11–20 of 53 posts
I think having “business hours” for websites is an interesting experiment that could help foster a sense of community as people must visit around the same time as everyone else. Also saves on server costs. Imagine for instance if Hackernews was only open from 12pm to 11pm on weekdays and until 1 AM on weeekends.
I think having “business hours” for websites is an interesting experiment that could help foster a sense of community as people must visit around the same time as everyone else. Also saves on server costs. Imagine for instance if Hackernews was only open from 12pm to 11pm on weekdays and until 1 AM on weeekends.
> 12pm to 11pm In which timezone?
I think having “business hours” for websites is an interesting experiment that could help foster a sense of community as people must visit around the same time as everyone else. Also saves on server costs. Imagine for instance if Hackernews was only open from 12pm to 11pm on weekdays and until 1 AM on weeekends.
How would that work across timezones
I think having “business hours” for websites is an interesting experiment that could help foster a sense of community as people must visit around the same time as everyone else. Also saves on server costs. Imagine for instance if Hackernews was only open from 12pm to 11pm on weekdays and until 1 AM on weeekends.
Forcing your sleep rhythm on people who have a different one than you for no reason other than a moral crusade isn't a nice thing to do. Also, you cannot make people feel a sense of community with you by annoying them. Annoying someone will make them dislike you.
I think having “business hours” for websites is an interesting experiment that could help foster a sense of community as people must visit around the same time as everyone else. Also saves on server costs. Imagine for instance if Hackernews was only open from 12pm to 11pm on weekdays and until 1 AM on weeekends.
> 12pm to 11pm In which timezone?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forcing your sleep rhythm on people who have a different one than you for no reason other than a moral crusade isn't a nice thing to do. Also, you cannot make people feel a sense of community with you by annoying them. Annoying someone will make them dislike you.
Well like it or not that's how society works. Name me a community that isn't a where things operate 24/7. It annoys me too, but when 97% of everyone observes a normal sleep schedule, who's even around to staff and support the nightlife? Why should my hours be forced upon anybody else?
I would not patronize a business that had to regularly shut down their website, I would wonder what kind of weak IT department they have and why I would want to invest in that.
Some websites are subject to legislation* that requires real people to be available to assist. So if they use local employees to provide assistance, the website ends up being shut down outside of business hours.
This isn't a US bank, but if you see a US government site do this for example, that's usually why.
(* an incidental "benefit" of legislation like this is regulatory capture. It doesn't matter if some code mill like Accenture is the worst technical choice, they already have experience providing warm bodies for the phone line. It raises the bar for getting contracts incredibly high since they're treated as a package deal)
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Edit response because I'm being rate limited...
It's all rooted in Section 508: https://www.section508.gov/manage/laws-and-policies/
> Under Section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information comparable to the access available to others.
Each state has their own extensions and guidance too: https://www.section508.gov/manage/laws-and-policies/state/
And in combination with those state amendments sometimes "access to information comparable to the access available to others" ends up being translated into needing someone to be accessible at all hours that the site is operated.
One thing to remember is that behemoths like Accenture and co also get to tip the scale. The law is vague enough that maybe in theory you could argue that you don't need a live human to meet the requirement... that won't stop incumbents for putting proposals that make it the defacto approach.
Sometimes these requirements aren't as ridiculous as they sound. Some websites are subject to legislation* that requires real people to be available to assist. So if they use local employees to provide assistance, the website ends up being shut down outside of business hours. This isn't a US bank, but if you see a US government site do this for example, that's usually why. (* an incidental "benefit" of legislation li…
Do you have any examples that of US legislation that requires being able to reach a local employee? I can barely get state government departments to respond to me, and there are multiple states I have called during normal business hours that flat out say “we are too busy today, call tomorrow”.
The idea of a government in the US legislating access to a government employee is laughable, based on my experiences.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forcing your sleep rhythm on people who have a different one than you for no reason other than a moral crusade isn't a nice thing to do. Also, you cannot make people feel a sense of community with you by annoying them. Annoying someone will make them dislike you.
Or, it self selects out people who would cost more money in support to the bank. If you’re in their time zone (and awake when they are), the bank could save money by only needing to have support available at certain times. Similarly, they may not want to have you in their community. So, the community they form might be smaller, but more aligned with what they want. They are definitely reducing their pool of customers…
You don't need live support to run a website, you can experience this on most websites that have live support available if you go to their site at 1am local.