Laws Against Stupidity/ignorance Don't Work

[DavidBeoulve]

Whoa I can't believe I didn't spot those sticky threads! You shouldn't have more than one though (the top one), the other ones were just confusing and I have to admit that it took me some time to understand the meaning of them.

Sorry everyone! But hey, we all do mistakes now don't we Please feel free to lock or delete this thread.

Laws against stupidity/ignorance don't work
The "Cool Ideas" forum is not helped by the clever placement of stickies that belabor the point that "Ports require source code." because by having so many stickies, which the human eye first takes to be what they are in every other circumstance (separate threads), the opposite effect is attained: people gloss over the entire message.

1. First, people rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page.
2. Why web users scan instead of read.
3. Writing scannable text instead of verbose text.
   • You all will notice that I sometimes add titles to sections of a long post (increases scannability) and carefully bold references to names (increases scannability) and sometimes create a bulleted list (increases scannability).

Remove the extra stickies and leave it at one. One sticky is far more likely to be read.

Usability flies in the face of what we'd like to do or want to do. Usability states that the human brain works in a certain manner, one which can be studied and anticipated, and with enough knowledge we can increase the effectiveness of our design, whether the product is software, Web pages, or forums.

When 80% or more of a certain product operates a certain way, users anticipate your product to work the same, and when it doesn't, they don't get it. Since the message "Ports require source code" is for newbies, not regulars, we cannot expect them to know how the site works, so we should make ours work the way they expect. Doing so will eliminate the "Too many bullets to read = skim the page" as well as avoid the jarring effect of "Reading and it doesn't make sense (separate threads) so I'll skip it." Furthermore, it increases the number of posts available to be seen at one time increasing the overall usability of this entire forum for everyone who frequents it by 25-30% (approximately the percentage of posts missing).

At any rate, I hope this helps. I'm sure there are a million reasons why the threads are put together this way, and I'm sure we're all tired of saying those four little words, however, there's only one reason why not to:

It doesn't work.


Peace.

PS - Yes, this is something I do at work <_<
PSS - General public: please don't flame me; I am trying to help the situation.

 

[Draken]

Ah man, but I love the humor in those stickies: the smilies, the message, the second message, ...

 

[Daid]

I agree, the stickies are confusing at least. I didn't found out that they ment until someone quoted them. (exept for the first one)

I read the title, it said "Code", so I clicked on it, and was confused by the contents. I thouged it was some code collection topic :blink:

Pinned: Code
which has full source-code available.

People who don't read stickys don't read them, even if you would post a full page of them.

 

[DavidBeoulve]

Ah man, but I love the humor in those stickies: the smilies, the message, the second message, ...

Not to be a total wet rag on your good humor...
"Usability flies in the face of what we'd like to do or want to do..."

Newbies don't get the joke. If the joke is more important than actually getting the message across than we should make every effort to not appear as though anyone new should be aware of the issue, because we're not really taking "getting the message across" seriously.

Regardless, it would take a moderator to do something, and I've yet to read from one. Maybe they're all plotting h34r:

 

[God Ginrai]

I don't think having one would help any more than having 4. I personally thing that the more you have, the more it will bother the users so they HAVE to look at it, whereas if you just have one, it's much easier to just ignore.

I've ignored the existance of many sticky topics on other boards because there were so few of them.

An you've got to be some idiot... or less than say....... 14 years of age or something to not understand the meaning of the stickies.

 

[Daid]

14 years of age or something to not understand the meaning of the stickies.

I'll take that as a personal insult, ok? The first sticky is clear, the rest is junk.

Pinned: PORTS REQUIRE SOURCE CODE
Blood - BUILD engine game

First part is clear. What has BLOOD, and BUILD to do with it?

Pinned: Ports
If you'd like a game ported to the GP2X,

AH, a topic to request ports. (Newcomers won't notice that it's locked)

Pinned: Require
make sure it either has full source-code

Expected a list of requirements of ports in here...

Pinned: Source
available, or a clone of the game exists

Oh, expected list of games that have source avaiable but not ported yet.

