Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

[duncanp]

But then, a few weeks ago I had the opposite: a chap giving me an earful for putting a jar of jam in the food bank donations basket. (‘Encouraging layabouts to live off others and not get themselves a job...’ I didn’t hear much as I walked off.)

I would just tell him to **** off and mind his own business.

It is east to be judgemental about others, but a lot of people are struggling at the moment with the cost of living crisis, and if electricity does go upby 65% in October (as per the latest forecast) there will be vast numbers of people for whom life will be very difficult.

Even those who are in work are finding it increasingly difficult to manage. and are having to turn to foodbanks and other sources of help.

 

[Drogba11CFC]

The insistence McDonald's have on everyone having sauce on their breakfast roll.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The insistence McDonald's have on everyone having sauce on their breakfast roll.

They don't. When ordering you can remove anything you like from a product.

 

[ABB125]

They don't. When ordering you can remove anything you like from a product.

Surely you'd remove the things you DISlike?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Surely you'd remove the things you DISlike?

I suppose you would. The OP of course can remove the sauce. Most people do want it, and most McD's products do come with a sauce already on so it's hardly specific to the breakfast products.

 

[jfollows]

I find it irritating that increasing numbers of organisations decided to send me email at a specific time of day. I think Google was partly guilty for implementing this. Most of them don't have to be sent at exactly 9am (or 7am, or 8am) but I get an email storm of very minor proportions when they do - it's just irritating. My solution would be to disable notifications for receipt of email, or tailor the process to be more selective, but it annoys me that I have to think about it. It just seems as if everyone has jumped on the "send email at a specific time" bandwagon which seems totally unnecessary in the majority of cases to me.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I find it irritating that increasing numbers of organisations decided to send me email at a specific time of day. I think Google was partly guilty for implementing this. Most of them don't have to be sent at exactly 9am (or 7am, or 8am) but I get an email storm of very minor proportions when they do - it's just irritating. My solution would be to disable notifications for receipt of email, or tailor the process to be more selective, but it annoys me that I have to think about it. It just seems as if everyone has jumped on the "send email at a specific time" bandwagon which seems totally unnecessary in the majority of cases to me.

It's Microsoft, not Google, which is the villain of the piece here.

The latest version of Outlook appears to link to the calendar functions somehow and if you try to send a mail when the recipient is not at work - either through being on leave or simply it's outside their normal working hours - Outlook will show you a little message suggesting you send the mail when the person is at work.

Me? I ignore that and send the mail anyway.

Others? The chances are the majority of them who do use the feature will set a scheduled delivery time on the mail that matches the start of the recipient's working hours.

Hence the flurry of early mails.

 

[py_megapixel]

The latest version of Outlook appears to link to the calendar functions somehow and if you try to send a mail when the recipient is not at work - either through being on leave or simply it's outside their normal working hours - Outlook will show you a little message suggesting you send the mail when the person is at work.

It does, yes, and I'm not really sure what the point in it is... I thought a benefit of email was that you could send a message whenever and it would sit in an inbox for the recipient to read at their convenience.

 

[Ediswan]

It does, yes, and I'm not really sure what the point in it is... I thought a benefit of email was that you could send a message whenever and it would sit in an inbox for the recipient to read at their gconvenience.

The idea is that you want you message to be at the head of the queue for reading. Ideally, it would be delivered just before the recipient looks at their mail at the start of the day.

The extreme counter-example is that a message sent last thing Friday may, by Monday, be so far down the pile that it never gets read.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It can also be handy for if you're doing a bit of catching up out of hours but don't want to get involved in a conversation with someone else who is.

 

[43096]

It does, yes, and I'm not really sure what the point in it is... I thought a benefit of email was that you could send a message whenever and it would sit in an inbox for the recipient to read at their convenience.

It is also intended to be part of a solution to the "always on" culture where people will check their work emails out of hours, at weekends etc. Some companies are becoming concerned by the effect on employees of that culture.

 

[py_megapixel]

The idea is that you want you message to be at the head of the queue for reading. Ideally, it would be delivered just before the recipient looks at their mail at the start of the day.

The extreme counter-example is that a message sent last thing Friday may, by Monday, be so far down the pile that it never gets read.

