[drupal-docs] user mail wording

[Stefan Nagtegaal]

Op 6-apr-05 om 9:40 heeft Dries Buytaert het volgende geschreven:

>
> On 06 Apr 2005, at 08:44, Karoly Negyesi wrote:
>
>> Hi!
>>
>> I turn to the docs list to help in wording a message for some new
>> functionality.  Jose A Reyero has submitted a patch (and I helped him 
>> a
>> little bit) which would mail special password reset URLs instead of 
>> actual
>> passwords. These URLs can be used only once and they expire. Here is a
>> message from this patch:
>>
>> "You have tried to use a one time login URL which has expired. Please
>> request a new one using the form below."
>>
>> So says Dries:  The patch exposes technical details to the user; 
>> terminology
>> like "one time login URL" is likely to confuse many users. And he is 
>> -- as
>> usual... -- right. Please help rewording this.
>
> I know my mother wouldn't understand "one time login URL".  Maybe 
> write:
>
> "Your request to reset your password has expired.  Please request a 
> new one using the form below."

I asked my grandmother and she wanted to know why..
I have some "unwritten guidelines" for making better helptext after 
thinking about this for a very long, long time, and now I think this is 
the moment to share it with you guys..

Imo messages that gives you information about something that is not 
right, should answer the following questions:
- what is wrong?
   o A straight-forward and easy to understand message which tell what 
is wrong.
- why did it happen?
   o This is the worst of the 3. It is very likely to give a lot of 
technical reasons/information but we should try to be focussed on 
'userfriendly' and even my grandma should know what needs to happen 
next.
- what can "Joe User" do about it?
   o Pretty easy to understand.. We do this some times. Unfortunatly, we 
do this too less..

So this message would be something more like:
"Your request to reset your password has expired, because ???. Please 
request a new password using the form."

Btw: I did removed the ' below' part from the helptext.. We shouldn't 
do that anymore. The user is free to place the helptext wherever he 
want's it to be.. Also under the form..



Stefan