

The "Dolt" button - coderdude
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Do_It.txt

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noonespecial
This is an interesting error I find many older users making. I call it a "way
out of context error". There is no reason whatsoever to assume that the
software was calling you a dolt. This should cause the user to look for an
alternative interpretation but somehow, they just don't.

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raganwald
The "context" is entirely a fabrication of programmers.

If you have years of experience with computers, you know what they should and
shouldn't do. You know that a programmer might call a user an idiot in a
comment or on a Usenet forum, but not in a dialog button.

If you've never seen a computer before, you have no such idea, which is
exactly why testing like this is necessary: Programmers have too much
experience with the "context" to recognize when something might be confusing
or outright offensive.

See also: "Abort."

p.s. re-reading my text, it might look like I'm disagreeing with the parent
comment. that is not my intention, rather I'm agreeing with the parent and
attempting to explain why this might be the case.

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burgerbrain
Kind of wrecks the joke nature of the story by linking it as _'The "Dolt"
button'_ , don't you think?

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coderdude
Nope, because there isn't an Ah Ha! moment at the end where you start
laughing. However the story does remain informative.

Edit: To whoever decided that I required downvoting, please familiarize
yourself with the voting etiquette here.

Just because I disagree with the guy being upvoted doesn't mean I'm being a
jerk. I was quite amicable, actually.

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burgerbrain
_"He replied, "I'm not a dolt, why is the software calling me a dolt?" "_

Where it not already spoiled, that would be the punch line.

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coderdude
Did you laugh at that? You asked me directly if I think I spoiled a joke and I
don't believe I did, because it did not make me laugh.

~~~
burgerbrain
It's humorous, and I think it's pretty likely the author intended it to be
that way. Things don't have to _literally_ make you laugh to be considered
humorous you know...

Perhaps you should lighten up a bit. I was just offering a constructive
suggestion for the future. (I heard this story already quite a while ago, so
it's not like the joke was personally spoiled for me).

~~~
coderdude
Maybe I sound pent-up? I'm really not. I just answered your question
truthfully. Let's agree to be on different pages.

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presidentender
Hey, at least the buttons didn't say "Submit," right?

~~~
seabee
This is the joke those guys in the thread above were looking for.

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Timothee
I've had the same problem with the recently-released browser RockMelt: I can't
help but reading it as "rock-me-it".

Which, I admit, doesn't mean anything, while "dolt" is a word. (does RockMelt
mean anything though?)

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mlok
Why would you use a capital letter for the second word? It should have been
"Do it" in which case the problem does not happen. Strange that nobody seems
to take this basic rule into account.
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capital_lette...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Capital_letter#Usage)

~~~
eli
Sure, that's the basic rule for English prose. But dialog button labels are a
lot closer to headings or titles than they are to sentences in a paragraph.
(Note also that there's no period after "Do It")

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avibryant
Neat. The doIt method is still quite central to Smalltalk systems.

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enneff
Interesting. Akai's famous MPC series of sampler/sequencers use the term "DO
IT" in this way. I wonder if its of the same origin.