I tend to scroll to the oldest unread messages and read those first. I suppose not everyone does that though, especially if their inbox is sorted "newest first".

 

[Techniquest]

I tend to scroll to the oldest unread messages and read those first. I suppose not everyone does that though, especially if their inbox is sorted "newest first".

I'd probably do that if I was needing to read emails on a regular basis, however it's not uncommon for me to leave my inbox unopened for days at a time. Even then, it's more likely I'll skim through it for anything interesting first, delete the stuff that isn't and then look at everything else.

This gimmick where an email provider holds back emails until a certain time, therefore, is completely pointless to me. No doubt it's good for some people, but I'd imagine for the average person it can't really be that essential.

 

[jfollows]

Most of the "deluge" emails I get at the same time are marketing types, ones I've signed up for, but presumably they think they'll be more likely to get my attention this way, but it doesn't work when they all do it!
I have to admit I have one use for this - I have a friend to whom I chat on the phone quite a lot, and I will sometimes send him emails I think he'll find interesting. The problem is that he immediately rings me up to talk about the emails without even having read them, which is very annoying, so I considered stopping sending him stuff. Instead I implemented an outgoing "hold" on emails until 3am, identified by a particular string in the subject line, which gets stripped out when the email gets sent - he now reads my emails and we can talk about them in our next regular conversation. He did express puzzlement once at my being up at 3am but I didn't explain further!
(I run my own mail server and was able to customise Postfix to meet my requirements here.)

 

[ABB125]

Most of the "deluge" emails I get at the same time are marketing types, ones I've signed up for, but presumably they think they'll be more likely to get my attention this way, but it doesn't work when they all do it!
I have to admit I have one use for this - I have a friend to whom I chat on the phone quite a lot, and I will sometimes send him emails I think he'll find interesting. The problem is that he immediately rings me up to talk about the emails without even having read them, which is very annoying, so I considered stopping sending him stuff. Instead I implemented an outgoing "hold" on emails until 3am, identified by a particular string in the subject line, which gets stripped out when the email gets sent - he now reads my emails and we can talk about them in our next regular conversation. He did express puzzlement once at my being up at 3am but I didn't explain further!
(I run my own mail server and was able to customise Postfix to meet my requirements here.)

Gmail has a very useful feature where you can delay the sending of an email to any specific time. I mainly use it for emailing reminders to myself, but it also comes in useful if you're writing something in the evening, but want to send it in the morning (or any other such combination)

 

[yorksrob]

People going to well known fast food outlets and having to have a long detailed discussion about the menu with the operative before ordering.

 

[jfollows]

People going to well known fast food outlets and having to have a long detailed discussion about the menu with the operative before ordering.

That's me!
I've nothing against such places but I think the last time I went to one was in 2014 (it was a Burger King on the A14 on the way to Cambridge), apart from Subway where I know enough to say "with everything". For a very occasional user of fast food places, their options and menus are pretty baffling, and made worse by "meal deals" and so on. If I went more often I'd probably be less clueless!

 

[Bald Rick]

People going to well known fast food outlets and having to have a long detailed discussion about the menu with the operative before ordering.

I’d take that further - people who approach the order point (whether a person or automatic terminal) without having previously decided what they want. You are delaying other people. Get out of the way And let those of us who know what we want get our food ASAP.

 

[yorksrob]

That's me!
I've nothing against such places but I think the last time I went to one was in 2014 (it was a Burger King on the A14 on the way to Cambridge), apart from Subway where I know enough to say "with everything". For a very occasional user of fast food places, their options and menus are pretty baffling, and made worse by "meal deals" and so on. If I went more often I'd probably be less clueless!

To be fair, it's mainly whether you want chips and a drink with it

I’d take that further - people who approach the order point (whether a person or automatic terminal) without having previously decided what they want. You are delaying other people. Get out of the way And let those of us who know what we want get our food ASAP.

Yes, that too !

 

[ABB125]

I’d take that further - people who approach the order point (whether a person or automatic terminal) without having previously decided what they want. You are delaying other people. Get out of the way And let those of us who know what we want get our food ASAP.

How does that work if, like me, you very rarely (ie: a couple of times a year) go to such establishments, and thus don't recall what's on the menu? Though to be fair, if it's McDonald's, I normally have an 89p saver burger (or two if I'm hungry), mainly because I don't like pretty much everything that most people like to go with burgers*...

