4 ms·

The "Dolt" button

53 points by coderdude 16y ago

burgerbrain 16y ago
Kind of wrecks the joke nature of the story by linking it as 'The "Dolt" button', don't you think?
- coderdude 16y ago
  Nope, because there isn't an Ah Ha! moment at the end where you start laughing. However the story does remain informative. Edit: To whoever decided that I required downvoting, please familiarize yourself with the voting etiquette here. Just because I disagree with the guy being upvoted doesn't mean I'm being a jerk. I was quite amicable, actually.
  - burgerbrain 16y ago
    "He replied, "I'm not a dolt, why is the software calling me a dolt?" " Where it not already spoiled, that would be the punch line.
    - coderdude 16y ago
      Did you laugh at that? You asked me directly if I think I spoiled a joke and I don't believe I did, because it did not make me laugh.
      - burgerbrain 16y ago
        It's humorous, and I think it's pretty likely the author intended it to be that way. Things don't have to literally make you laugh to be considered humorous you know... Perhaps you should lighten up a bit. I was just offering a constructive suggestion for the future. (I heard this story already quite a while ago, so it's not like the joke was personally spoiled for me).
        coderdude 16y ago
        Maybe I sound pent-up? I'm really not. I just answered your question truthfully. Let's agree to be on different pages.
  - mikeklaas 16y ago
    You don't start laughing because you know what the end of the story is going to be as soon as you see the words "Do It" in the article. The joke requires the reader to be in suspense as to why the user was confused, else there is no comic release. I agree that the article remains informative :)
presidentender 16y ago
Hey, at least the buttons didn't say "Submit," right?
- seabee 16y ago
  This is the joke those guys in the thread above were looking for.
enneff 16y ago
Interesting. Akai's famous MPC series of sampler/sequencers use the term "DO IT" in this way. I wonder if its of the same origin.
avibryant 16y ago
Neat. The doIt method is still quite central to Smalltalk systems.
noonespecial 16y ago
This is an interesting error I find many older users making. I call it a "way out of context error". There is no reason whatsoever to assume that the software was calling you a dolt. This should cause the user to look for an alternative interpretation but somehow, they just don't.
- dhimes 16y ago
  Keep in mind when this was. To most people computers were things in movies that caught fire when errors occurred. They commandeered spaceships and sacrificed humans for their own pitiless amusement. Some people had their own computers, but most people never had never used one before and never imagined that they would use one. So it probably wasn't all that far out of context because the context wasn't well defined for them.
- raganwald 16y ago
  The "context" is entirely a fabrication of programmers. If you have years of experience with computers, you know what they should and shouldn't do. You know that a programmer might call a user an idiot in a comment or on a Usenet forum, but not in a dialog button. If you've never seen a computer before, you have no such idea, which is exactly why testing like this is necessary: Programmers have too much experience with the "context" to recognize when something might be confusing or outright offensive. See also: "Abort." p.s. re-reading my text, it might look like I'm disagreeing with the parent comment. that is not my intention, rather I'm agreeing with the parent and attempting to explain why this might be the case.
mlok 16y ago
Why would you use a capital letter for the second word? It should have been "Do it" in which case the problem does not happen. Strange that nobody seems to take this basic rule into account. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capital_letter#Usage https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capital_lette...
- eli 16y ago
  Sure, that's the basic rule for English prose. But dialog button labels are a lot closer to headings or titles than they are to sentences in a paragraph. (Note also that there's no period after "Do It")
Timothee 16y ago
I've had the same problem with the recently-released browser RockMelt: I can't help but reading it as "rock-me-it". Which, I admit, doesn't mean anything, while "dolt" is a word. (does RockMelt mean anything though?)

The "Dolt" button

53 points by coderdude 16y ago

burgerbrain 16y ago

Kind of wrecks the joke nature of the story by linking it as 'The "Dolt" button', don't you think?

coderdude 16y ago
Nope, because there isn't an Ah Ha! moment at the end where you start laughing. However the story does remain informative. Edit: To whoever decided that I required downvoting, please familiarize yourself with the voting etiquette here. Just because I disagree with the guy being upvoted doesn't mean I'm being a jerk. I was quite amicable, actually.
- burgerbrain 16y ago
  "He replied, "I'm not a dolt, why is the software calling me a dolt?" " Where it not already spoiled, that would be the punch line.
  - coderdude 16y ago
    Did you laugh at that? You asked me directly if I think I spoiled a joke and I don't believe I did, because it did not make me laugh.
    - burgerbrain 16y ago
      It's humorous, and I think it's pretty likely the author intended it to be that way. Things don't have to literally make you laugh to be considered humorous you know... Perhaps you should lighten up a bit. I was just offering a constructive suggestion for the future. (I heard this story already quite a while ago, so it's not like the joke was personally spoiled for me).
      - coderdude 16y ago
        Maybe I sound pent-up? I'm really not. I just answered your question truthfully. Let's agree to be on different pages.
- mikeklaas 16y ago
  You don't start laughing because you know what the end of the story is going to be as soon as you see the words "Do It" in the article. The joke requires the reader to be in suspense as to why the user was confused, else there is no comic release. I agree that the article remains informative :)

presidentender 16y ago

Hey, at least the buttons didn't say "Submit," right?

seabee 16y ago
This is the joke those guys in the thread above were looking for.

enneff 16y ago

Interesting. Akai's famous MPC series of sampler/sequencers use the term "DO IT" in this way. I wonder if its of the same origin.

avibryant 16y ago

Neat. The doIt method is still quite central to Smalltalk systems.

noonespecial 16y ago

This is an interesting error I find many older users making. I call it a "way out of context error". There is no reason whatsoever to assume that the software was calling you a dolt. This should cause the user to look for an alternative interpretation but somehow, they just don't.

dhimes 16y ago
Keep in mind when this was. To most people computers were things in movies that caught fire when errors occurred. They commandeered spaceships and sacrificed humans for their own pitiless amusement. Some people had their own computers, but most people never had never used one before and never imagined that they would use one. So it probably wasn't all that far out of context because the context wasn't well defined for them.
raganwald 16y ago
The "context" is entirely a fabrication of programmers. If you have years of experience with computers, you know what they should and shouldn't do. You know that a programmer might call a user an idiot in a comment or on a Usenet forum, but not in a dialog button. If you've never seen a computer before, you have no such idea, which is exactly why testing like this is necessary: Programmers have too much experience with the "context" to recognize when something might be confusing or outright offensive. See also: "Abort." p.s. re-reading my text, it might look like I'm disagreeing with the parent comment. that is not my intention, rather I'm agreeing with the parent and attempting to explain why this might be the case.

mlok 16y ago

Why would you use a capital letter for the second word? It should have been "Do it" in which case the problem does not happen. Strange that nobody seems to take this basic rule into account. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capital_letter#Usage https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capital_lette...

eli 16y ago
Sure, that's the basic rule for English prose. But dialog button labels are a lot closer to headings or titles than they are to sentences in a paragraph. (Note also that there's no period after "Do It")

Timothee 16y ago

I've had the same problem with the recently-released browser RockMelt: I can't help but reading it as "rock-me-it". Which, I admit, doesn't mean anything, while "dolt" is a word. (does RockMelt mean anything though?)