Typos - would you like to be informed?

daymobrew

If I spot a typo in a web site, especially that of a web development company, I will generally send them an email to report it. The responses are hit and miss - either a thank you (SportsBasement.com joked that they would send their web guys back to 3rd grade English class) or no response.

Yesterday I reported 3 typos on a small web dev company site and got a bizarre and aggressive reply.

What would you do if someone you didn't know e.g. me, reported typos or errors in your site?
I would thank them and fix the issues asap.

sineadw

Yep - would do the same. Nothing says 'unprofessional' more than bad spelling...

oneweb

sineadw wrote: »

Yep - would do the same. Nothing says 'unprofessional' more than bad spelling...

I completely agree. A company which acknowledges it comes across as very professional and audience-driven, those that fix it quietly at least listen, the ones which neither listen nor fix don't give a damn but to be agressive is absolutely unnecessary and highlights an individual's personal issues more than anything else.

I'd be more than happy to hear about something wrong with a site. I'd rather 5 people raise the issue early than 5,000 people think less of the work I do.

Just out of curiosity, what was their reply?

daymobrew

oneweb wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, what was their reply?

I completed an enquiry form on the company's site:

Typos on your site:
http://www.XXXXXXXX.ie/_webSiteDesign/splashPages.asp
catcy should be catchy
http://www.XXXXXXXX.ie/_webSiteDesign/CMSSites.asp
can be design should be can be designed
http://www.XXXXXXXX.ie/_webSiteDesign/eComSites.asp
hassel should be hassle

The reply

Daymobrew,

Who are you and what is your problem?

Name_of_Managing_Director

cgarvey

daymobrew wrote: »

I would thank them and fix the issues asap.

Absolutely, and with a nice portion of humble pie too. I gave up on pointing out small things to strangers' sites years ago (you so rarely get an acknowledgement, let alone a thank you). Obviously if there's a security threat of some sort, I'll still try to email (which isn't always straight forward), but other than that I keep my comments to sites who I know the owner/maintainer of.

DonkeyStyle \o/

I think unless you've sent these emails yourself at some point it's hard to appreciate the motivation behind it... ie. someone taking time out of their day to offer a helpful suggestion, rather than assuming it's some cocky, condescending, arse playing interweb school teacher.

Do you give them a grade at the end of it, and tell them you want to see an improvement? (you should, it'd be hilarious )

[edit]

Who are you and what is your problem?

rofl
<Stewie Griffon voice> My problem is your atrocious spelling, fix it at once!

egan007

Sounds like standard reply from Irish customer service departments.

oneweb

daymobrew wrote: »

I completed an enquiry form on the company's site:
The reply

Wow. I for one would CERTAINLY not want to deal with a web design company that not only spritzes misspellings throughout its own content but blasts someone who highlights the fact. Imagine trying to get them to change a mockup ffs!!

Unless...
...their own contact form is buggy and only sends only the Name field when submitted?


Just for kicks, there's more bloomers:

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]suit your companies needs [/FONT] (company's)
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]Our designers will come with an image (designs)
that suits your companies identity. (company's)

designed to the clients specifications (client's)

packages can created to the clients specification (can be... ...client's)

This package offers everthing (everything)

for those who need another option other then (than)


Heh, we're annoying feckers, aren't we?! :-p

Eoin

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote: »

<Stewie Griffon voice> My problem is your atrocious spelling, fix it at once!

It's spelt Griffin

CuLT

egan007 wrote: »

Sounds like standard reply from Irish customer service departments.

Agreed.

Some googling shows the company in question.

All I'll say about their homepage is:

<FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color=#000000 size=2>

:rolleyes:

daymobrew

oneweb wrote: »

Unless...
...their own contact form is buggy and only sends only the Name field when submitted?

No, it sends them the submitted name, email address and enquiry. I saw these in the mail sent by the company MD.

oneweb wrote: »

Just for kicks, there's more bloomers:

Hehe. I'll let you report those. They developed the site for a Dublin 15 minister.

suit your companies needs

Even Google suggests the right spelling.

