So I noticed on my Facebook profile page that it still bothers to tell me that the user I’m looking at is online now…The last line at the bottom there – “You are online now.”
I can’t tell if this is a joke or not, or their system simply auto-replaces every instance of my user name with “You” or “Your” when I’m logged in, but it is funny :-)
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Matt Linderman wrote this on Oct 15 2007
There are24 comments.
So I noticed on my Facebook profile page that it still bothers to tell me that the user I’m looking at is online now…The last line at the bottom there – “You are online now.”
I wondered whether this is so you can see what your profile page looks like to others, but it’s possible to set the privacy settings so that online status only appears to you. Now that’s really pointless!
BA is in no way the only site to have huge title lists like that; iirc some of the fancier (london-based) clothes shops do the same thing.
Presumably there are enough military/gentry using these sites that it’s worth the occasional lol rather than deal with some posh git complaining about how his father didn’t give the government millions just so he could be called “Mr.”.
Thank you British Airways for FINALLY letting me get the recognition as Air Vice Marshal that I properly deserve.
nic
on 15 Oct 07
I see “His Holiness” is in there, presumably in case the pope decides to book his BA ticket online?!
David Andersen
on 15 Oct 07
BA has been properly skewered in these comments; well done. I find a title selection option silly and can’t stand it when a site makes it a required field!
I am not one to complain about titles but before mocking the selector please consider they have some importance in Europe still, sometimes in an official capacity. While most of the titles I see here are indeed a matter of courtesy, some do have a meaning for the company.
BA is a British company and, as such, thinks in British terms. 37Signals is an American company and does the same.
I also assume some military or diplomacy positions entail the purchaser to special services or, at least, better oversight from BA. Maybe the form is not so silly as it seems.
On a final note, many women traveling alone opt to be called “Dr.” so as not to reveal their sex – which admittedly works better if their name is ambiguous, e.g. Chris for Christine.
Is anyone else bothered by the irresponsible use of pronouns in software? Facebook has “View Photos of You” followed by “My Movies”, but both refer to the same person. I think this started with Windows 95, when operating systems that generally refer to the user as “you” added terms like “My Computer”.
Not only is it confusing on the screen, it’s extra confusing in speech: “Okay, go to My Computer… No, not MY computer, go to YOUR My Computer.”
AnkurJ
on 15 Oct 07
I think the “You’re online now” is an indirect way of communicating that, “Others can see that you are online now”.
Anonymous Coward
on 15 Oct 07
WVH … totally agree. Even if one was better than the other (“you” vs. “I”), the inconsistent usage across the internet has rendered it a confusing convention either way. My company’s software has shifted (conceded?) to using the user’s name in place of a pronoun.
“You are online now”—if your profile is public, you can view it without logging in, so it’s not all that useless.
Presumably they mean Lieutenant. As a Brit, I feel slightly ashamed at the iffy spelling of my national carrier…
Mike
on 15 Oct 07
@FJ, no, the form is silly. Any form publicly available online that allows for options like Her Highness, His Highness, His Holiness, etc. is begging to be sufficiently flogged.
Re: Snooth. Slick sliders and it makes sense for price filtering where a $12 bottle is 1 unit of functional value more than an $11. But a slider for year? My knowledge of enology is pretty pathetic but I believe year needs to be treated as a qualitative variable because the desirability of a wine varies non-monotonically with year. 2001 might be good, 2002 sucks, 2003 is great, 2004 so-so, etc. Unlike price, I don’t see knowledgeable users slewing the slider to approximately the year they want. They probably have specific years in mind. A text box to list years or even an array of check boxes would be better.
Michael Z., you are correct about certain wine vintages standing out “non-monotonically”.
However, there are also have wines that “age”, like reds that are better to drink in “7-10” years or something similar. So you would be looking for a bottle from 1998-200, etc.
That said, this case might not happen often enough to warrant the space and added confusion. Maybe Snooth has stats.
FWIW, I own and run a Snooth competitor at www.winelog.net. We don’t have sliders.
Jason Coleman—I see. So to support that kind of wine filtering, the sider should indicate the age of the wine, rather than the vintage. And maybe like price, the user should be able to set an upper and lower bound.
