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Re: The legalese pages

Subject: Re: The legalese pages
From: Phil Stokes <philstokes03 -at- googlemail -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:54:17 +0700

This shows advanced understanding of reader psychology. We all got wise to 'small print', learning that as soon as were saw something smaller than the rest, it was actually like a secret, and secrets are psychologically attractive.

However, the new 'trick' of using ALL CAPS TO SHOUT IN YOUR FACE has the effect of making us psychologically averse to reading the message as well as impairing legibility even if when we want to. If its long enough, you can feel so emotionally battered that you fail to care about the unfavourable terms and conditions announced therein.

They're not daft, the people who figured this out. Of course, many companies just do it to follow what is now a conventional style without knowing why it was done in the first place.

The effect is the same, nevertheless. We know they don't want us to read it, and we know we damn well should.


On 19/10/2011 00:48, Peter Neilson wrote:

Back in the dark ages that crap was written on paper in a font so small you needed hired mice to read it aloud to you.

NOW THE USE OF UPPER CASE AND POSSIBLY PASSIVE VOICE COMPLETE WITH OVERLY LONG SENTENCES THAT ARE STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT OF HUMAN PATIENCE AND CONTAIN EXCLUSIONS THAT ARE MADE TO RESEMBLE ADDITIONS ARE COMMONLY PROVIDED, OR WHEN NOT POSSIBLE IN THAT FORM ARE RENDERED INCOMPREHENSIBLE THROUGH SOME OTHER MEANS OR METHOD SUCH AS APPOSITIVE NOUNS OR NOUN PHRASES OR CONJUNCTIVIAL PHRASES AS WELL AS AND IN ADDITION TO THE TERMS INITIALLY MENTIONED. YOUR RIGHTS MAY VARY. TODOS LOS DERECHOS REVERSADOS.
_
/_/ Check here if you read and understood the above abstriction.

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:19:05 -0400, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com> wrote:

Sad to say, I sure don't.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Steve Schwarzman
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2011 12:34 PM
To: Tony Chung
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: The legalese pages

...and how many of us read the terms and conditions before we mark the
checkbox affirming that we've done just that, so we can install the
software?

Steve Schwarzman
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References:
The legalese pages: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Re: The legalese pages: From: Milan Davidović
RE: The legalese pages: From: McLauchlan, Kevin
Re: The legalese pages: From: Gene Kim-Eng
RE: The legalese pages: From: Mark Baker
Re: The legalese pages: From: Peter Neilson

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