Eoin

That was an unprofessional reply, but I'm just wondering - was that the entire text of your feedback comment? If so, that does come across as a little smart-arsey.

Typos on your site:
http://www.XXXXXXXX.ie/_webSiteDesign/splashPages.asp
catcy should be catchy
http://www.XXXXXXXX.ie/_webSiteDesign/CMSSites.asp
can be design should be can be designed
http://www.XXXXXXXX.ie/_webSiteDesign/eComSites.asp
hassel should be hassle

yeraulone

2007 was a bad year for constructive criticism

(© Copyright 2007)

Adam

So who else just used their contact form to point out the typos?

Liam Byrne

God bless Google.....

Mind you, should it not be:

"Our designers will come up with an......"

I'd hate it if someone posted or reported elsewhere that there was a mistake on our site, but if someone lets me know (phrasing it "just to let you know that I spotted the following" - it does depend on how it's phrased too, I'd fix it and email back a quick thanks.

Adam

Liam Byrne wrote: »

God bless Google.....

Mind you, should it not be:

"Our designers will come upwith an......"

I'd hate it if someone posted or reported elsewhere that there was a mistake on our site, but if someone lets me know (phrasing it "just to let you know that I spotted the following" - it does depend on how it's phrased too, I'd fix it and email back a quick thanks.

Or even

"Our designers will come up with an......" :pac:

DonkeyStyle \o/

eoin_s wrote: »

It's spelt Griffin

Who are you eoin_s and what is your problem? :mad:





:pac:

Liam Byrne

Mirror wrote: »

Or even

"Our designers will come up with an......" :pac:

Damn!! Ya beat me to it!!!

Criticise my typing and html, will ya!!!! Just who do you think you are!!!!

tricky D

It's not just typos. Some of the copy on loads of web dev companies' sites reads like a 12 year old's essay. (Apols to 12yos)

daymobrew

eoin_s wrote: »

That was an unprofessional reply, but I'm just wondering - was that the entire text of your feedback comment? If so, that does come across as a little smart-arsey.

Yes it was the entire text (well, I had a paragraph explaining how I came to the site [via the politician's site]). I would normally put a "FYI: I found a few typos ..." but was rushing yesterday.

Liam Byrne wrote:

I'd hate it if someone posted or reported elsewhere that there was a mistake on our site, but if someone lets me know (phrasing it "just to let you know that I spotted the following" - it does depend on how it's phrased too, I'd fix it and email back a quick thanks.

I would never have mentioned this if the reply had not been so inappropriate. As the quoted links were the entire message, how would you have responded?
I would have been happy to see it fixed and not received a response.

Mirror wrote:

So who else just used their contact form to point out the typos?

cgarvey

Way to treat feedback C.D.!

daymobrew

Thanks all for the support.
I will try to be less terse in my future mails (as commented by eoin_s and Liam Byrne).

daymobrew

I got a thank you email when I sent the following to another website:

RE: Tiny issues with some characters on the website

Hi,

I was browsing your site, blah.com, and noticed a few characters that did not display correctly for me. The reason is because I use Mozilla Firefox on Unix, Windows users will probably not experience the same issues.

There is a simple solution that the web site maintainer could implement.

The footer of each page mentions "Registered Trademark". The (r) symbol appears as a question mark for me. If the registered trademark symbol is changed to '& reg ;' (remove spaces) it will appear as '(r)' for everyone. See (1)

On the search page, http://www.blah.com/search.html, should "Advance Search" tab be "Advanced Search"? (add 'd')

Damien

(1) http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/latin1.html

mneylon

The funniest replies are from the ones who've ripped of your copy

kjt

I'd definitely send a thank you! Your going to the bother of helping somebody out in your own time/expense, it's the least somebody could do

p

Noone likes to be told how to do their job and if you do, don't expect people to be grateful.

