Captain Colonial Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I do quite a bit of data sorting from time to time, and have noticed a huge rise in people not putting in spaces any longer on postcodes and phone numbers, and not capitalising where customary - and it's a real PITA, particularly when doing searches. It also makes it much harder to read. For instance: 01234 567890 becomes 01234567890 AB12 3CD becomes AB123CD or ab123cd Jack T. Lad becomes jack t lad 123 Any Street, Anywhere, West Midlands becomes 123 any street anywhere west midlands It's really starting to irritate me, especially the phone numbers - no one verbally gives out their number in a stream of ten digits without pausing. You say something like, "My phone number is 01234 (pause) 567890", not "My phone number is 01234567890" and expect them to remember it. Is it just me or has anyone else noticed this as well - and why is it happening? Change in culture or just pure laziness? I'm starting to see run-together phone numbers sign written on company vans and trucks now too. Does it bother you? Have we become such a lazy society that we can't even be bothered to press the Shift or Space keys? Do these people not realise someone has to go back afterwards and fix it so data searches work and people can read easily? Do you think less of someone when you see them do that? It just seems selfish, lazy and inconsiderate to me. Let the sarcastic comments begin below. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Agree completely! Change in culture and laziness would be my reasoning... It's always been around (laziness) but is becoming more frequent (change in culture). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I've noticed that a lot of web shopping carts and such like throw an error if you leave spaces in 'phone numbers and post codes. Can't think of any web sites that get upset if you leave them out, so people are starting to get in the habit of omitting them. Difficult to enforce with a multinational web site that has to cope with say, British post codes and American Zips, or British two part telephone numbers and American three parters. Again with capitalisation, web forms tend to be agnostic to it and laziness takes over. Hard to enforce on web sites though. For example the double lower case ff beginning some peoples names. Don't forget that there is a significant proportion of the population that have a lot of problems with literacy and numeracy. In days past they could live their lives without having to deal much with writing and form filling, especially with a spouse who could do these things for them. These days you can't hide from the form filling world, especially with bureaucracy migrating to the internet. Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SootySport Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Lots of people are using their mobile phones for internet/forum chat these days. Changing from Caps. to numerals or lower case involves pressing extra buttons so people just don't bother. Also people who text a lot tend to do the same and deliberately misspell and shorten words. It the way of the world now. Touch screens on phones just don't work for me so I'll always be typing proper like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrmusKnight Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Agreed, however the number of online form entry points that require you to remove the spaces, punctuation and capitalization etc.. is also on the rise. Especially post codes, after you've had to re-edit forms for Nth time removing spaces you start to just do it by default - Significantly more chance the system will process it first time. I wouldn't agree its all down to laziness, i'd say pre-programming by experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 Very good points WJ, SS and OK ( even if your forum names don't have proper spaces ) - I'm referring to sites (like ours) where you can do it properly, with spaces and capitalisation. When I was MemSec, I even got the odd form in the post that had info written run together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Very good points WJ, SS and OK ( even if your forum names don't have proper spaces ) - I'm referring to sites (like ours) where you can do it properly, with spaces and capitalisation. When I was MemSec, I even got the odd form in the post that had info written run together! Busted! Guess I'll have to change my name by deed poll to WellyJen to keep our Chairman happy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marto303 Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Ihaveknowideawhatyourtalkingaboutscott 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BudSlater Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I think it's to do with the proliferation of iPads and iPhones and the auto correct. It's more of a pain in the but to have to swap keyboards to add a space to a phone number and capiltaisation is either auto-corrected wrongly, or "it's too many key presses" so people just take the easy route and "it is what it is" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Ihaveknowideawhatyourtalkingaboutscott At least check your spelling before you hit Post 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinten Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 We are dinosaurs, at the brink of extinction. I have raised my children not to swear, not to throw litter behind them, to be polite and respectful to everyone, regardless of age and status. Unfortunately there are generations who haven't, and they are the majority it seems... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XTR2Turbo Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 Another good example is passwords and directory folder names where many don't lie spaces Scott. Start a save the space campaign. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TableLeg Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 I've found of late when phoning companies who ask for my mobile phone number that despite me giving it as 01234 567890 they then read it back to me as 0123 456 7890. It throws me every time. Just doesn't sound right. (That isn't my number by the way!). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rory's Dad Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 what about surnames tht start wth a small 'v' - endlessly and erroneously autocorrected by websites - not this one of course!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Colonial Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 Busted! Guess I'll have to change my name by deed poll to WellyJen to keep our Chairman happy Fixed it for you - no charge I'm happy now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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