Websites that can't correctly validate email addresses

Azari

WTFH wrote: »

I wish people weren't as stupid and lazy as they are, then the computer programs could do the work they were designed to do.

It is the job of the programmer to overcome human errors whether they are caused by stupidity, laziness, or typos.

It's stupid, lazy, complacent, programmers who are causing the problems by not creating robust software.

fluffnutter

Azari wrote: »

There are so many ridiculous faults and omissions from websites, some belonging to multi-million pound companies.

Examples:

1a) Cannot accept a CC or telephone number with spaces in it (and doesn't tell you).
1b) Cannot accept a CC or telephone number without spaces in it. (and doesn't tell you).
1c) Won't accept form because of 1a or 1b but doesn't tell you why.

2) As 1 but for postcodes

3) Does not place the cursor on the first field of a form.

4) Does not move cursor automatically when filling in fixed width fields.

5) Loses information in a form if there is an error.

6) Prevents you using the back button and does not provide a way back in its place.

7) Makes you fill in a whole raft of personal information before telling you shipping costs.


Plus a load more and I'm sure other can add annoyances, as well.

Dropdown lists can create a problem too. Admittedly small numbers of people (but it happens nonetheless) have weird credit cards and don't have a, for example, start date in the region 20nn - 20nn so are unable to select the correct value.

fluffnutter

WTFH wrote: »

I wish people weren't as stupid and lazy as they are, then the computer programs could do the work they were designed to do.

A good coder anticipates as much of human stupidity as he or she can. To write code that caters only for the ideal user is more stupid than the users you moan about.

WTFH

Azari wrote: »

It is the job of the programmer to overcome human errors whether they are caused by stupidity, laziness, or typos.

It's stupid, lazy, complacent, programmers who are causing the problems by not creating robust software.

fluffnutter wrote: »

A good coder anticipates as much of human stupidity as he or she can. To write code that caters only for the ideal user is more stupid than the users you moan about.

The programmer can only do so much. Let's consider an address.A bad designer will say that every address should start with a number, followed by a street. Except some addresses don't have numbers or streets. A UK post code will have 2,3 or 4 characters before the space and 3 after it. There are 6 different valid formats for it. A bad designer will only choose to validate one format.
...and that's before we get on to international addresses and their formatting.

So, tell me how a programmer is supposed to design an easy to use piece of software which will validate an address and allow for typing mistakes - whether that be misspellings, misplaced punctuation, wrong digits, etc?

Most website email validation will check for characters before an @, characters after it, a . and characters after that.
The local part of the address can contain pretty much anything (including special characters), so how would you like your validation to be done?
This:

very."(),:;<>[]".VERY."very&#64;\\\ \"very".unusual&#64;strange.example.com

Is a perfectly valid email address

NBLondon

j0nathon2 wrote: »

Because they're built by expensive, incompetent developers usually! (I am cheap and good by the way!)

I suspect a good many are not built by developers but bodged together from online tools and bought-in solutions by a junior admin with a bit of self-taught knowledge.

Things that niggle me:

* a UK business that asks for a Zip Code.
* a huge drop-down of every country in the known world when the business does not sell outside the UK.
* making both "Town" and "County" required fields (so I enter London twice ) or a "County" drop-down that doesn't have London or Greater London.
* not allowing the user to tab to the next field (or not checking the order of fields makes sense for someone typing).
* background colours and fancy fonts that take ages to load before you can actually fill in the form.
* making "Date of Birth" a required field when all they actually need is "I am over 18" and a tick box.

Azari

A few more:

Dropdown lists for CC expiry date years that include years in the past.
Dropdown lists for CC start dates years that include years in the future.

Dropdown lists that have stupid ranges a defaults.

e.g. A list of birth years on a credit card application that included the last eighteen years and defaults to 2013.

Dropdown lists for months that are ten entries long.

WiggyDiggyPoo

Coming from software testing, I like this cartoon:

bod1467

fluffnutter wrote: »

A good coder anticipates as much of human stupidity as he or she can. To write code that caters only for the ideal user is more stupid than the users you moan about.

Never try to make anything idiot-proof. If you DO try, Nature will just make a better idiot to thwart you.

NBLondon

Chickabiddybex wrote: »

How can you not know the difference between a letter and a number?

It niggles me too - but an awful lot of people say "oh" for the number rather than "zero" e.g. when saying a phone number, and carry this forward to postcodes as well.

There is an example of this over in the postal comps thread that crops up again and again. It makes me wince every time but I've never actually pointed it out for fear of looking petty and criticising a very prolific and popular poster :eek:

WTFH

WiggyDiggyPoo wrote: »

Coming from software testing, I like this cartoon:

I come across that one in project offices almost every year. I still can't decide whether to laugh at it because it's funny, or shut up and say nothing because I get paid based on it.