Hall of Shame

One of my pet peeves is Web sites that ask for a credit card number and then refuse to accept spaces despite the facts that the spaces occur on the card and that it's significantly more difficult to enter them correctly without the spaces. Similar remarks apply to phone numbers and doubtless others. There's no reason for this other than programmer laziness—or perhaps just cluelessness—and, really, a lack of respect for their users. Why any company would tolerate this is a mystery, but that companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, TurboTax Software, and Apple tolerate it is just inexcusable.

Comes now Steve Friedl in a fit of righteous anger with his No Dashes or Spaces Hall of Shame. As Steve demonstrates, it's often easier to do the right thing than it is to add an instruction line specifying no spaces or dashes. The best part of his post is a long list (with examples) of offenses by major companies that really should know better. Steve is still accepting nominations, so by all means send him any examples that are inflicted upon you. Maybe public shaming will put an end to this disgraceful practice.