slightly OT: preventing user stupidity

[Keith F Weatherhead]

GCC Consulting wrote:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com 
>>[mailto:filepro-list-bounces at lists.celestial.com] On Behalf 
>>Of Joe Chasan
>>Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 12:09 PM
>>To: filepro-list at lists.celestial.com
>>Subject: slightly OT: preventing user stupidity
>>
>>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
>>
>>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.
>>
>>what to do?  obviously, the more questions you ask the more the user
>>just answers by rote without thinking.  its not always appropriate or
>>helpful to the end-user to have a corresponding unpost/undo routine.
>>
>>i've thought of;
>>a) mixing up yes/no answers so that they can't press "yes" 
>>all the time
>>
>>(e.g. do you want to post? / enter Y to cancel post, N otherwise...)
>>
>>b) forcing type out of word "Yes" or "Agree" instead of Y or N
>>
>>c) creating a random character sequence each time and ask user to
>>type in to confirm post.
>>
>>draconion?  what have other people tried that would not make them the
>>one least likeley to be invited to christmas party?
>>
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> 
> 
> How about a client who decides to do a year end roll over procedure mid year?
> 
> Had this years ago.  Loads of fun undoing the mess but profitable.
> 
> To keep them from doing this by accident again, I pass worded the menu, the
> output also.
> 
> So, they had to enter 2 passwords and the confirm twice that they wanted to do
> this, after reading what was about happen.
> 
> So, at the end of the year, they called me.  THEY FORGOT THE PASSWORDS.  That
> was easy, it was one of the partners child's name.
> 
> My solution to this stupidly, have the answer yes once, the but up test
> explaining what is about to happen, confirm and the reconfirm.  If necessary put
> a ridiculous price (high) on undoing the mess.
> 
> You might say that to undo a mistaken posting the price will be 3 or 4 time our
> current billing price.

Which is why I always use a Transaction_ID and Posting_Code so that 
I can roll-back my posting transactions.  I write a UnPost routine, 
BUT IT IS NOT ON ANY MENU, and the fact that I know about it costs 
them for the stupidity and makes my life a little bit easier ! ! !

Not to mention it has paid off many times over, especially with two 
of my clients that gave me many changes to prove the code was sound.

Keith

> Have this in a popup, log the answer so there can be no argument that they
> agreed to the terms.  And the bill them for their stupidly.
> 
> Richard Kreiss
> GCC Consulting  

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Keith F. Weatherhead                   keithw at ddltd.com

Discus Data, LTD                  Voice: (815) 237-8467
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