Martin
on 15 Oct 07
Price: ANY to US$50? WTF? Last time I checked, any could be over 50 just fine.
wvh, the Movies/Flikster application is not owned by facebook, and they are the ones that put that application there. It is the application developers being inconsistant, not actually facebook.
But I think this is facebook humour, they have a odd sense of humour in eggs here and there.
Daisy
on 16 Oct 07
I actually like the pulldown of titles on the BA website. It let’s me choose the word for Mrs. in my own language (dutch), and it shows they care about their customers and that they want to address them in the way their customer feels most comfortable.
(Though it is tempting to pick Princess instead of Mevrouw)
FJ: This isn’t the 50s… The British are no more interested in your title than Americans, probably less so in fact. As for special treatment, equality issues aside, I’m sure BA has a different process for this. Otherwise I’m going to put myself down as a Sultan and see if my economy class travels gets any easier.
Boris Yeltsin's Zombie
on 16 Oct 07
I talked to BA web site staff a couple of years ago and tried to persuade them to add “King” to the drop-down list. I told them I was a King and that I considered “His Majesty” to be too formal.
The Facebook thing reminded me of a sign I saw on the post office door:
“No Dogs Allowed (except seeing eye dogs)”
If you have a seeing eye dog, you can’t read the sign anyway so why bother with the distinction?
I can’t think of any situation where someone would need to read the sign to decide if they are allowed to bring a dog in. If you can read it at all, your dog’s not allowed.
@Dan: The only thing I can think of it avoids the hassle of post office employees dealing with complaints from people as to why this dog was allowed in but that dog wasn’t.
You wouldn’t think people would be that dense, but who knows?
This discussion is closed.
About Matt Linderman
Now: The creator of Vooza, "the Spinal Tap of startups." Previously: Employee #1 at 37signals and co-author of the books Rework and Getting Real.
Mike Nolan
on 15 Oct 07I wondered whether this is so you can see what your profile page looks like to others, but it’s possible to set the privacy settings so that online status only appears to you. Now that’s really pointless!
iain
on 15 Oct 07BA is in no way the only site to have huge title lists like that; iirc some of the fancier (london-based) clothes shops do the same thing.
Presumably there are enough military/gentry using these sites that it’s worth the occasional lol rather than deal with some posh git complaining about how his father didn’t give the government millions just so he could be called “Mr.”.
Benjy
on 15 Oct 07Finally… someplace that lets me register as the Viscount I am!
His Majesty? Are royalty really booking their own flights? And how many “commoners” are using these titles as a joke?
sb
on 15 Oct 07Thank you British Airways for FINALLY letting me get the recognition as Air Vice Marshal that I properly deserve.
nic
on 15 Oct 07I see “His Holiness” is in there, presumably in case the pope decides to book his BA ticket online?!
David Andersen
on 15 Oct 07BA has been properly skewered in these comments; well done. I find a title selection option silly and can’t stand it when a site makes it a required field!
FJ
on 15 Oct 07I am not one to complain about titles but before mocking the selector please consider they have some importance in Europe still, sometimes in an official capacity. While most of the titles I see here are indeed a matter of courtesy, some do have a meaning for the company.
BA is a British company and, as such, thinks in British terms. 37Signals is an American company and does the same.
I also assume some military or diplomacy positions entail the purchaser to special services or, at least, better oversight from BA. Maybe the form is not so silly as it seems.
On a final note, many women traveling alone opt to be called “Dr.” so as not to reveal their sex – which admittedly works better if their name is ambiguous, e.g. Chris for Christine.
wvh
on 15 Oct 07Is anyone else bothered by the irresponsible use of pronouns in software? Facebook has “View Photos of You” followed by “My Movies”, but both refer to the same person. I think this started with Windows 95, when operating systems that generally refer to the user as “you” added terms like “My Computer”.
Not only is it confusing on the screen, it’s extra confusing in speech: “Okay, go to My Computer… No, not MY computer, go to YOUR My Computer.”
AnkurJ
on 15 Oct 07I think the “You’re online now” is an indirect way of communicating that, “Others can see that you are online now”.
