6 ms·

A free text entry field would cover almost everyone.

by Marazan 11y ago

lostlogin 11y ago
Covering almost everyone isn't the problem, it's getting everyone in that is hard. There is a good link in that story about name assumptions. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b.... A free text field doesn't catch everything in that list.
macintux 11y ago
Except people without a single canonical name, or those with no names. Doesn't solve ordering. Or a few more problems from http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b... I'm sure.
zimpenfish 11y ago
Websites that insist on forcing me to enter a first and last name always get abuse in the latter. What I call myself on websites is my business, not yours.
- jhall1468 11y ago
  If at any point in the process they need to bill you for something, they have to ask for your first and last name because that's exactly what the credit card companies require. So there are use cases. Personally, I don't see why any company is asking for a name if they aren't billing you for something or they aren't a social network.
  - lostlogin 11y ago
    I've had a Google, but can't find Zuckerbergs answer to this. Any idea?
  - takno 11y ago
    I've never seen a credit card company ask for separate first and last names.
    - jhall1468 11y ago
      Sometimes I think Hacker News forgets the world doesn't start with LA and end with Miami. http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ firstName First name associated with customer’s billing address. Required only when using a European Payment Processor.
  - gnaritas 11y ago
    > they have to ask for your first and last name because that's exactly what the credit card companies require No they don't, they ask for a single field, name on card which is a single string containing everything on the card.
    - jhall1468 11y ago
      Sometimes I think Hacker News forgets the world doesn't start with LA and end with Miami. http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ firstName First name associated with customer’s billing address. Required only when using a European Payment Processor.
  - Marazan 11y ago
    No they don't, they ask for the full name on the card in a single free text field.
    - jhall1468 11y ago
      Sometimes I think Hacker News forgets the world doesn't start with LA and end with Miami. http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ firstName First name associated with customer’s billing address. Required only when using a European Payment Processor.
  - zimpenfish 11y ago
    That would require the user information to exactly match the credit card information - which is dumb because it blocks a whole swathe of use cases (multiple payment methods, different person paying, paying by Paypal, paying by Apple Pay, etc.)
teej 11y ago
A text entry field on what? A browser? A native android app? A QT interface? What language is processing the text? Java? C? JavaScript? Where is the data going, what is the transmit format, what is the data store? Answering these questions for ascii text is easier. Answering it for utf-8 is harder. Cobbling something together for a character encoding format that can handle the median human name is challenging.

A free text entry field would cover almost everyone.

by Marazan 11y ago

A free text entry field would cover almost everyone.

Covering almost everyone isn't the problem, it's getting everyone in that is hard. There is a good link in that story about name assumptions. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b.... A free text field doesn't catch everything in that list.

macintux 11y ago

Except people without a single canonical name, or those with no names. Doesn't solve ordering. Or a few more problems from http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-b... I'm sure.

zimpenfish 11y ago

Websites that insist on forcing me to enter a first and last name always get abuse in the latter. What I call myself on websites is my business, not yours.

jhall1468 11y ago
If at any point in the process they need to bill you for something, they have to ask for your first and last name because that's exactly what the credit card companies require. So there are use cases. Personally, I don't see why any company is asking for a name if they aren't billing you for something or they aren't a social network.
- lostlogin 11y ago
  I've had a Google, but can't find Zuckerbergs answer to this. Any idea?
- takno 11y ago
  I've never seen a credit card company ask for separate first and last names.
  - jhall1468 11y ago
    Sometimes I think Hacker News forgets the world doesn't start with LA and end with Miami. http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ firstName First name associated with customer’s billing address. Required only when using a European Payment Processor.
- gnaritas 11y ago
  > they have to ask for your first and last name because that's exactly what the credit card companies require No they don't, they ask for a single field, name on card which is a single string containing everything on the card.
  - jhall1468 11y ago
    Sometimes I think Hacker News forgets the world doesn't start with LA and end with Miami. http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ firstName First name associated with customer’s billing address. Required only when using a European Payment Processor.
- Marazan 11y ago
  No they don't, they ask for the full name on the card in a single free text field.
  - jhall1468 11y ago
    Sometimes I think Hacker News forgets the world doesn't start with LA and end with Miami. http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ http://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/ firstName First name associated with customer’s billing address. Required only when using a European Payment Processor.
- zimpenfish 11y ago
  That would require the user information to exactly match the credit card information - which is dumb because it blocks a whole swathe of use cases (multiple payment methods, different person paying, paying by Paypal, paying by Apple Pay, etc.)

teej 11y ago

A text entry field on what? A browser? A native android app? A QT interface? What language is processing the text? Java? C? JavaScript? Where is the data going, what is the transmit format, what is the data store? Answering these questions for ascii text is easier. Answering it for utf-8 is harder. Cobbling something together for a character encoding format that can handle the median human name is challenging.