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This is almost as bad as the address question. I go by my middle name (my parents thoughtfully gave me my father's first name and even middle initial, which ha
by Vivtek 16y ago
This is almost as bad as the address question.
I go by my middle name (my parents thoughtfully gave me my father's first name and even middle initial, which has caused no end of confusion for many a credit bureau over the years). Unfortunately, the State of Indiana's birth certificate system assumes beyond any possibility of override that (1) everybody with children has a first name, (2) that first name has no spaces in it, and (3) the middle name is insignificant. So my kids' birth certificates have my dad's names on them as the father.
But hey, who am I, a mere parent, to say what my name is?
The real world is full of organic detail that is difficult or perhaps impossible to capture in full in a software system. A name should be just a string. If there are business requirements for sorting or name-of-address (e.g. "Dear Mr. Jones") they should be done with heuristics, with human intervention invoked in sticky situations if necessary. Sure, it's difficult, but you know, a hundred years ago that stuff was all done on an individual case-by-case basis by human beings; if your business assumption is that it can't be done cheaply enough without eliminating human intervention, perhaps you should rethink your assumptions.
Otherwise, let me assure you you're irritating every customer whose name doesn't meet your arbitrary rules - in exactly the same way that Google pisses off everybody who needs human support. Everybody thinks that sucks. So at least you should get people's names right, using human intervention if you have to. (And addresses, too, but we just had an extended thread about that, like last month.)
- halostatue 16y agoI am the third person by my full name. My grandfather goes by our shared first given name; my father by our shared middle given name. When the distinction does not matter, I just use my first given name and surname. I never use the middle given name (if someone called me just by my middle given name, I would not respond). If the distinction matters, then whatever system is in place had better be prepared to use my ordinal (III) as significant, but had better not put it as part of my last name. So I will go by: "A-"; "A- Z-"; "A- H- Z-"; or "A- H- Z- III". I never go by "H-"; "H- Z-"; "H- Z- III"; or "A- Z- III".
- Vivtek 16y agoWell, in my case, in addition to giving my my dad's first name, my parents called me by my middle name to distinguish us (a not-unusual practice in families originating in Kentucky/Tennessee; I'm damned lucky they called me Mike instead of Jim-Mike). So for all intents and purposes, my legal middle name is my actual name. It's what I identify with me. That programmers don't get that is a continual source of irritation in my life.
- gisenberg 16y agoOn the topic of address questions, I went through a form on Fidelity that disallowed post office boxes from being supplied as an address. At the time, I lived on Newport Way, and the "po" in Newport qualified as a PO box. So, for a while, I lived on Newp0rt Way.
- rmc 16y agoIn many countries in Africa, the postal service doesn't do delieveries to people's houses. Every address is a "PO BOX ...."
- frossie 16y agoA name should be just a string. Indeed. The real question is, why are you asking for their name in the first place? Consider these three scenarios: (a) You are an airline, and the name you collect has to match their government-issue ID (b) You need to mail something to the user (c) You wish to create an account for them on your blogging website The requirements for you to understand what they are trying to tell you their name is very much depend on the situation (context matters, as I need to have tattooed on my forehead). For (c), screw what is their first name, or last name, or middle name, or whether they have such a thing. For (b) the only requirement is "write something down what the post office in their country will understand" - again, never mind whether you understand it. For (a), how is this going to be matched by TSA? Do what is right to conform to the API. Even in the US, people have very complicated names - here is a not unusual name from my local paper's birth announcements: Kalamanamananaueikalani Tomoko Namakauluhonuamea'ililamalama Wengler-Ioane Does anybody really, really need to deal with this in its full glory? It should come down to "What would you like us to call you" and "are you M/F" (if relevant).
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]