slightly OT: preventing user stupidity

[Fairlight]

The honourable and venerable Joe Chasan spoke thus:
> meaningless rant of the day:  how far do you go to prevent user stupidity?
> 
> program:  Q.  Do you wish to post now? (Y/N)
> user: Y
> 
> program: Q. Are you SURE you wish to post? (Y/N)
> user: Y
> 
> program:  Q. Are you REALLY REALLY REALLY SURE you want to post now? (Y/N)
> user: Y

You forgot this permutation:

program:  <HAL9000> Q. I really don't think posting is a good idea.
I think you should sit down, take a stress pill, and think this
out. </HAL9000> [OK]

> user:  SH*T. i didn't want to post. time to call the consultant to drop
> everything and unpost the 63 places that get affected by my careless
> posting of data that was certainly not my fault that was posted in error.

*laughing harder*

> i've thought of; a) mixing up yes/no answers so that they can't press
> "yes" all the time

Ever see the joke program that has a mouse boundary threshhold around the
Yes button and won't actually let you get near it, instead bouncing your
mouse out a bit and letting you only skitter the cursor to within 5px of
the button--forever?  :)

> c) creating a random character sequence each time and ask user to type in
> to confirm post.

They do this online on websites to prevent automated signups for accounts.
My gripe about it is that it REQUIRES you to have a graphical browser up
because the technology is based around a graphic of text characters.  And
usually the fonts they use are next to impossible to tell an O from a 0,
and a G from a 6, etc.  God, those annoy me.  What's worse is when you're
already -inside- an area where you've agreed to the ToS, and they do this
anyway, even though you already have legitimate access for which you've
signed up.  Argh.  Pointless.

> draconion? 

More humane than some deserve.

mark->
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