I was thinking about bad documentation recently, and was wondering how to classify different standards. Based on my experience and conversations with some others, T've built a list. I'm having difficulty getting them to line up on a continuum (is irrelevant actually worse than irritating).
Here are the results:
prophetic
telepathic
helpful
salient
insightful
informative
accurate
well-organised
pretty
uneven
misguided
irrelevant
enthusiastic
irritating
ugly
overwritten
confusing
inflammatory
incorrect
vexing
incomprehensible
infuriating
misleading
promotional
and you thought documentation was all the same...
Posted by carla at September 8, 2003 06:10 PMI got stuck on telepathic. Can documents read minds? I've got an image of a piece of paper in a bandana and big hoop earings or should that be clairvoyant? :)
Posted by: jan at September 8, 2003 07:22 PMunenthusiastic
convoluted
dreary
hee! love your list. especially 'inflammatory'. (yeah! include observations about how the software *ought* to work. :)
Posted by: iona at September 9, 2003 08:32 AMdreary! of course - why didn't I think of that...
telepathic - they know what you want to know before you even start looking for it.
Posted by: .carla at September 9, 2003 09:18 AMI think I love best that enthusiastic is worse than irrelevant... sadly, so often the case
Posted by: Ceri at September 9, 2003 09:26 AMinteresting
cogent
clear
consistent
thoughtful
charming
elegant
also, in a less positive vein:
incomplete
moronic
This is very cool. I want [someone who isn't me] to write examples of each! ;-)
Posted by: iona at September 9, 2003 09:40 AMI love that promotional is at the bottom of the list.
What does promotional mean in this context?
And have I ever told you that you're my favourite person ever? Or at the very least a strong contender.
Posted by: Eleanor at September 9, 2003 12:42 PMbut wait, there's more...
worrying
incomplete
urksome
pedantic
patronising
standards-based
entertaining
blase
defensive
waffly
thanks :) promotional means - misleading, enthusiastic, irritating (or possibly vexing), and often grammatically incorrect. The sort of document that describes how great the product with, but is actually useless or harmful to the reader.
Posted by: .carla at September 9, 2003 12:47 PMHarmful even! Should I be scared?!
Posted by: Eleanor at September 9, 2003 01:41 PMI should employ you to look at my procedure documents I've done for work. I'm intrigued to know where they'd fall on the list.
Posted by: Eleanor at September 9, 2003 01:42 PMconcientious? (eeek! *another* one). :)
Posted by: .carla at September 9, 2003 01:45 PMLetcherous?
Posted by: Siobhann at September 10, 2003 04:29 AMamusing... which can be good or bad...
Posted by: karen at September 13, 2003 01:14 AM