Online Agreements Not Readable
from the well,-duh dept
First of all, I never knew there was such a profession as a "readability consultant", but even had I known that, I don't think I would have needed one to tell me that most online user agreements aren't very readable. Most people (of course) never even bother to read them and just go ahead and click on the "I agree" button which is why Kazaa users suddenly discover that they've installed all sorts of spyware on their computers. The readability expert says there are all sorts of problems with these agreements. They're written in confusing legalese, they only use text - and never easy to read text, they use long paragraphs (and long sentences and long words - they'd probably use long letters if that were possible), and they never offer an option to "print" out the agreement so you can actually read it without have to scroll down through a tiny box. In other words, online user agreements suck. They're designed to get people to click without reading - and they're pretty successful at that.
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pragmatically...
THE REASON YOU'LL OFTEN ENTIRE PARAGRAPHS SCREAMING AT YOU IN ALL CAPS IS BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED METHOD OF EMPHASIZING SOMETHING IMPORTANT. A MANUAL TYPEWRITER OF 80 YEARS AGO COULDN'T CHANGE FONT, POINT SIZE, WEIGHT, OR COLOR, AND THE CONVENTIONS OF THAT TIME PERSIST IN LEGAL DOCUMENTS TODAY.
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