Mafia unequips familiar equipment

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There's also The Jargon File ( one online copy quickly found at http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/ ). It's probably mostly for older things (like pre-2000), but some of the entires are interesting/funny/educational. And it could introduce one into the right frame of mind.
But I would be wary of interpretting anything as *the* source for IT jargon. Each place (site, forum, company, team, room, ...) will have something different.
 
Might I suggest the wrong question was asked and answered? I don't think the solution is to use the correct jargon. I think the solution is to recognize when the discussion has shifted from "how do I?" to "I did and it wasn't what I expected" and after the shift adopt the "procedures" for a good bug report. While there are many possibilities, I think the reports that get the most attention here clearly answer three questions: What did you do? What happened? What did you expect to happen? A good answer to "what did you do?" would be a sequence of steps that someone else could try and possibly reproduce the problem.

For example "fill in the blank" is a perfectly reasonable thing to say in the context of "I opened the Preferences Menu, selected Automation and then tried to fill in the Familiar Script blank."
 
fronobulax said:
Might I suggest the wrong question was asked and answered?
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I have to agree. That's often the real problem.

I'm not really sure why we need to be discussing jargon when most newbies simply use their words to accurately if somewhat more verbosely describe what they actually see and we answer without it when talking to someone new. That works. We've never actually had a problem because people didn't know how to discuss a situation in technical terms. Jargon merely makes things more succinct.
 
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fronobulax said:
For example "fill in the blank" is a perfectly reasonable thing to say in the context of "I opened the Preferences Menu, selected Automation and then tried to fill in the Familiar Script blank."
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Unfortunately no. It's perfectly ambiguous, because it also means "I filled in a blank value into the Familiar Script (input field)".

(sometimes it's a good idea to also include screenshots (preferably with giant arrows); screenshots can resolve many ambiguities, and also communicate important bits of information that didn't look important (or maybe even didn't look like *information*) to the reporter)
 
xKiv said:
Unfortunately no. It's perfectly ambiguous, because it also means "I filled in a blank value into the Familiar Script (input field)".

(sometimes it's a good idea to also include screenshots (preferably with giant arrows); screenshots can resolve many ambiguities, and also communicate important bits of information that didn't look important (or maybe even didn't look like *information*) to the reporter)
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If one doesn't know that it's not called a "blank" by IT people, they are going to assume that the proper term for the "input field" is "blank". In common language, "blank" is the proper name for a blank space that one puts information into.
 
It's also a common way to say that the end result was to leave it unfilled, as in "I left that box blank." Using "blank" here to refer to the fact that it started out blank seems like a good thing to do if you're trying to confuse people...

That has nothing to do with IT terminology, the same would apply to a paper form.
 
That's where common sense comes into play. You have to do more than look at the word "blank" and jump to the conclusion that they left something blank. If the wording indicates that they're trying to fill in a "blank", then you could enlighten them on the proper terminology and ask if that's what they meant. You can't expect average people to have insider knowledge. Life doesn't work that way. You have to enlighten someone to get them to stop using common language.

Parallel example: Do you think the average person knows what a "PTO" is in machinery terminology? No. They think you've misspelled "PTA". I grew up on a farm. It's part of the terminology that I know. I know it stands for "power take off" and that the common language equivalent is "that thing you turn on to make a tractor operate something attached to it" or "that thing you pull out on a riding mower to turn the blades on". I don't expect most people I talk to to know what a PTO is.
 
Generally when I find someone's word choice of X to be ambiguous or confusing I ask them to walk me through all the steps involved in doing X and that irons out misconceptions. I have no idea why this event was any different.
 
VladYvhuce said:
That's where common sense comes into play. You have to do more than look at the word "blank" and jump to the conclusion that they left something blank. If the wording indicates that they're trying to fill in a "blank", then you could enlighten them on the proper terminology and ask if that's what they meant. You can't expect average people to have insider knowledge. Life doesn't work that way. You have to enlighten someone to get them to stop using common language.

