RE: Username or user name (generalized)

["diotima" <diotima -at- myway -dot- com>]

inaresting. so, has your group (tech writers ?) ever, like, gone down the hall and, like, met the developers ? you know, chit chat, talk about things like, oh, i don't know, consistency, usability, style guidelines, procedures, how to collaborate as a team to create a product that inspires pride of ownership...goofy stuff like that ?



seriously, it sounds like your group and the developers are working on two entirely unrelated projects. the developers use whatever terms and styles they feel as the stream of programming consciousness moment strikes them, not caring an iota about your group's goals (and easily arguably ultimately theirs too [nice triple adverb series, eh ?]. meanwhile, your group is gonna show THEM and use whatever terms and styles your group wants regardless of what's there (however consistently).



perhaps i'm exaggerating, but is that pretty much the case ? if so, it's time to get the two groups working together.



mine is probably an enviable situation. i'm completely involved in the UI nomenclature, and what i say generally goes. before i arrived, it was login, log in, log out, and log off with your username, user name, and user id all throughout the different instances of the application. and that was just the beginning of the inconsistencies.



our developers now use the nomenclature that i dictate, a few reasons being : i am trusted and respected for my knowledge, and i know how to be tactful and when to be flexible.



but i have a theory about another reason why they'll listen to me. secretly, i think, they have always wanted someone to come in and help them get their #%*! together. maybe, in some cases, the inconconsistencies in the UI nomenclature are your developers' « cry for help ! » be nice, tactful, helpful, and reasonable, and they just may (secretly) beg you to lay down the law (tactfully).



at any rate, get the groups together and come up with a solution. instead of « boldly declaring your independence from inconsistent developers,» try boldly declaring a cooperative effort to create a quality product.



-diotima











 --- On Mon 04/04, Steven Jong < SteveFJong -at- comcast -dot- net > wrote:

From: Steven Jong [mailto: SteveFJong -at- comcast -dot- net]

To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 20:57:34 -0400

Subject: RE: Username or user name (generalized)



<br>  I recently posted to ask for opinions on whether to match the <br>capitalization of the UI in the documentation. (Collectively, you said <br>yes.) This discussion of "username" versus "user name," and Taryn's <br>well-known advice (hi, Taryn!) to follow the UI, leads me to dip <br>another toe into the water.<br><br>Not only has my group decided not to follow the generally <br>accepted practice of matching the capitalization of labels in the UI, <br>we are not following the spelling or usage, either. ............

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