Well, it was bound to happen sometime with all the blogging I have been doing lately:
I fell victim to a Rosanne Rosanna Danna Rant. For those of you not lucky enough to know this Saturday Night Live character played by the tremendously talented late actress Gilda Radner, she was a special commentator on the News segment. She would go on empassioned tangents about things that were actually the result of her own misunderstanding. Once she was corrected by the anchorman, she would turn to the camera and say sweetly "Never Mind!" I wish I could remember an example, but alas they escape me. Anyone remember a classic segment?
I am turning to you now and saying "Never Mind!"
I wrote about my frustration today with a Fast Company "squeeze page" that apparently I am the only one to have problems with. I am following one reader’s suggestion to retract the post so that I don’t send bad vibes to someone who isn’t doing anything wrong.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why I still am not able to access the site (I still see the strange page when I type in the address and it won’t let me get past this screen.) Here is a screen shot just so you know what I am talking about. It is rare times like this when I miss being an employee so that I could call my ace technology expert to come to my machine and clean up the mystery.
Thanks, smart readers, for keeping me honest. And sorry to send an undeserved bad vibe your way Fast Company!
______________
Update: My reader Tim reminds me it was actually Gilda’s character Emily Litella who would go on the rants followed by "Never Mind!" I obviously need to refresh on old SNL episodes!
Later Update: Due to some amazing and generous technical support from a number of readers (thanks Kris, Richard, Karen, Keith, Andy, Derik et al!) I finally solved the mystery by downloading the latest version of Internet Explorer. The mysterious "squeeze page" went away and I got right into the site. Let’s hope this Beta version 7.0 doesn’t create any new strange occurances!
Just to be more specific – if I go to the main site it’s fine but if I click on the /welcome.html link in the comments above the “skip this” link does nothing. I don’t know in what context it usually appears as I did not read the retracted post nor have I visited the site before.
Erik and Derik (hey, that rhymes!):
I am perplexed myself. To my non-technical mind, I can only think that I didn’t pay sufficient hommage to the technology gods. I am now setting up an alter and will burn candles and offer fresh fruit each day. Perhaps that will help!
Have a great weekend guys! And thanks for still trying to figure it out!
Erik, I am an avid firfox user and I had no problem accessing their site. this is definately a strange occurance.
You should not have to upgrade to a beta release of a browser to view a website. The wrong part is that they didn’t apparently test it before they released it. I could see it not working in Firefox (which it doesn’t) but not working in IE is either a mistake or laziness.
Hi Pat:
There are no stupid questions! I should have explained myself better.
A “squeeze page” is a page on a website (usually the home page) that forces you to give your personal information, like name and email, in order to go any further in the website.
It is not always a horrible thing, if there is valuable information on the other side of the page. I sign up for quite a few things that I find valuable enough to trade a bit of my email box space for. If someone has put a lot of time and energy into creating something free that will benefit me, I don’t have a problem with it.
Where it gets annoying is when there is no other information on the page or way for you to get a hold of the company. That is when the “squeeze” starts to feel like a Sopranos character named Vinnie has his hand around your neck, demanding your personal information.
Thanks for asking the question – others probably were confused too, they just didn’t ask.
All the best,
-Pam
Dumb question: what is a squeeze page? It’s not an expression I’ve ever heard before.
Hello Pam,
If you’re still interested in getting through the Fast Company Web site but you are still unable to get through, please try pasting this URL in your browser’s Address bar:
http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html
This is the URL for the Welcome page and the “Skip” link here is dead or something:
http://www.fastcompany.com/welcome.html
And, are you using Internet Explorer 6?
Have a great day.
Kris
The best episode was when they were discussing violence and she went on a rant about how terrible and annoying violins are. I laugh just playing it back in my mind.
Great blog.
Also, what is the URL in your address bar? that can clear up a lot.
The problem could stem from a cookie.
Try using a browser that you don’t normally use, or clear the cookies in you usual browser.
I hate welcome screens too – they’re so… 1996. I didn’t think your post was off-base. If I may paraphrase: “It’s your blog and you can rant if you want to”.
A thought: It could be a cookie issue. Did you refuse cookies from the site? They sometimes don’t play nicely without cookies and, on top of this transgression, don’t even bother to tell you…
Hi Karen:
I did click that multiple times, but it did not get me out of the screen. That was the problem!
Tim: You are right!
Hi Pam,
There’s a link at the top right hand corner that says “Skip this welcome screen”. You need to click this to get to the blog.
Karen
You’re confusing your Gilda characters. It was Emily Litella who would go off on a confused rant (“What’s all this I hear about flea erections???”) and, when corrected, say “never mind.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Litella