Published on: 25 Feb 00:05

I write software. Web apps. My current day job bangs out, among other things, Covid testing software. On balance I thoroughly enjoy programming, but my god it can be dull. The other day I was coding up a feature to keep tabs on Covid sample barcode content. I started amusing myself by writing goofy placeholder error messages, like “oh come on, add something” when people attempt to submit blank barcodes, or “sample profile xxx is missing data, might you awfully”.

Then Thoughts happened. Could this not be expanded? If (some) users are genuinely up for spicier messages, could devs like me not supply some? Could we not write some kind of per-user, opt-in Rude Mode? I’m imagining the look on a lab-tech’s face when she’s attempting to process and/or scan the 10,000th sample of the night, it’s 2am, the world is a dreary swamp of boredom and blah, she’s pining for just a splash of excitement and joy … and then, our app UI informs her “oh come on, how much use will that sample’s user-profile be if you don’t complete its First Name field? This right here is why Janet thinks you’re a wanker.”

Yesterday my company had its standard end-of-week retro meeting. We're encouraged to share our thoughts. I shared my thoughts on Rude Mode to the company: yes, disease test processing is literally a matter of life and death, respect and competence comes first, and some users really wouldn't appreciate being called a gobshite ... but a hell of a lot of others totally would. I would. As long as this stuff is 100% opt-in, then why not build it? Why not add a bit of spice?

I put this to the meeting. I think about half of them started collapsing with laughter. All present unanimously urged me to construct Rude Mode instantly.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/pi.neutrino/posts/pfbid0c...