this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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It's literally impossible. I've seen programs ask three times to confirm a deletion, with big warnings, really emphasized. Saying it's permanent all three times.
Then the fuckers contacted us at tech support and go all like "hurr durr I just deleted my project can I have it back".
NO YOU LITTLE DIPSHIT YOU CANNOT. We did have backups though, most of the time (if it was recent) but it took well over a couple hours to properly restore, so we only did it if they asked nicely and behaved.
TL;DR People are stupid, no such thing as dump proofing. What needs to be done is hold people to higher standards and force to educate themselves or GTFO.
I feel like that anger should be directed at the people who made the software, not the people who use it.
The foolproof solution here is to... give people the option to restore what they deleted without contacting tech support. It's obviously needed.
Nobody can expect anyone to read multiple warnings asking them if they're really really sure whether they want to perform a reversible action they set out to do.
That's a textbook example of a poor design that breeds more people desensitized to warnings.
What if we cannot afford the space of keeping everything backed uo forever? What if it has been a year? Where do we put the limits to "okay, this is stupid" and "this is perfectably reasonable"? What if the action cannot be reversed, and after deletion you need to anonimyze particularly sensitive data?
I say to all that, READ THE FUCKING MANUAL. If you are not apt enough to read and research about the software, you are not apt enough to use it.
Same with hardware. You cut your finger because you didnt follow instructions clearly laid out for you not to cut your finger when using a saw? Maybe sawing was not for you mate
You enforce a reasonable data retention policy, or charge for it.
If you fail to recover data for everyone, then the data retention is too low. If you succeed to recover data for everyone, then the data retention is too high. Pick a data retention policy that leans towards long enough that you can recover data for most people, or charge extra for it. It's not that complicated.
Tech support can reverse the action in this case, so I don't see how this is relevant.
Most software doesn't process credit card transactions, so I don't see how this is relevant. Even if they did, they probably have to keep the data around due to regulatory requirements.
People should at least try to make usable software first, but manuals are fine.
Yeah, shit happens, assuming they receive proper training and the saw complies with safety standards.
Based on your last sentence, was that supposed to be sarcastic?
Its just true. People become desensitized to warnings and ignore them. Putting three of them is an example of bad UX because at that point you need to do something else.
I’m sorry but people have to have a bare minimum of a awareness and understanding of the tools they use literally every day. I work in tech support, you have to stop cutting people slack at some point and make sure they understand it’s their fault.