Pinned: Code
which has full source-code available.

Expected a topic full of code snippets.

Not everyone reads from top to bottom, most english is read from left to right.


EDIT: @Spam, It's Daid, please

 

[Spam]

I have to agree. I have been here for about a month and only just realised the stickies meant something. I thought when it said source it tell you how to find source code or something.

I normally read the title but not what it says. If it said in caps ports require soucre code I reckon most people would see even if they didnt click on them.

Noone reads down a page word by word so I agree with David.

 

[DavidBeoulve]

"I personally think"

Usability studies don't care what we personally think, just like the rest of science

Read those articles. It doesn't work the way you think it does.

Also, age and IQ have little effect, in this instance, on the effectiveness of this particular design. It matters for cognitive abilities, say, your brain parsing a productive interface well versus needing a deductive one - but neither are used here.

Productive Interface is, say, MS Word and the way Macs work.

Deductive Interface is, for example, the default way the Windows XP control panel works. Classic view leads you back to productive. One, you have to know what you want to do and what tool handles that. The other, you enter a series of questions that help you deduce what to do, useful if you, as a user, know nothing.

Edit: Thank you Diad, your post showed up before mine I try not to take offense as it seems some people can't make a point without trying to say, in some small way, "You're supposition is dumb." I'm not sure they really mean it, it's become the Internet way of writing, unfortunately. Maybe they do mean it.

Spam, thanks for confirming what I've learned directed me to think.

 

[Dzz]

Could a mod sticky this thread plz, thx!

(sorry, you knew somebody would make that joke!)

 

[DavidBeoulve]

*chuckles*

Uhhh - okay this has been read and replied to by all the people who can't do anything about it

 

[Parkydr]

*chuckles*

Uhhh - okay this has been read and replied to by all the people who can't do anything about it

I haven't replied yet

Two stickies would do

1. "PORTS REQUIRE SOURCE CODE", for people who do read stickies
2. "BY IGNORING THE FIRST STICKY, YOU AGREE TO BE FLAMED TO HELL", for those who don't

 

[___]

I totally agree with david and diad. It wasn't really an issue for me when I came to the boards as a noob but that's only since I have been active in various forums before. I think the last comment by Parkydr should be taken seriously and the stickies should be changed in the way he suggested.

@David B.: I really like reading your posts btw. They are never aggressive or offensive, never not thoroughly thought through and always encouraging and helpful.

 

[JaqMs]

As usual, nothing is going to be done about it.

 

[DavidBeoulve]

Those two stickies could be shortened more effectively into one with a subtitle:

------------------------------------------
PORTS REQUIRE SOURCE CODE
By ignoring this rule, you agree to be flamed to hell.
------------------------------------------

 

[Parkydr]

Perfect

Pity none of us can change it

 

[Shikaku]

I'm going to post 3 full screen shots of what I see when I load this page:

What I see 1024x768:
What some people may see:

What a some other people see:

Now... following your logic, my eyes go first at the center.

Notice where the center of each are.

For the bigger ones, the center is where people would look first, and in the majority of cases it shows the PORTS REQUIRE SOURCE CODE.

I think it works.

 

[Daid]

I gota disagree to your screenshots Shikaku. The first thing people do is 'scan' for the 'head' of the page and skip that.

The thing that 'jumps out' is the "Announcement: THE LIST OF THINGS YOU DON'T DO". That gets noticed at first, then the 'head' gets skipped and you get to the topics. The list of "code" "source" "require" stickies are nothing more then an anoiance.

 

[Orkie]

I think it works.

Not on a Pocket PC, where the stuck threads take up 1.5 screen lengths...

 

[RiX0R]

You can't have topic titles in all caps. Try it: the board will titlecase them.

An announcement would be better AND get rid of the stickies.

 

[DavidBeoulve]

If you want, Shikaku, I can dig up some studies on eye-tracking [article I haven't read with a picture] in relation to how people move their eyes when reading Web pages.

Suffice it to say, they don't hit the center first. Even Graphic Designers know the rule of the Z-index (Directional Flow).