- From: James Graham <jg307@cam.ac.uk>
- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:56:38 +0100
- To: Sander Tekelenburg <st@isoc.nl>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org
Sander Tekelenburg wrote: >> Henri gave some good examples of problems people try to solve that >> aren't real in IRC: >> >> <hsivonen> Regarding fantasy problems: the thing is people do try to >> solve them. sometimes the problems aren't 100% fantasy, but common sense >> says they aren't real problems. Examples: 1) "search engines could" > > I really don't understand how this is a good example. "search engines could" > sounds like relevant context was omitted. As I understand it, Henri's point is that it is not uncommon to see arguments like "We should add elements <x>, <y> and <z> with attributes a,b and c so that search engines can use the information they provide", without ever asking people who have experience developing search engines whether <x>,<y> and <z> or a,b and c would actually help. Often it turns out that they would not because, for example, the features only function as intended if they are use correctly by a large proportion of the userbase, something that is unlikely to occur in practice (e.g. [1]). With this in mind, we should not assume problems are real until we have spoken to the constituents who are supposedly having the problem to ask them if it is, in fact, a problem they are having, and whether the proposed solution will actually have any bearing on the problem. [1] http://www.well.com/~doctorow/metacrap.htm -- "Mixed up signals Bullet train People snuffed out in the brutal rain" --Conner Oberst
Received on Wednesday, 22 August 2007 20:57:15 UTC