

Lessons in incompetence - RiderOfGiraffes

I can't remember why now, but I recently tried to register for a service.  I remember thinking it was really quite good.  Well thought out, useful, and worth the risk that I'd end up getting spam, as I had with eMusic.<p>But when I tried to register, the box for my email address was clearly limited to 30 characters, and my email address has 31 characters.<p>So I thought I'd be helpful and send some feedback so they could improve their site, and I could use it:<p><pre><code>    The original message was received at Thu,
    18 Jun 2009 08:43:09 -0400 from
    localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]

   ----- The following addresses had
         permanent fatal errors -----
    &#60;feedback@myhappyplanet.com&#62;
    (reason: 550-5.1.1 The email account
    that you tried to reach does not exist.
    ...
</code></pre>
Way to go guys.  prevent people from registering, and then prevent them from giving feedback.  Good one.  Life's too short to investigate their problems, I've tried to help, now I'm moving on.<p>How often have <i>you</i> tested your feedback mechanisms from external addresses?
======
JamesLucas
This is surprisingly common - [http://www.eph.co.uk/resources/email-address-
length-faq/#ema...](http://www.eph.co.uk/resources/email-address-length-
faq/#emaillengthallocated)

Some developers think even 20 characters is enough (the mean average email
address length is around 22 characters)

------
scscsc
I think most people would not bother to give feedback when something goes
wrong. I know that I certainly do not. I have tried in the past and you always
run into some sort of problem with the feedback mechanism or they simply do
not care about your problem.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Agreed - the clear lack of effort to allow or respond to feedback has trained
people not to provide it. My alpha testers seem to find it hard to notice the
huge "FEEDBACK" link on my site, and after analysing their trajectory through
the site, they aren't then telling me anything.

There are lessons to learn here - if you want feedback, you have to pull it.
And if someone is willing to give you feedback, make it effortless for them.

And test, test, test, test.

