size > graphics were missing from two different unrelated pages... - Lanell Grant, LED 1905 > It sounds to me like the ad-blocking setting in Norton's > firewall. It identifies any images of certain common sizes > as ads, and removes them -- whether they are ads or not! - Veronica Yuill, LED 1904 Thanks Veronica & Kevin, Indeed the computer was running a Norton software package. I asked about this specifically. The nature of cable modems had prompted him to install it. He needed "protection", what ever that means ? I believe your ideas that the "simple minded.. better safe than sorry" software done-it, is probably the answer. It fits! The images in question were common .jpg , called from an images folder using plain html. Other similar images displayed, and these didn't, could be explained by very different titles, etc. I believe in this group they were all 250 x 250 px. Thanks for your great input! Lanell Grant ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Tom Aman Subject: PayPal vs other > To me, if you are in business for the long haul like most > of us are, using a 3rd-party processor simply does not > make sense... fixed monthly fees for your own merchant > account... are not that expensive. - Todd Sumrall, LED 1905 It would take too much text to repeat all of the negative comments from Todd about 3rd party processors. I believe they are mostly unjustified or represent exceptional curcumstances. Of course Todd would feel this way since he is in the business of supplying merchant accounts and related services so it is to his advantage if you believe him. First, most users of 3rd party processors will NEVER experience any of the problems he mentions, particularly if time is taken at the start to research the processor to ensure they are reputable and have been around for awhile. Second, the cost of your own merchant account is much, much, more than just the fixed monthly fees. With your own account you add the cost of some kind of gateway and secure server to handle the processing as well as all of the costs (or time) associated with handling and accounting for your own processing - your own merchant account is not an always an inexpensive option. According to one article I read, the "break-even" on cost is around $650US in sales per month and since the article was a couple of years old and 3rd party costs have come down, I expect the "break-even" is somewhat higher now (my guesstimate is that it in now somewhat over $1,000US per month). Third, most reputable 3rd party processors will do their very best to prevent "under the rock merchants" from using their services because this could soon put them out of business as well. Using a 3rd party processor, I just set up my wife's site with a plug-and-play shopping cart and checkout pages that were customized to match the look-and-feel of her site. The initial setup cost was $49.00US with an ongoing fee of 5.5% + $0.45US per transaction, including provision for payments to be made in the customer's desired currency (US Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Australian Dollars, etc., etc.). Hard to match that using your own merchant account(s) at anything near that kind of cost. Many 3rd party processors are BIG operations and thus can offer services that would be very hard for a small business to match at reasonable costs. I have personally used a 3rd party processor for my own business for 7+ years. In that time I have only experienced one chargeback due to name recognition problems (the customer later corrected the chargeback, with apologies), and have never had any other problems that were not dealt with promptly. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Peter Warnock Subject: PayPal vs other PayPal is only cheaper for low volume low revenue businesses. The 1% difference between the discount rate and the merchant account rate really hurts when you make more than two thousand in transactions. In addition, big transactions throw flags on PayPal and you have to jump through hoops to get your money. Peter Warnock webstruction.com ------- new post - same topic ------- From: Willie Crawford Subject: PayPal vs other Hi LEDer's, When I see online merchants using Paypal as their credit card processsor, I don't think of them as cheap, but I do ASSUME that they don't have the volume to justify investing in a regular merchant account, or that they for some reason couldn't qualify for one. In that sense, I do feel that offering Paypal as your only payment option appears less professional. However, I also acknowledge that Paypal users think of their Paypal funds differently. It's like a gamble thinks of his chips. A prospect may think to themselves, I don't have any money but I do have "Paypal." So offering the Paypal payment option will get you customers that you wouldn't otherwise get. Personally, I offer both options since my shopping cart allows it. Willie Crawford therealsecrets.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: Carlos Martinho Subject: Copy theft > I have discovered that a competitor has stolen > the logo and words from my websites... Any > suggestions? - Beth Vance, LED 1906 Beth, The best way is to file a DMCA-compliant copyright infringement notice to the hosting company to take down the content. More info about DMCA at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act http://www.copyright.gov/ Google provides some info on how to file a DMCA copyright infringement notice at: http://www.google.com/dmca.html Carlos Martinho ------- new post - same topic ------- From: John Smart Subject: Copy theft I will refrain from giving legal advice - I know enough to be dangerous, and possibly make the situation worse! This web site won't help you stop this company. But they will help you find out who else has stolen your work: http://www.copyscape.com/ I don't know if this will help - looking at the site they appear to be UK based, but they may not limit themselves. This is not an endorsement - a client sent me this link to see what I thought, and I told him that I didn't know! www.copyrightwitness.com I hope that helps, John Smart, Technical Director InternetDesign.com ------- new post - new topic ------- From: Scott Wang Subject: Browser Wars -- Firefox > ... if people had an informed choice they > would probably not choose IE. - Charles Oertel, LED 1905 This is not necessarily true. I have tried FireFox, Opera, Netscape and IE; and I always come back to IE. It is always the fastest, smoothest, simplest, and easiest to use for day-to-day surfing. In my opinion, browsers like FireFox and Netscape would do well to try to imitate the look and feel of Internet Explorer, while fixing the bugs. On the other hand, I think Microsoft has done a good job allowing web developers to make a minor mistake (like forgetting to close a tag) without crashing the entire web page. These so-called bugs may have been intentional. I wouldn't mind seeing FireFox and Opera be a little more lenient either. Scott Wang ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2004 Adam Audette. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy." - Henri de Lubac |
