Re:Should Error Messages Apologize?
by Stratoscope on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @04:02AM
(#39286193)
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 "hooray!" when I see my inbox is empty.
hooray! your sysadmin botched the migration and your mail is all gone!
Re:Should Error Messages Apologize?
by flatcakes on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @10:03AM
(#39289398)
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.
it congratulates you for not having a pile of unknowns, not that you have nothing to do
I believe the hooray is only presented that way in the spam folder.
I think the canonical cutesy error message is
> OOPSIE WOOPSIE!! Uwu We made a fucky wucky!! A wittle fucko boingo! The code monkeys at our headquarters are working VEWY HAWD to fix this!
Re:Should Error Messages Apologize?
by EvanAnderson on Wednesday February 07, 2024 @11:42AM
(#39290741)
A thousand times this. Cutesy error messages make me feel like the developer doesn't take my use of the product seriously. It's wildly unprofessional.
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!