Sunday 7 June 2015

The Four Words of Distress

The title of this post is taken directly from The Codeless Code, "The Four Words of Distress"

I read it again yesterday, and today I have been bitten by it.

I accidentally removed the content of a comment on this blog. I don't get many comments, so I feel that all of them are important contributions (except the incessant 50 Shades of Grey spam, urgh, do I regret writing about that.) As such, removing a comment is "serious" to me.

Upon realising my error, I immediately searched the page for an undo or a "restore" link of some sort, and eventually went to search for an answer to my problems. I only found unanswered questions on Google's Groups, and a Product Help page claiming that I should've been sent to a confirmation page (no such thing happened)

To have fixed this problem, there would have been any number of ways to deal with it:


  1. A confirmation dialogue, alongside a "don't show this again" check box.
  2. A trash can, which comments can go to for a fixed period of time.
  3. An undo button
  4. A help guide.
As it stands, I accidentally clicked the "Remove Content" link, and now, without warning, the comment has gone. I worry that this is a black mark against the commenter's account, when it is a simple mistake.

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