I tend to use a Mac, Windows and Linux at various points throughout my day, and as far as I can tell the errors seem to be like:
Linux: this went wrong with this process or file.
Mac: the stars have aligned incorrectly and we have lost our way, perhaps fate will one day bring back your Libreoffice file but there is no way of knowing
Windows: either a blank dialog box with 'okay' and 'cancel' on it, which both do the same thing, or an error report with 400 pages of nonsense in it, or the computer just turns off while you're still typing.
The Macintosh at my school back in the day used to say - over the speaker - “it’s not my fault” when it crashed. We kids always thought it was hilarious.
It makes sense in some way. People have zero patience and can't stand being bored for more than 1 second. That's why even an error message has to be entertaining these days.
Having worked on an app that incorporated these kinds of error messages, it's not about bordem, it's about not scaring/confusing the user. "Something went wrong and your computer will restart" is more understandable to a layperson, than "Exception: Segmentation Fault". Usually messages also need to fit within an organisations documented "tone of voice". Personally, my preference is for friendly text followed by technical details.
That one tweet from years where they said they wanted the error message so they could fix it, like, I don't think you can fix the thing a team of 500 people has been working on for multiple years from a JavaScript console.
Exactly. Apps didn’t change their language for the fun of it. They did it because their analytics showed that society preferred being treated like infants.
As someone who was an ironic internet nazi in my youth, it's been a long hard road to recovery and self love, but sometimes I am a little obtuse when it comes to certain dog whistles. How is this a fascist meme? Is it the overall gatekeepy bit of We (the people who could read technical information about errors and understand them) are superior to Them (the oppsie poopsie soft skulled idiots) and deserve to have a higher place in the societal hierarchy? Cause that's about the only way I can barely make this fit into that definition.
Thanks in advance for your perspective on the matter ❤️