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> ...a government website that kept 9am-5pm hours... Sometimes this is done because the "opening times" are baked into existing process, (or in some cases, leg
by s_kilk 10y ago
> ...a government website that kept 9am-5pm hours...
Sometimes this is done because the "opening times" are baked into existing process, (or in some cases, legislation), and so the digital replacement for the old meat-and-paper process must be subject to the same seemingly crazy time restrictions.
It seems mad, but if you're an underfunded branch of the state, trying to replace a paper-based process with a website, on a staff of junior developers and over-stretched project managers, well....
EDIT: or the process hinges on an aging perl/oracle/Solaris stack, with a pile of cron jobs which process the day's activities overnight. And of course, the definition of a "business day" is baked into the legislation, so the first job needs to start at 5:10 sharp.
Source: I've seen it with my own eyes.
- middlering 10y agoActually the reason usually is parity across digital divide. So those without access to digital services are not disadvantaged by being forced to use business hours, while digitally-enabled get access 24 hours. Free internet at libraries could've been a way to work around this inequality of access, but the libraries have business hours too
- Bartweiss 10y agoThis actually makes a lot of sense. You do 8 hours of business every day no matter what the medium is, satisfy your legal requirements, and say that everyone gets an equal chance in person or online. Then you run your hideous 12 hours of cron processing to clean up the day's mess. "Makes sense" does not mean "good", but I do understand the madness a little better now...