NYT = annoying blackbox

Think sending a letter to the NYT will result in any meaningful dialog? Think again.

I read a pretty idiotic article from the NYT and wanted to let them know that it was the last straw, I wouldn't be viewing their website till they changed.

Here is what I sent them:

Honestly your lack of foresight in requiring a log in to view articles upset me but Dalia Sussman's recent article made me wish I hadn't gone through the trouble. If you are going to be bias at least be honest about it. I'll not log in again as your site continually requires.

No thank you
Michael Mink

They responded with:

Thank you for writing to The New York Times on the Web.

This automated message is to confirm receipt of your e-mail.

If your request is to unsubscribe from our free e-mail service(s), please allow three business days
for us to process your request. You may receive some additional e-mail(s) depending on when
your request is received.

We thank you for your patience.

Regards,
NYTimes.com
Customer Service
www.nytimes.com/help

Yeah... So I responded with:

If you are going to send a form letter do so without trying to automagically decide what I said.

-mmink

Which apparently sparked this reply:

Thank you for contacting NYTimes.com.

Please be sure that your browser is accepting our cookies (from NYTimes.com).

All browsers are different and you should consult the Help documentation of your specific version, but here is some information that might help.

In Internet Explorer 6, go to Tools / Internet Options / Privacy. Now click the Edit button and enter "nytimes.com" into the available field and select the option to allow cookies from our Web site. Save your selections.

In Netscape 7.x , go to "Edit / Preferences / Privacy & Security / Cookies". (If no sub-categories visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list.)The default option is "Enable all cookies" which will allow you to have access to NYTimes.com. You could change this option to the more restrictive "Enable cookies for the originating web site only" which should also work for our Web site. Alternatively, if you "Enable all cookies" you might want to select "Ask me before storing a cookie" which will prompt you each time a cookie is set. You'll need to manually accept nytimes.com cookies if you use this option, but you can reject any third party cookies such as ones from our advertisers. Click "OK".

In Netscape 7.1 for Mac, there is no option to directly specify which sites should allow cookies and which should not. In order to do that, you need to do the following:

1. Go to Netscape -> Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Cookies
2. Select either one of the following radio buttons -
Enable cookies for originating website only
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Enable all cookies

3. Check the following box: Ask me before storing a cookie
4. Click OK to save your preferences
5. Go to www.nytimes.com
6. When you get to the site, an alert box pops up with the following message:
The site www.nytimes.com wants to set a cookie.
7. Check "Use my choice for all cookies from this site" and select "Allow"

In Mozilla, go to Edit / Preferences / Privacy and Security / Cookies. (If no subcategories are visible, click to expand the list). Select "Enable all cookies". If you want to be notified when a Web site tries to set a cookie, select "Warn me before accepting a cookie."

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Many browsers are automatically set to accept cookies unless you manually tell the browser to reject them, or you have installed a program such as Cookie Cutter or WebFree to stop cookies.

For more information about cookies, please see the following web page:
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We hope this helps.

Regards,

Phil Eugene
NYTimes.com
Customer Service
www.nytimes.com/help


Yeah, so if you want to talk to the NYT and let them know something I recommend coding up an autoreply that can talk to their autoreply.