Fortunately this is only a problem I have to deal with when I'm traveling, so hardly at all!

*But also because I'm a cheapskate, why pay more when I can have a reasonable burger for 89p? (I was mortified to discover that the exact same burger costs something like €1.30 over in Europe, which is an absolute rip off compared with the UK; over the course of my Interrail trip a few months ago, that added about £5 to the total cost!)

 

[jfollows]

It's necessary to speak a different language than normal in fast-food places, and in coffee shops. In the former you can't ask for a "burger and chips" and in the latter you can't ask for a "black coffee, no sugar". Instead you've got to ask for something else which approximates to the thing you want to ask for, and because these establishments are all a bit different it takes time to process the menu, work out what the thing you want is called in their language, and ask for it.
It amuses me in the main, but it's the reason I can't ask for what I want as quickly as some might prefer.

 

[D6130]

*But also because I'm a cheapskate, why pay more when I can have a reasonable burger for 89p? (I was mortified to discover that the exact same burger costs something like €1.30 over in Europe, which is an absolute rip off compared with the UK; over the course of my Interrail trip a few months ago, that added about £5 to the total cost!)

In fairness, the European branches of the big fast food chains tend to use much better quality meat in their burgers. French or Italian customers would never accept the rubbish that they use here.

 

[py_megapixel]

Digital menus in fast food outlets which periodically disappear to show advertising.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It's necessary to speak a different language than normal in fast-food places, and in coffee shops. In the former you can't ask for a "burger and chips" and in the latter you can't ask for a "black coffee, no sugar". Instead you've got to ask for something else which approximates to the thing you want to ask for, and because these establishments are all a bit different it takes time to process the menu, work out what the thing you want is called in their language, and ask for it.
It amuses me in the main, but it's the reason I can't ask for what I want as quickly as some might prefer.

It is more of an issue because the fast food places insist on multiple queues, which McD's actually did deliberately to be more American!

 

[Bald Rick]

How does that work if, like me, you very rarely (ie: a couple of times a year) go to such establishments, and thus don't recall what's on the menu?

umm, look at the menu before going to the order point?

 

[ABB125]

umm, look at the menu before going to the order point?

They have menus on display? I've never noticed that before!

 

[Bletchleyite]

They have menus on display? I've never noticed that before!

In most Maccies they're to the left of the tills with summary ones above, but you don't see them before reaching the ordering terminals. The layout of new McDs is very sub-optimal indeed.

 

[Strat-tastic]

It's necessary to speak a different language than normal in fast-food places, and in coffee shops. In the former you can't ask for a "burger and chips" and in the latter you can't ask for a "black coffee, no sugar". Instead you've got to ask for something else which approximates to the thing you want to ask for, and because these establishments are all a bit different it takes time to process the menu, work out what the thing you want is called in their language, and ask for it.
It amuses me in the main, but it's the reason I can't ask for what I want as quickly as some might prefer.

I refuse to go along with pretentious clap trap, and ask for a black coffee

 

[Techniquest]

In most Maccies they're to the left of the tills with summary ones above, but you don't see them before reaching the ordering terminals. The layout of new McDs is very sub-optimal indeed.

Of course, the best way to deal with fast food places and their queues/customers is to go elsewhere! I very rarely go to any fast food places these days, with good reason, and I absolutely refuse to touch McDonald's. Not even for a coffee, and I like their 99p coffee, and when I last had one ages ago the hash browns are good too. I'm willing to sacrifice those though for an improvement in ethics, ever since the McDonald's somewhere a little north of Telford Central toxified the air for significant distances around it when I was last up there, I refuse to put my money in their bank accounts!

I refuse to go along with pretentious clap trap, and ask for a black coffee

Good call! I wonder if you also get asked regularly if you want milk!

 

[py_megapixel]

I refuse to go along with pretentious clap trap, and ask for a black coffee

"Which coffee, sorry?" is often the response.

Good call! I wonder if you also get asked regularly if you want milk!

I wonder if people ever actually try to order a "black Americano with milk"?

Or if anyone has asked for a "black Americano, no sugar" and been asked "Is that brown or white sugar?"