One of my tasks as UW-Eau Claire Web Coordinator is to respond to comments and questions from our web site. Here are a few of my favorites.

The most frequent comment goes like this:

"I really like your site. Would you please link my site to your home page?"

Here's a 1996 comment about our virtual tour:

"... page looks great, of course, as an alumni, that's not an objective opinion. ... and i had just one question: where's the Old Home virtual tour?" (For those of you not familiar with Eau Claire, Water Street is the second home for some students, with favorite haunts like Old Home.)

Commenting about the bridge image:

"As a distinguished alumnus of UWEC, I have what I think is an appropriate comment for an addition to the Chippewa River Footbridge, commonly known as the coldest place on Earth. ... I propose that you multi-talented Webmasters put in some thought bubbles on the folks seen crossing the bridge in the winter scheme. Imagine this: 'F...' 'G..D...T I HATE THESE FREAKIN' EIGHT 0' CLOCKS!' As we all know, this would be a more realistic representation of our wonderful campus. :)"

I haven't quite figured this one out:

"I want to know (name deleted) because he is in deep sh.."

Not all comments are directed at web dev and I get to pass them on. This one from 'whatajoke@uwec.edu'. You gotta vent somewhere:

"Judging from the internet access provided by UWEC, (deleted) is incompetent! Hire somebody that knows what the hell they are doing. This is a university, not some low budget internet provider. We have work to do!" 1996

Someone saw a student's web site on a free web hosting site and made these comments to me:

"recently had the misfortune of meeting one of your students . Now upon meeting him, I found it extremely shocking that he could possibly be a college student. He lacks the emotional and mental development needed to succeed in college, as well as basic english skills. He doesn't even know how to write dialogue in a story! He's an embarrassment to your school, as anyone who has seen his webpage would feel. Is this really someone you enrolled? Did he really somehow qualify for higher education, though he can not even write at the level of a third grade student, and still acts as if he is in kindergarden? Maybe he just has the password of one of your students, but this is really an embarrassment to your school..." 1997

How about this one:

"Does the school give ANY kind of benifits to married couples?? " Does marriage need any additional benefits? 1997

And this one - I was really tempted to go for it:

"(name deleted) Records is a Nashville TN., based record label that is presently reviewing new artist's for our label. If you are a singer and would like to persue a career in country music, please send a cassette tape of yourself singing 1 or 2 songs, along with a picture and info: About your musical background and your phone #." 1998

But my favorite from 1997 was:

"... We have a PRESTO portable quartz radiation heater, Model No. 0789101 (this model # was difficult to read on the nameplate), that needs a replacement of a 15 3/4-inch heating rod." -- And yes, I did find help for him.

Copyright © 2006 Lillian Hillis