Out of sorts

[mrs_sweetpeach]

I feel like whinging for a bit, and so I shall. Work is changing VoIP providers. Theoretically, this could be a good thing as the voice quality of our previous provider was awful. The new provider has its own issues, starting with a confusing interface and a poorly written users manual. For example, when you want to record the message callers hear when they call the main number, is the command "1-manage greetings" or is it "2-manage recordings"? No examples are given for either type.

And I have to reproduce my favorite bit from the manual (concerning adding extensions):

If you choose Option 1, then you can select 1 of 2 options:
Option 1: Retrieve employee voicemail or
NOTE:DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION. IT SHOULD NOT BE ON THIS PAGE.
Option 2: Retrieve voicemail for a specific group account.

I may write more later. Right now I have to leave and visit with one of my friends at the funeral home. (She's fine; it is her mother who is no longer with us.)

Comments

[heartofslash.livejournal.com]

DO NOT CHOOSE THIS OPTION. IT SHOULD NOT BE ON THIS PAGE.

I'm glad they cleared that up.

[maddiec24.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Wow. Now that is some amazing documentation!

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

All I can figure is that they were thinking "It's so much easier to put a line into the users manual than to actually fix the program!" I also like that the user isn't told what will happen if option 1 is selected. Does it just not work? Does something evil happen, for example, having all your custom settings deleted?

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Sweetie! I keep hoping that as the weather warms and the days continue to lengthen I'll feel more like myself, but so far, no go.

[greenlady2.livejournal.com]

Gah! That's horrible. :-)))

Whenever I come across something so impenetrable, I think it must be some kind of code. Like, if you take the third letter of every other word, you get the message: Help! I'm a prisoner in the manual writing factory. Or something.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... That looks more to me like someone (programmer? documenter? editor?) discovered an issue and left that note, meant to be a FLAG TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT WITH THE DOCS HERE, which was then taken literally. Sigh. More disturbing, "this option" when placed between option 1 and option 2, I find to be imprecise and ambiguous. Do they mean the following or the preceding one???

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

Perhaps, but inside the users manual is not where a note to the programmers/persons-in-power should be recorded. When I see something like this I tend to think that the person writing it is so fed up with the company that they don't care if they're fired and that it is meant to serve as a warning that the company does not care about fixing known problems.

And you're right, the meaning of the note is ambiguous. Until you pointed it out, I thought it refered to the first option. But upon reflection, you are correct and it could belong to either one.

[mrs-sweetpeach.livejournal.com]

A secret message would be clever and if it didn't mean bad things about the software or service provider, I think I might enjoy seeing one. Here I think the message is a not-so-subtle dig at the programmers. Rather than fix a known problem, we'll just include a line in the manual (with a hidden subtext of "and I so hate working for a company so lax about quality, I'll actually put this into the manual even though it could get me fired.")

[voip8.livejournal.com]

Catalog of VoIP providers (http://www.voip-catalog.com/). Cheap international calls (http://www.voip-catalog.com/).