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ArchivesRe: There is a clear instruction about searching first on the posting screen. . .
in reply to a message by Chrisell
I don't want to tell anybody what to do and what not, but let me throw a little of my experiences as an application programmer designing user interfaces and as a webmaster into the discussion:
If, like on this board, a large number of people over long periods of time do not heed a "clear instruction", for me there is only one probable conclusion: The instruction is not "clear" after all.
How can that be? After all it really is written there, right on the posting screen, in simple English, easy to understand. Well, many factors can contribute to the problem: Maybe it is written too small, too easy to overlook. Maybe many people do not understand immediately that this is not a forum-only site but a name information site with added forums. And so on.
The world is full of such surprising user-interface design failures, where you look at the case and cannot help but think "How can anybody in his or her right mind do this and this, not understand that and that ..."
A good strategy for such cases is not to start thinking that the world is full of stupid people or people who just wish to annoy you, but to sit back and calmly analyze the situation, and then modify the user interface.
An example: Why not try the following. If you click the link "Post a Message" first a rather simple page opens with a question written "Did you use 'Search' already to check whether your question was answered before?". The page has to buttons or links, "Yes" and "No", to answer the question. Clicking "No" leads to the search page, and only clicking "Yes" leads to the posting page.
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
If, like on this board, a large number of people over long periods of time do not heed a "clear instruction", for me there is only one probable conclusion: The instruction is not "clear" after all.
How can that be? After all it really is written there, right on the posting screen, in simple English, easy to understand. Well, many factors can contribute to the problem: Maybe it is written too small, too easy to overlook. Maybe many people do not understand immediately that this is not a forum-only site but a name information site with added forums. And so on.
The world is full of such surprising user-interface design failures, where you look at the case and cannot help but think "How can anybody in his or her right mind do this and this, not understand that and that ..."
A good strategy for such cases is not to start thinking that the world is full of stupid people or people who just wish to annoy you, but to sit back and calmly analyze the situation, and then modify the user interface.
An example: Why not try the following. If you click the link "Post a Message" first a rather simple page opens with a question written "Did you use 'Search' already to check whether your question was answered before?". The page has to buttons or links, "Yes" and "No", to answer the question. Clicking "No" leads to the search page, and only clicking "Yes" leads to the posting page.
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
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Replies
I'm considering several of the suggestions mentioned in this thread. I don't think the problem is serious enough that it needs to be fixed right away (for I don't have the time), but your solution might work well.
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Well I personally think the instructions on the posting page are more than adequate
They are as follows
IMPORTANT: If you are posting a question about the origin of a name please include as much information as possible. Most important are the gender and ethnic background.Please also
Before you ask a question about the origin of a name, please search for it to ensure it is not already in the database.
The words 'search for it' are clickable and take one straight to the search page
Many People are lazy, they think its too much trouble to look themselves, We live in a Macdonalds culture where everything is expected to be instant.
Many people dispite the above instructions dont bother to say if the name is male or female or to give any background info
Many even post on someone elses thread where the original poster has had it all explained to them in simple terms about doing a search
In many cases I bet they dont even bother to read the posting instructions
A childs smile is worth more to me than Gold
They are as follows
IMPORTANT: If you are posting a question about the origin of a name please include as much information as possible. Most important are the gender and ethnic background.Please also
Before you ask a question about the origin of a name, please search for it to ensure it is not already in the database.
The words 'search for it' are clickable and take one straight to the search page
Many People are lazy, they think its too much trouble to look themselves, We live in a Macdonalds culture where everything is expected to be instant.
Many people dispite the above instructions dont bother to say if the name is male or female or to give any background info
Many even post on someone elses thread where the original poster has had it all explained to them in simple terms about doing a search
In many cases I bet they dont even bother to read the posting instructions
A childs smile is worth more to me than Gold
1
Did it never occur to you all that many of the people who are posting questions about names in the database are probably themselves children? This is not an adult site and a lot of people who post on names sites are kids. Do you really think it is appropriate to insult someone who may very well be 8 or 9 years old for not following that instruction the very first time they post a question on this board?
Please remember that I did not say such people should not be corrected. I just said they shouldn't be insulted. Most of the time I find the way people are corrected about this to be perfectly polite and proper. This was an exception, and I don't care how long Anneza has been posting to the board -- and I'm perfectly willing to believe she was having a bad day and is not generally a rude person -- but I stand by my opinion that that particular comment was outrageous.
Please remember that I did not say such people should not be corrected. I just said they shouldn't be insulted. Most of the time I find the way people are corrected about this to be perfectly polite and proper. This was an exception, and I don't care how long Anneza has been posting to the board -- and I'm perfectly willing to believe she was having a bad day and is not generally a rude person -- but I stand by my opinion that that particular comment was outrageous.
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I totally agree. Very uncalled for. And someone mentioned 'instant' results and that people are lazy. To me, it is much simpler searching for a name first as compared to registering, then typing out a post, explaining the situation, then remembering and checking back for answers that MAY take a while to show. I think it is more a matter of neglectful and/or ignorant confusion, in that, they simpler fail to notice the 'search first' blurb.
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I'd like to add that it may be particularly confusing for people who are fairly new to the Internet (whatever their age) and who come to this page without first going through the main page. And it is perfectly possible that many people find this page first; if you Google the words "name facts", the URL for this page is the very first one that comes up. Many people who are making their first posts here may actually therefore not be aware that this board is connected to a dictionary listing of names, and if they are new to the Internet they may be confused by the word "database" and not clearly recognize that the underlining of the words "search for it" means that's where they are supposed to "click" in order to do a search.
This message was edited 9/25/2005, 8:49 PM
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Not sure if anyone else is still reading this thread -- but in thinking about it overnight I am sure that the phrasing to "search for it in the database" is part of the problem here. Some of you may find it hard to believe, but there are still lots of people out there who would be completely intimidated by that computerese and would think that they are being asked to do something complicated and mathematical instead of merely "searching a dictionary."
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You could be right I spoke to one of my freinds whos a teacher and she said virtualy the same as you did on this post and the last. So I guess that its not really surprising that we get so many people who just post names rather than search the data base a combination of
Youth,
Having a short time on a school computer,
Having English as a second language,
Not being able to understand Computerese,
And a Google for name facts bringing someone to this page rather than the home page
Could add up to an awful lot of people not realising or being able to do a search for the name they want info on
A childs smile is worth more to me than Gold
Youth,
Having a short time on a school computer,
Having English as a second language,
Not being able to understand Computerese,
And a Google for name facts bringing someone to this page rather than the home page
Could add up to an awful lot of people not realising or being able to do a search for the name they want info on
A childs smile is worth more to me than Gold
1
Yes it accurred to me that some of the posters are children which is why if I answer them I explain the rules in a fairly polite manner, and I agree Anneza did not answer in her usual freindly way
However not all new posters are nine years old and I stick by my words that many are lazy or rather cant be bothered to do a search.
Of corse It may be that for some English is not their first language and it might help if the rules were prehapes written in another couple of languages prehapes French at least
A childs smile is worth more to me than Gold
However not all new posters are nine years old and I stick by my words that many are lazy or rather cant be bothered to do a search.
Of corse It may be that for some English is not their first language and it might help if the rules were prehapes written in another couple of languages prehapes French at least
A childs smile is worth more to me than Gold
1