[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #38332: "Cheating" message insults; needs changing

[WordPress Trac]

#38332: "Cheating" message insults; needs changing
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 Reporter:  ElectricFeet  |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement   |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal        |   Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  General       |     Version:  2.9
 Severity:  normal        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch   |     Focuses:  administration
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Comment (by EricMeyer):

 As someone who’s criticized this exact error message in public talks, I’m
 all for changing it.  The “I’m sorry Username, I’m afraid I can’t do that”
 strikes me as relatively workable as long as it’s accompanied with an
 indication of ''why'' it can’t be done.  It does carry a bit of in-joke
 baggage, but I think it probably works even for those who don’t get the
 joke.

 Although I can see myself reacting with “Well '''WHY''' can’t you do
 that?!?!?” before reading the error message that follows.  The initial
 frustration is soothed a bit by the extra information, but I’m not sure
 it’s worth ramping up that initial frustration in order to soothe it a
 line later.

 Another approach would be a straightforward and honest admission.  A few
 ideas that come to mind:

 * Sorry—Something Completely Unexpected Went Wrong
 * A Completely Unexpected Error Occurred
 * Something Broke. It Looks It Might Be…

 (That last one only works as long as there are useful diagnostic messages
 after the heading, of course, but I understand from previous comments that
 those messages do exist.)

 At core, if you’ll pardon the expression, I think the best message is one
 that doesn’t mock or tease people, and doesn’t try over-hard to be cute.
 Errors like this are an inherently tense situation, and using humor to
 defuse a tense situation really only works if you know the tense person
 and their sense of humor very, very well (and even then it can backfire).
 I defer to MailChimp’s [http://voiceandtone.com| voiceandtone.com] here,
 specifically [http://voiceandtone.com/failure-message/| the section on
 failure messages].  That may not be the final word on how to deal with
 these sorts of situations, but it’s an excellent starting point.

 All of which is to say, this is a tough problem to solve, and it may
 require a few iterations to get right, but I’m very glad to see that
 there’s interest in solving it.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/38332#comment:11>
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