You'd think you'd think

[j4]

So when I find an incredibly incorrect (i.e. containing at least 3 errors, depending on how you count them) URL in this year's Awards issue of the Reporter, I email the Reporter editrix and say "I say, this is a bit wrong," and she emails back cc:ing in the person who should have Got It Right (let's call him Mr Wrong) and saying "Yes, this is wrong. Mr Wrong, you should have checked it." All well and good, though I suspect Mr Wrong wasn't too pleased to be outed to me as the culprit.

But then I decide "What the heck, I'll open this interesting-looking can marked 'Worms' check the rest of the URLs as well, just in case." And I find an alarming number of other errors, and embarrassingly many of them are Cambridge University department/college websites. Which is a good thing in some ways, because it means we stand a chance of telling the people who supplied the wrong URLs, and in some cases getting them to put redirects in (this is an annoyingly high-profile place in which to publish incorrect URLs, and we could do without a gazillion more "help pls wear cna i find this page IT ARE NOT WORK AND V URGENT NOW kthxbye" emails than we already get). And yet it's a bad thing in other ways, not least because it gives the impression that any attempt to access web-based information at this illustrious institution will return a big fat "404: arse not found with both hands" error.

And then I check one obviously-incorrect URL, and discover that we've already put a redirect in from a slightly-differently-wrong version of the same wrong URL, because IT APPEARED INCORRECTLY LAST YEAR, and you'd think (you'd think you'd think you'd think) you'd cocking well make sure you GOT IT RIGHT after that, but no, but no, but no.

Help, pls. Wear cna i find willpower? IT ARE NOT WORK.

Comments

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

The minimal version where any TDoH can write pages but a dedicated team who can check them properly are the only ones who can copy them to the live site would be better than the mess J seems to be stuck with, though.

[j4.livejournal.com]

That is what we've got, more or less. The problem is that the Reporter is published in paper format as well, and we can't change the paper version. We also can't necessarily work out what the correct URL was meant to be, because the information comes down a chain of about a million people and we don't always have any way of getting back to them. So we tell the person at our end of the chain that something's wrong, and it never gets back to the originator.

The other problem is that the "dedicated team" at the moment consists of, um, me.

We're trying to devolve responsibility for things like actually KNOWING YOUR OWN ADDRESS to the people who supply the information, so when they say "It's wrong on the web!" we can say "That's because you sent us something wrong to put on the web!" (but still fix it, obv) but it's a slow battle. :-}

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, paper docs, produced by somebody who doesn't talk to anybody else...

[j4.livejournal.com]

It would be really useful if I could convince people that "we've made this long paper document -- now put it on the web" is all too often a bit like "we've made some jam, please build us a wall with it". Only without the "please", usually.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

Walls: bricks held together with mortar, or mortar spaced out with bricks?

[arnhem.livejournal.com]

The problem will be trying to convince someone that the paper format ought to be derived from the online one (or both from a common, managed, source).

They won't understand.

<earworm>dedication, that's what you need ...</earworm>

[j4.livejournal.com]

We tried that. They understand the concept, but (for a variety of reasons, some slightly more sensible than others) they're not willing to change their workflow in any way in order to achieve it.

There's also the fact that the paper version has been in existence since about 1850, & things acquire a kind of weight and Officialness over the centuries. It's sometimes difficult trying to convince people that this crazy new electric stuff is here to stay.