Your mail to that guy was very terse, but his response was definitely inappropriate.

CoNfOuNd

daymobrew > Did you reply back to him?

daymobrew

CoNfOuNd wrote: »

daymobrew > Did you reply back to him?

No, screw that.
Others used the form to report more typos.
I checked one of the typos I reported - it has not been changed.

CuLT

daymobrew wrote: »

No, screw that.
Others used the form to report more typos.
I checked one of the typos I reported - it has not been changed.

Undoubtedly revelling in their own illiteracy, thumbing their nose at The Establishment.

Anouilh

CuLT wrote: »

Undoubtedly revelling in their own illiteracy, thumbing their nose at The Establishment.

Ahhhh.... The Establishment.

I didn't know it could access the Internet...

Interesting thread. Thank You.

Trojan

There organic keywords list in Analytics is going to have some strange entry's after this!

daymobrew

p wrote: »

Your mail to that guy was very terse, but his response was definitely inappropriate.

I also tell drivers when their brake lights aren't working - "Just to let you know, 1/2/all of your brake lights are broken, probably just a blown blub". Those that realise that they need to roll down the passenger window to hear me appreciate the info. I'm a cyclist.

turgon

Well, if someone takes the time to report a typo then fair play. Typos reflect disastrously on a webpage IMO.

I run an athletics site and the odd time I get emails like that. People seem kinda nervous reporting, but I just reply saying I was tired or in a rush which is usually the case. Then fix it.

p

daymobrew wrote: »

I also tell drivers when their brake lights aren't working - "Just to let you know, 1/2/all of your brake lights are broken, probably just a blown blub". Those that realise that they need to roll down the passenger window to hear me appreciate the info. I'm a cyclist.

Breaklights are a safety issue so that's a different thing.

There's a fine line between being helpful and trying to make yourself feel clever and smart.

The first is fine, but emailing people about unsolicited typos on a web design company is getting closer to the latter. You've got to ask yourself if you're actually trying to help them, or if your doing it to show them how bad they are and clever you are.

If it ever might be the latter, then don't send the email.

daymobrew

p wrote: »

Breaklights are a safety issue so that's a different thing.
..snip..
If it ever might be the latter, then don't send the email.

It's never the latter.

s/Breaklights/Brake lights/ - you can't have expected me to ignore that one

p

daymobrew wrote: »

It's never the latter.
s/Breaklights/Brake lights/ - you can't have expected me to ignore that one

Good to hear.

But just to give you an example of how people might feel. Imagine someone emailed you about some photos on your website critiquing you dress-sense and giving you some fashion tips. You might not appreciate it too well.

CuLT

p wrote: »

Good to hear.

But just to give you an example of how people might feel. Imagine someone emailed you about some photos on your website critiquing you dress-sense and giving you some fashion tips. You might not appreciate it too well.

Imagine you are running a business and your potential customers think you're retarded because half your blurb is misspelled.

This isn't someone's myspace page we're talking about, it's a company's web presence.

p

CuLT wrote: »

Imagine you are running a business and your potential customers think you're retarded because half your blurb is misspelled.
This isn't someone's myspace page we're talking about, it's a company's web presence.

Imagine you're out on the pull and you're not scoring because you've got bad dress sense.

You're 100% right of course, but it's just not all that surprising that you'll get mixed reactions. People don't like having their flaws pointed out, valid or not.

CuLT

p wrote: »

Imagine you're out on the pull and you're not scoring because you've got bad dress sense.

You're 100% right of course, but it's just not all that surprising that you'll get mixed reactions. People don't like having their flaws pointed out, valid or not.

Yeah, it can be vexing sometimes, but it's the difference between being a professional and being an amateur, to my mind. Criticism, positive and negative is a part of being professional. If you can't react to it dispassionately, you're not cut out for the game.

Personally, I'd rather not reply at all than reply negatively. The former can make you seem a little aloof, the latter makes you look like a jackass, and can turn into forum threads like this one...