5 ms·

Neither are metric units.

• collyw 12y ago
  I didn't know what my weight was in pound before I saw this either. It was very little effort to find out.
  • gambiting 12y ago
    It's not about the effort. It's about the fact that I disagree with websites using units that the majority of the planet doesn't use. Just like some websites use Fahrenheit units,despite them being used by literally 3 countries out of over 120+ we have on Earth. That's what standards are invented for,and we should keep to them.
    • learc83 12y ago
      The US doesn't follow these standards, so using metric units would alienate the majority of this website's user base. The developer is following the standards and customs of the country he or she lives in. Do you also disagree when a Chinese developer doesn't use English for a website? It might make sense to have a toggle switch, but then again maybe 95% of the user base is from the US and the developer didn't think the extra effort was worth it.
      • DanBC 12y ago
        > The developer is following the standards and customs of the country he or she lives in. Do you also disagree when a Chinese developer doesn't use English for a website? I would gently remind that Chinese developer that internationalisation is important if they want to get an audience.
        • learc83 12y ago
          There are plenty of use cases were the localization efforts won't justify the returns. Like the case where a single developer is working on a weekend project. I run several websites that are English only because I lack the resources and motivation to run an international business right now. There are also plenty of successful Chinese only websites. The website we're talking about doesn't even have any ads, it looks like a side project, not a business venture. Yet, half the comments on this thread are outright demanding he support their specific needs. Maybe he thinks 300 million Americans is a large enough audience, and he's not willing to put in any more work.
          • gambiting 12y ago
            But then we are leaving comments on HN, not on his website. And HN has a much larger non-US audience(than his website), so if something gets to the front site we would also like to enjoy it. I think we would complain just as loud if the top link on HN was in German or French .
          • DanBC 12y ago
            I'll happily agree that some of the HN comments are rude and dickish. > I run several websites that are English only because I lack the resources and motivation to run an international business right now. There are also plenty of successful Chinese only websites. Adding support for other languages is a lot more work than adding in support for correct weight and height units.
            • collyw 12y ago
              >..than adding in support for correct weight and height units. Are imperial units not "correct" now?
      • gambiting 12y ago
        Pretty much entire engineering industry in the US uses metric units, so this is what counts. I am actually surprised that a web programmer would use imperial units on their website.
        • learc83 12y ago
          The vast majority of people in the US, engineers or not, do not know their height and weight in metric units without converting. Nothing here regarding height and weight is ever metric, and there is no reason to think the average programmer ever uses the metric system day to day.
    • collyw 12y ago
      Do you bother about Chinese sites where you can't read the language, or do you just ignore them? There must be lots of those.