[CQ-Contest] CQWW Log submittal/Problem - Cookies

[Paul M. Elliott]

Hi Folks,

My experience was as follows:

1. Uploaded my summary and log sheets via e-mail as attched ASCII
files.  I double-checked their readability in Notepad before sending
them.

2. When I got the message with the access code, I was unable to get
in.  Tried it with and without the hyphens, as a Ctrl-C -> Ctrl-V copy
directly from the e-mail to the web page field, etc.

3. Sent a message to the contest fathers, who told me it was because I
had my browser (MS Internet Explorer) set up to allow me to detect and
reject cookies (which I do regularly).

4. Went back in, accepted the cookie (which I blew away after I was
done) and was able to get to my file, but it was unreadable.  My case
has also been forwarded to the questions e-mail address.

I work for a company that provides web-enabled software for electronic
commerce, so we deal with the use of cookies quite often.  The debate
about the use (and abuse) of cookies is multi-faceted.  But one thing
is clear.  It's good web page design to make sure the page will still
work OK even if the user rejects the cookie, as more and more people
are doing.

It's the equivalent of J. C. Penny letting a catalog order call come
through and be processed OK even though the caller chose to hit *67 to
block caller ID.  They'd be stupid to say, "We can't process your
order because you blocked your caller ID."  Every now and again I run
across someone who rejects my call and gives me a message that they
don't want to accept calls from anyone who blocks caller ID.  I just
don't deal with them.

Same way with cookies on the Web. I'm not alleging that anyone on the
contest website would abuse the employment of a cookie.  That's not
the point. But I do hope that the way this particular web page works
will be changed, since more and more users are rejecting cookies as a
basic security measure.

73 - Paul Elliott N3GPU
Westminster, MD

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