Parallel example: Do you think the average person knows what a "PTO" is in machinery terminology? No. They think you've misspelled "PTA". I grew up on a farm. It's part of the terminology that I know. I know it stands for "power take off" and that the common language equivalent is "that thing you turn on to make a tractor operate something attached to it" or "that thing you pull out on a riding mower to turn the blades on". I don't expect most people I talk to to know what a PTO is.
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I don't think it had anything to do with jargon. Feels more of a miscommunication on a more basic level.

What you meant was: "I was trying to set it via the automaton preferences tab's "Familiar Script" blank (box)".

Someone who isn't used to seeing "blank" used that way might think that you meant: "I was trying to set it, via the automaton preferences tab's "Familiar Script", (to) blank.

The main problem, from my point of view, was that "blank" had 2 meanings and the other person was more familiar with the second one. Then a series of misunderstandings occurred.

Parallel example example: Do you think the average person knows what "blank" is in form terminology? No. They think you've meant "empty". I am more familiar with forms. It's part of the terminology that I know. I know what it stands for and that the common language equivalent is "empty space in a form you can fill". I don't expect most people I talk to to know what a "blank" is.
 
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theo1001 said:
I don't think it had anything to do with jargon. Feels more of a miscommunication on a more basic level.

What you meant was: "I was trying to set it via the automaton preferences tab's "Familiar Script" blank (box)".

Someone who isn't used to seeing "blank" used that way might think that you meant: "I was trying to set it, via the automaton preferences tab's "Familiar Script", (to) blank.

The main problem, from my point of view, was that "blank" had 2 meanings and the other person was more familiar with the second one. Then a series of misunderstandings occurred.

Parallel example example: Do you think the average person knows what "blank" is in form terminology? No. They think you've meant "empty". I am more familiar with forms. It's part of the terminology that I know. I know what it stands for and that the common language equivalent is "empty space in a form you can fill". I don't expect most people I talk to to know what a "blank" is.
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The reason for using the word "blank" was a lack of knowledge of how IT people think, combined with a lack of knowledge of IT terminology, further combined by conditioning by common language to use said word in reference to what IT people would rather be called "data field".

Your attempted parallel fails, because the common language equivalent is the word "blank". The average person DOES think that "blank" = "empty space that you fill in". It's the IT person who may not think this way. Not all things that one says can be repurposed and still make sense, or ring true.

But, really... Is there any point in dragging this on further? A mistake was made, the person who made the mistake has learned how to avoid making it again, and the other party may have learned something, as well. Can't we just call it a mutual learning experience a move on?
 
VladYvhuce said:
The reason for using the word "blank" was a lack of knowledge of how IT people think, combined with a lack of knowledge of IT terminology, further combined by conditioning by common language to use said word in reference to what IT people would rather be called "data field".

Your attempted parallel fails, because the common language equivalent is the word "blank". The average person DOES think that "blank" = "empty space that you fill in". It's the IT person who may not think this way. Not all things that one says can be repurposed and still make sense, or ring true.

But, really... Is there any point in dragging this on further? A mistake was made, the person who made the mistake has learned how to avoid making it again, and the other party may have learned something, as well. Can't we just call it a mutual learning experience a move on?
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And that was the point i was disagreeing with. As a non-native english speaker, i had no idea that "blank" could be used with that meaning. It had nothing to do with whether i was an IT person or not. I can't speak for native english speakers but i can say that the average non-native english speaker DOES NOT think that "blank" = "empty space that you fill in", they just think that "blank"="empty". So my parallel works perfectly. You just fail to understand that some people may not be familiar with that specific meaning of that word just because you are and instead insist on blaming it as being some weird IT thing.

And ok. I'll drop this subject now.
 
VladYvhuce said:
If one doesn't know that it's not called a "blank" by IT people, they are going to assume that the proper term for the "input field" is "blank". In common language, "blank" is the proper name for a blank space that one puts information into.
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If you said "filled in the familiar script blank" you would have been understood. "Fill in the blank" is a known and common thing, and refers to replacing the empty value inside the field.
(government/bank forms don't call them "blanks" either, do they? The things are "fields", the action is "fill in the blank")
 
I've seen and filled out many a form. And they all say "blank" in reference to the fields. Granted, this may be a localized printing issue, since I live in rural Kansas... An attempt to not confuse people who've never heard of a "data field".
 
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