Anonymous Coward
on 15 Oct 07WVH … totally agree. Even if one was better than the other (“you” vs. “I”), the inconsistent usage across the internet has rendered it a confusing convention either way. My company’s software has shifted (conceded?) to using the user’s name in place of a pronoun.
“You are online now”—if your profile is public, you can view it without logging in, so it’s not all that useless.
Chris
on 15 Oct 07I think American Airlines uses those input fields as well. I filled it out about 4 years ago and ever since then get mail sent to “Prince.”
Ben Saunders
on 15 Oct 07Presumably they mean Lieutenant. As a Brit, I feel slightly ashamed at the iffy spelling of my national carrier…
Mike
on 15 Oct 07@FJ, no, the form is silly. Any form publicly available online that allows for options like Her Highness, His Highness, His Holiness, etc. is begging to be sufficiently flogged.
Michael Zuschlag
on 15 Oct 07Re: Snooth. Slick sliders and it makes sense for price filtering where a $12 bottle is 1 unit of functional value more than an $11. But a slider for year? My knowledge of enology is pretty pathetic but I believe year needs to be treated as a qualitative variable because the desirability of a wine varies non-monotonically with year. 2001 might be good, 2002 sucks, 2003 is great, 2004 so-so, etc. Unlike price, I don’t see knowledgeable users slewing the slider to approximately the year they want. They probably have specific years in mind. A text box to list years or even an array of check boxes would be better.
Jason Coleman
on 15 Oct 07Michael Z., you are correct about certain wine vintages standing out “non-monotonically”.
However, there are also have wines that “age”, like reds that are better to drink in “7-10” years or something similar. So you would be looking for a bottle from 1998-200, etc.
That said, this case might not happen often enough to warrant the space and added confusion. Maybe Snooth has stats.
FWIW, I own and run a Snooth competitor at www.winelog.net. We don’t have sliders.
Michael Zuschlag
on 15 Oct 07Jason Coleman—I see. So to support that kind of wine filtering, the sider should indicate the age of the wine, rather than the vintage. And maybe like price, the user should be able to set an upper and lower bound.
Martin
on 15 Oct 07Price: ANY to US$50? WTF? Last time I checked, any could be over 50 just fine.
Benjamin "balupton" Lupton
on 16 Oct 07wvh, the Movies/Flikster application is not owned by facebook, and they are the ones that put that application there. It is the application developers being inconsistant, not actually facebook.
But I think this is facebook humour, they have a odd sense of humour in eggs here and there.
Daisy
on 16 Oct 07I actually like the pulldown of titles on the BA website. It let’s me choose the word for Mrs. in my own language (dutch), and it shows they care about their customers and that they want to address them in the way their customer feels most comfortable.
(Though it is tempting to pick Princess instead of Mevrouw)
Stephen
on 16 Oct 07FJ: This isn’t the 50s… The British are no more interested in your title than Americans, probably less so in fact. As for special treatment, equality issues aside, I’m sure BA has a different process for this. Otherwise I’m going to put myself down as a Sultan and see if my economy class travels gets any easier.
Boris Yeltsin's Zombie
on 16 Oct 07I talked to BA web site staff a couple of years ago and tried to persuade them to add “King” to the drop-down list. I told them I was a King and that I considered “His Majesty” to be too formal.
Sadly, they had no sense of humour :(
Nathan Jones
on 18 Oct 07Seriously, what is the point of titles? Are we still that snooty that we consider it disrespectful is someone uses only our name?
Dan
on 18 Oct 07The Facebook thing reminded me of a sign I saw on the post office door:
“No Dogs Allowed (except seeing eye dogs)”
If you have a seeing eye dog, you can’t read the sign anyway so why bother with the distinction?
I can’t think of any situation where someone would need to read the sign to decide if they are allowed to bring a dog in. If you can read it at all, your dog’s not allowed.
Dustin Coates
on 19 Oct 07@Dan: The only thing I can think of it avoids the hassle of post office employees dealing with complaints from people as to why this dog was allowed in but that dog wasn’t.
You wouldn’t think people would be that dense, but who knows?
This discussion is closed.