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chaosprime · 08-28-2007, 02:08 PM

That level of on/off, black/white distinction is, in effect, a disingenuous editorial statement, saying that all that matters about a game's financial structure is whether or not money is involved in any way. Given social prejudices, this amounts to a suggestion to the user that any game with money involved be dismissed out of hand. The fill-in text box is irrelevant to search functionality; even if Lasher felt like wasting his time to provide the capacity for some sort of keyword matching on that field, no one would use it when there's a radio button for a yes/no choice right there.

Finer gradations of choice, on the other hand, say to the user that there are important distinctions to be made within the realm of MUDs with a revenue model, while in no way removing anyone's ability to say "I WANTS ONLY NO MONEY MUDZ RAAAAAR".

I am arguing in favor of those finer gradations in part because I don't think that sort of hijacking of the TMS interface by anti-commercial sentiment is appropriate or helpful.

Oh, and if you try to tell me that interface design is value-judgment-free, I will laugh at you uproariously, possibly even pointing as I do so. Just sayin'.

P.S. to everyone: y'all really ought to stop representing checkboxes when you mean radio buttons. I thought everyone in the world would have written enough HTML by now to know the difference.

08-28-2007, 02:08 PM	#187
chaosprime Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Home MUD: Lost Souls Posts: 199	Re: What does "Free" Mean? That level of on/off, black/white distinction is, in effect, a disingenuous editorial statement, saying that all that matters about a game's financial structure is whether or not money is involved in any way. Given social prejudices, this amounts to a suggestion to the user that any game with money involved be dismissed out of hand. The fill-in text box is irrelevant to search functionality; even if Lasher felt like wasting his time to provide the capacity for some sort of keyword matching on that field, no one would use it when there's a radio button for a yes/no choice right there. Finer gradations of choice, on the other hand, say to the user that there are important distinctions to be made within the realm of MUDs with a revenue model, while in no way removing anyone's ability to say "I WANTS ONLY NO MONEY MUDZ RAAAAAR". I am arguing in favor of those finer gradations in part because I don't think that sort of hijacking of the TMS interface by anti-commercial sentiment is appropriate or helpful. Oh, and if you try to tell me that interface design is value-judgment-free, I will laugh at you uproariously, possibly even pointing as I do so. Just sayin'. P.S. to everyone: y'all really ought to stop representing checkboxes when you mean radio buttons. I thought everyone in the world would have written enough HTML by now to know the difference.