Cancelling a post



  • I understand why the wording is as it is but it doesn't change the fact that it feels so wrong to me.

    Consider:
    Are you sure you want to abandon your post?

    • Yes, abandon
    • No, keep

    I'd argue that abandon has negative connotations, just as keep has positive ones. But here you're asking me if I want to positively assert a negative action. It's like saying "Yes, I don't want that", it may be correct but it seems illogical.

    Alternative 1: just yes/no
    Are you sure you want to abandon your post?

    • Yes
    • No

    Hmm. I don't like that so much because it's still tying a positive assertion to a negative action.

    Alternative 2: just the actions
    Are you sure you want to abandon your post?

    • Abandon
    • Keep

    Better, IMO. Not ideal, but better. The problem is we're still asking a question where a positive answer means a negative outcome.

    Consider alternative 3:
    Don't you want to keep your post?

    • Yes, keep it
    • No, I don't want it

    Yes on the left, no on the right, even make No more visibly prominent if you must but that way we're following a positive action with a positive assertion. Just feels more civilised to me to do that even though it's really the same thing presented differently.

    Or you could ignore me. 😛



  • Alternative 3 asks a question where the answer is the opposite of "do you want to do what you just told me you want to do?"

    That's confusing as well.



  • @Arantor said:

    Or you could ignore me.

    Ok.



  • Are you sure you want to delete funny_cat_picture.jpg.exe?

    • Yes, delete
    • No, keep

    Are you sure you want to delete funny_cat_picture.jpg.exe?

    • Yes
    • No

    Are you sure you want to delete funny_cat_picture.jpg.exe?

    • Delete
    • Keep

    Don't you not want to not delete funny_cat_picture.jpg.exe?

    • Ok
    • Cancel


  • FILE_NOT_FOUND to you too.

    'delete' is better than 'abandon'.



  • But there's nothing to delete. You haven't made a post yet. It's like closing Microsoft Word and choosing "don't save".



  • Sure there is. If you cancel with no content, nothing is asked of you. If you cancel with content, it's almost certainly going to have saved a draft for you, so that's what you're deleting - that draft.

    The UI even tells you that it's saved it with the little 'saved' in the middle of the bar at the bottom.



  • #Cancel?

    • Cancel
    • Cancel
    • ♋
    • Cancel


  • Delete refers to the Draft it auto saves, so yes, there's content to delete, the saved temporary data.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    In all, I think alternative 2 is best.

    I can understand how tying a positive response to a negative consequence can feel awkward - and I believe that the wording in alt. 2 mitigates it somewhat by specifying the actual actions - but the... ahem... alternative (3, to be exact) means a clumsilily worded question. At first reading, I wasn't sure what was being asked.

    In the end, the user initiated an action and is now being asked to confirm that action, because it may have negative consequences (otherwise - what's the point?) In a "Are you sure you want to do that?" situation, I expect the confirmation to be in place of the "OK" button. Alternative 3 would actually work against muscle memory, break the Principle of Least Surprise, be a barrier to reading etc.

    My 2c.



  • I think the ideal TDWTF dialog should look like this:

    You can choose to either keep this post or abandon it, what would you like to do?
    Yes No FILE_NOT_FOUND [Let @mikeTheLiar decide for me]


  • BINNED

    @Keith said:

    You can choose to either keep this post or abandon it, what would you like to do?
    Yes No FILE_NOT_FOUND [Let @mikeTheLiar decide for me]

    In addition, I propose "nostalgia", or "classic" mode, where choices become:

    Yes No FILE_NOT_FOUND [Fucking hell why does it delete two posts when I click cancel once]

    Keeping the classic conventions, the last options should use   and properly not fit on a small screen.



  • @Onyx said:

    Keeping the classic conventions, the last options should use   and properly not fit on a small screen.

    Also, the options should be centre aligned, pushing Yes and No off the left side of the screen, leaving the only available options:

    LE_NOT_FOUND [Fucking hell why does it delete tw



  • @GOG said:

    In all, I think alternative 2 is best.

    I can understand how tying a positive response to a negative consequence can feel awkward - and I believe that the wording in alt. 2 mitigates it somewhat by specifying the actual actions - but the... ahem... alternative (3, to be exact) means a clumsilily worded question. At first reading, I wasn't sure what was being asked.

    In the end, the user initiated an action and is now being asked to confirm that action, because it may have negative consequences (otherwise - what's the point?) In a "Are you sure you want to do that?" situation, I expect the confirmation to be in place of the "OK" button. Alternative 3 would actually work against muscle memory, break the Principle of Least Surprise, be a barrier to reading etc.

    My 2c.

    Agreed.


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