Ste CookOct 20, 2023
The unbelievable self-absorption of #MIT never fails to make me laugh #AcademicChatter #AcademicReferences
Show threadSte Cook

And #ColdSpringHarbor here, channelling the whole "we did out best work in the 1950s" vibe asking for "Last name" and "Middle name" like half the students I write references for aren't from South East Asia. #AcademicChatter #AcademicReferences

For the love of Baphomet, please read this:

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names | Kalzumeus Software

Classic essay about how software routinely bumbles human names.

Oct 20, 2023 at 1:27pmWeb
Show threadSte CookOct 20, 2023

And asking for the date in fucking MM/DD/YY format - 😂🤣😭🤢🤮 I need to wash. You absolute buffoons.

#AcademicChatter #AcademicReferences #ISO8601

Show threadSte CookOct 20, 2023

#JohnsHopkins here asking for my "Region" with one of the most fucking stupid selection of options I have ever seen.

This is like asking if your region is the USA, Canada, North America, Cascadia, or Oregon

#AcademicChatter #AcademicReferences

Show threadOliver D. ReithmaierOct 20, 2023
@Polypompholyx they should have implemented a "yes" option
Show threadAuklexOct 20, 2023
@Polypompholyx no love for the Bailiwick of Guernsey!
Show threadCharles CastleberryOct 20, 2023

@Polypompholyx When I was building the directory backbone for my then company (20th Century Fox, which, like the Flat Earth Society, has offices around the globe), I spent a ton of time trying to work out a complete list of countries (spoiler: an authoritative one does not exist) and the major subregions of the major ones. In fairness the <waves vaguely> UK area has one of the weirder ones.

Also in fairness: that list there is a weird take on it, no denying. 🤣

Show threadSte CookOct 20, 2023
@MythingPerson Oh yeah, the North Atlantic Archipelago is a nightmare, which simply raises the question - why in tits are they asking for this at all? It’s an online ref form for a US college - they’ll never need to send me anything by snail mail, they’d never need to include that information on an envelope even if they did, and I cannot imagine they (think they) need that information for any other purpose.
Show threadCharles CastleberryOct 20, 2023
@Polypompholyx Now imagining the Royal Mail worker looking at the incoming envelope and saying, “”England and Wales?’ Which is it then, ya daft bugger? Fooking yanks.”
Show threadJanPVOct 21, 2023
@Polypompholyx Wales. Simply select Wales. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
Show threadMark Baxter 🏳️‍🌈💉🧂Oct 20, 2023
@Polypompholyx their web infrastructure is running on windows 2000
Show threadSte CookOct 20, 2023
@markgbaxter OMFG
Show threadKen Butler has movedOct 20, 2023

@Polypompholyx but, this is asking for *your* name, isn''t it? (Which is admittedly little help if *you* are from south/east Asia.)

The university where I am has a lot of students for whom normal name things don't apply, but "first name" and "last name" have the unambiguous meaning here of "what U of X knows you as".

Show threadSte CookOct 20, 2023
@nxskok Yes, this one is asking for mine rather than theirs, but I could well be Kuk Xiaofan or similar, and the fact the university has a database schema that forces people who don’t have “typical” “Western” names to shoehorn their name(s) into their badly-named fields tells you something about how seriously they actually take EDI when it comes to brass-tacks.
Show threadKen Butler has movedOct 20, 2023
@Polypompholyx yeah, that I agree with.