This is pretty basic stuff, if you think for a moment about the existence of other cultures and languages, and yet people keep fucking it up. [For example,] I can't pay with my credit card on Namecheap, because my last name contains an "invalid" character (a dash).
There is a problem with just a straight "Name" field as suggested. Data duplication runs amok. That and splitting it up for templating in other things like letterheads becomes hard. We'll get...
There is a problem with just a straight "Name" field as suggested. Data duplication runs amok. That and splitting it up for templating in other things like letterheads becomes hard.
We'll get address change data at work. Even something as simple as three address lines, city, state, zip becomes very difficult to keep consistent between user-submitted and official data sources.
Assign everyone a GUID at birth for their legal name. Everything else can just be a nickname. I'm only partially kidding.
I really don't see this as a problem on the same level as "you have to lie about your name to get access to the service", to be honest. Just use the full name. Yeah, and this is another example...
That and splitting it up for templating in other things like letterheads becomes hard.
I really don't see this as a problem on the same level as "you have to lie about your name to get access to the service", to be honest. Just use the full name.
Even something as simple as three address lines, city, state, zip becomes very difficult to keep consistent between user-submitted and official data sources.
Yeah, and this is another example where you have to defer to the user over whatever "official" data you have. My apartment doesn't exist, according to the USPS; I'm apartment K, but the USPS thinks my building only has units 1, 2, 3, and 4. Some sites don't let me enter my address; others do, and things get delivered just fine.
In health care where it’s important to distinguish people, they often start by asking your date of birth and then use your name (I assume) to disambiguate if needed. Other businesses might not get...
In health care where it’s important to distinguish people, they often start by asking your date of birth and then use your name (I assume) to disambiguate if needed.
In some conventional situations, I think things are getting a bit better? For example, websites will ask for the “name on the card” when asking for credit card information, or “Name on your...
In some conventional situations, I think things are getting a bit better? For example, websites will ask for the “name on the card” when asking for credit card information, or “Name on your government ID” if you will be showing ID. And a shipping address should have a name field in it that’s used just for that.
I feel this author's pain. My surname contains an apostrophe, which I'm actually very fond of. It's deeply frustrating to try signing up to services only to be told that my name is incorrect. I...
I feel this author's pain. My surname contains an apostrophe, which I'm actually very fond of. It's deeply frustrating to try signing up to services only to be told that my name is incorrect. I understand the reasoning for it, more so than I do for rejecting hyphens, but it's still extremely irritating.
My completely tech-illiterate grandmother gets very annoyed when she receives post where the apostrophe is dropped in her surname, and used to spend a lot of time calling companies to try to get it corrected, only to be told that they couldn't do it, and she doesn't understand why not.
Under GDPR, the companies would now have a legal obligation to fix their systems to accommodate your grandmother’s request. A bank recently got in trouble because of this, don’t remember which,...
Under GDPR, the companies would now have a legal obligation to fix their systems to accommodate your grandmother’s request. A bank recently got in trouble because of this, don’t remember which, but it made the rounds on tech websites because their systems are super antiquated and do not support Unicode.
Honestly, it's unacceptable at this point in time. My father was a software engineer in the 80s, and that was one of his favorite test cases back then. It's been 40 years, people need to get their...
I understand the reasoning for it, more so than I do for rejecting hyphens, but it's still extremely irritating.
Honestly, it's unacceptable at this point in time. My father was a software engineer in the 80s, and that was one of his favorite test cases back then. It's been 40 years, people need to get their shit together.
There is a problem with just a straight "Name" field as suggested. Data duplication runs amok. That and splitting it up for templating in other things like letterheads becomes hard.
We'll get address change data at work. Even something as simple as three address lines, city, state, zip becomes very difficult to keep consistent between user-submitted and official data sources.
Assign everyone a GUID at birth for their legal name. Everything else can just be a nickname. I'm only partially kidding.
I really don't see this as a problem on the same level as "you have to lie about your name to get access to the service", to be honest. Just use the full name.
Yeah, and this is another example where you have to defer to the user over whatever "official" data you have. My apartment doesn't exist, according to the USPS; I'm apartment K, but the USPS thinks my building only has units 1, 2, 3, and 4. Some sites don't let me enter my address; others do, and things get delivered just fine.
In health care where it’s important to distinguish people, they often start by asking your date of birth and then use your name (I assume) to disambiguate if needed.
Other businesses might not get to ask that.
In some conventional situations, I think things are getting a bit better? For example, websites will ask for the “name on the card” when asking for credit card information, or “Name on your government ID” if you will be showing ID. And a shipping address should have a name field in it that’s used just for that.
Yeah, I totally agree. This is a good practice for sure.
I feel this author's pain. My surname contains an apostrophe, which I'm actually very fond of. It's deeply frustrating to try signing up to services only to be told that my name is incorrect. I understand the reasoning for it, more so than I do for rejecting hyphens, but it's still extremely irritating.
My completely tech-illiterate grandmother gets very annoyed when she receives post where the apostrophe is dropped in her surname, and used to spend a lot of time calling companies to try to get it corrected, only to be told that they couldn't do it, and she doesn't understand why not.
Under GDPR, the companies would now have a legal obligation to fix their systems to accommodate your grandmother’s request. A bank recently got in trouble because of this, don’t remember which, but it made the rounds on tech websites because their systems are super antiquated and do not support Unicode.
Oh, that’s good to know!
Honestly, it's unacceptable at this point in time. My father was a software engineer in the 80s, and that was one of his favorite test cases back then. It's been 40 years, people need to get their shit together.