The new Polish ID card system.



  • For very rare occasions, like the first full moon after the equinox, I visit Poland, the country of the election Kalkulator. Today I needed to pick up my new ID card (since I can't do it in, say, the nearest consulate). In the relevant office, I witnessed the new ID card management system. Here are some WTFs:

    • The front end is mobile first. That's not necessarily a bad thing unless we are talking about a system that will only be used in local government branches. Which it is (and requires a smart card login so unless some new generation of ID cards will be NFC-enabled, ordinary citizens won't be able to use it). This makes actually getting to the relevant page in the app, like printing out the receipt confirmation, an unnecessarily multi-step process.
    • Random session timeouts less than a minute after logging into the app (and app actions not extending the timeout). This may be caused by...
    • Random exceptions with stack traces sent to the client - normally the staff using the system won't need them or know what they are. I on the other hand know that the system is using enterprise Java on the back end and runs JBoss 6.

    I'm not saying the government wasted their money, because the old system probably ran on Cobol and was even more WTF-licious but having to sit through 2 screens of stack barf and then having to fill out the current date on the form myself even though the form was printed from a web app which I think was more than capable of things like looking it up for me is a waste of our tax zlotys.



  • Because that's the sort of results that you get in the system where, by law, the lowest bidder wins.

    To this, you add the factor that the final deadline is fixed, but all necessary paperwork to be filed is always delayed as much as possible, so the actual window where development can occur is shorter than initially anticipated. Also, the lowest bidder will inevitably cut on QA. Also, the application hosting will be some sort of overpriced rubbish (prices go up when it's for a business, and skyrocket even more if it is for government).



  • You mean a citizen's ID or a residence permit ID, by the way?



  • Citizen's. It may be a rubbish citizenship, but at least it's an EU one.



  • I don't think it's very rubbish (comparing to the previous/additional one one's got it may be pretty ok); well, I have 5 more years until I can apply for one 😄



  • What's even more WTFy is the latency between enacting the legislation which makes obowiÄ…zek meldunkowy obsolete, adjusting all dependencies to take that into account, and actually handing out instructions and retraining all the clerk monkies who don't know the new way and will go overboard to protect their asses just in case they might screw something up.

    But I guess every government in the world is a bit like this, more or less.



  • Whenever I interact with the Washington State government, their technology is relatively up-to-date and the process is generally pretty painless. I can't remember the last time I had to fill-in a paper form for any government action...

    Oh wait, the Unemployment Office. ... nevermind.



  • @wft said:

    obowiÄ…zek meldunkowy

    So far I never saw it go away completely. Someone will require the registration address sooner or later.

    For the benefit of the other 90% of the forum, obowiÄ…zek meldunkowy is about having to register your current address with the ID card office, and a remnant of the communism days.

    Watch Discourse fuck up your formatting in the quoted post 😒



  • @Minkovsky said:

    So far I never saw it go away completely. Someone will require the registration address sooner or later.

    ...because they have not been given the new instructions yet, or the new instructions contradict some old instructions that haven't yet been cancelled, and don't want to get fired over excessive assertiveness.



  • Why would I want to polish my ID? It's laminated and already fairly shiny.


  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @Minkovsky's id obviously isn't. And it sounds like quite a hassle to get it done, judging by his post. I would've just done it myself



  • @Minkovsky said:

    citizenship

    Guys, WTF are you looking for here. Seriously.



  • @Maciejasjmj said:

    Guys, WTF are you looking for here. Seriously.
    At least it's better than a citizenship somewhere to the east from you. And I don't have to learn a language.



  • Oi, I'm actually from this shithole 😜



  • I feel your pain. Spanish electronic IDs were implemented almost 10 years ago, and were supposedly going to solve every administration problem, yet still nobody uses them because their implementation sucks so much.

    Our government does not handle software very well. And that's kind of an understatement.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @anonymous234 said:

    Our government does not handle software very well. And that's kind of an understatement.

    Virtually everyone on WTDWTF could repeat that sentence without variation, no matter where we are in the world.


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