I really wish it didn't need to be asked. Be polite, professional, respectful, succinct, and for the love of god don't try to be cute. Is that so hard?
Maybe we need a CoC for error messages.
Should error messages apologize? (2013)
91–100 of 262 posts
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#92[deleted]
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#93Thank the Lord in the Spanish translations of software they drop the "sorries" and the "pleases". That much amount of grovelling must be some American thing I reckon. Unfortunately some American companies are starting to cheapen out on translations by having them made in Mexico even for software used in Spain so the sorries and the pleases and some other spanglish terms are coming here.
Similarly, Russian translations are often translating such phrases verbatim. I have come to the realization that the correct translation would be to drop the "pleases" and instead use the respectful 2nd person plural "Вы" (same as "Sie" in German) as it would be sufficient.
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#94I don't even like "We" in UI messages. "We couldn't find that site." "We're just updating your computer." Perhaps I'm just an old fogey, but passive voice feels like the only right choice: "The site could not be found." "Your computer is being updated." The insertion of "We" feels like an imposition; the company who wrote the code reaching in and enacting their will with your equipment, using your screen as their soa…
>"The site could not be found."
>"Your computer is being updated."
But without the we, it is all passive voice. My English professors in college all hated passive voice.
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#95Thank the Lord in the Spanish translations of software they drop the "sorries" and the "pleases". That much amount of grovelling must be some American thing I reckon. Unfortunately some American companies are starting to cheapen out on translations by having them made in Mexico even for software used in Spain so the sorries and the pleases and some other spanglish terms are coming here.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the people contracting Mexican translators for software released in Spain dont know that Spanish dialects differ a fair bit.
One of the funniest example of that is the Resident Evil 4 game, which was supposedly set in Spain, but had villagers spoke in Mexican Spanish.
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#96I once tried to link error messages directly to the offending line in their open source code, such that it would be clear to everyone what is broken. It never worked correctly, and I stopped trying. If anyone can create an elegant way to do that, it would be a game changer for open source.
Like a stack trace?
jtm@socrates ~ $ dotnet new -o foo console >/dev/null 2>&1 && cd foo && cat > Program.cs && dotnet build >/dev/null 2>&1 && dotnet run
String? bar = null;
bar.GetHashCode();
^D
Unhandled exception. System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at Program.$(String[] args) in /Users/jtm/foo/Program.cs:line 2
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
It can be worrying too, those Windows updates where you have a blank screen with something like "We're getting your files". Could be interpreted the wrong way...
at least they don't hide their purpose. current software is service.
They literally said that Windows is a service on one of the Windows 10 splash screens during installation/update.
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#98I think prefixing with "sorry," is a good idea but I really hate cutesy error messages. I feel the Chrome dinosaur kicked those off, and I do (did?) like the dino. But "it's not you, it's us" is very annoying. "We made a booboo UwU". When something has gone wrong I really don't want to feel I'm being marketed to, I just want information!
One of the worst - I don't know if it's still there - was a Gmail message something like "Hooray! Your inbox is empty." Well that's great if you worship Inbox Zero. But what about me? Maybe I'm anxiously waiting for news on a family member's illness and hospitalization. Maybe I'm waiting for my lawyer to get back to me on an important case. It's not hard to imagine any number of circumstances where I would not say "h…
Same with slack when it congratulates you for catching up on messages. Each app/service assumes you are able to take the afternoon off if you happen to have 0 widgets in your widget list.
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#99I don't even like "We" in UI messages. "We couldn't find that site." "We're just updating your computer." Perhaps I'm just an old fogey, but passive voice feels like the only right choice: "The site could not be found." "Your computer is being updated." The insertion of "We" feels like an imposition; the company who wrote the code reaching in and enacting their will with your equipment, using your screen as their soa…
I don't even like verbs:
"site not found"
"software updating"
edit: better: "update in progress"
Re: Should error messages apologize? (2013)
#100Why the system should apologize for you being stupid ? This makes no sense to me.
The error should be concise, assertive, objective.