Double negative "Don't overwrite value if already exists" - No/Yes

Ideas and Feature Requests
1

My idea is: to change the double negative on contact import to “overwrite value if already exists” Yes/No. It is clearer what the action is.

I think these groups of people would benefit from this idea: anyone importing contacts that already exist

Why I think they would benefit from this idea: the double negative is confusing. Don’t and No. Does No mean it will not overwrite or it will overwrite.

Any code or resources to support this idea: n/a

Are you willing to work on this idea?: from a comms / UX point of view, I’m happy to be involved

What skills and resources do you need to explore this further? If others agree that the double negative could be improved for new users.

3 Likes
2

Yes, I am still not clear on how to answer this, and if something is overwritten, is it the whole record?

3 Likes
3

This is what it does:
If you have a record, that is empty, will be filled out. That’s the point of import.
If you have a value already, then it will be ALSO overwritten as a default.
However if you don’t overwrite, then the existing values will be spared and only new values will be added on fields, where there was no value before.

2 Likes
4

Oh, that’s so useful to know actually. I was going to run some tests.

Either way, I would still put forward the idea to reword this so that it’s clearer. It’s not a technical issue, just a comms issue.

1 Like
5

Double negative is confusing, but it’s part of our culture.

“Ain’t no sunshine when she is gone…”
“We don’t need no education…”
“I ain’t afraid of no ghost…”

:slight_smile:

6

:rofl:

Very true. I really can’t get no satisfaction.

7

Despite being a native English speaker and frequently using double negatives, I have to agree - we did have discussions about this around the time it was introduced and the pushback against making it more user friendly was ‘this is how Mautic has always done it’ :person_facepalming:

This is why we are trying to form a UI/UX tiger team, to actually find and fix all these weird, confusing Mautic oddities!

Would that be something that you would be interested in contributing to @octobercomms ?

8

Absolutely! I’d love to help there.

UI/UX could be the icing on the cake for Mautic that makes it easier for newbies to adopt.

I’ve only just installed Mautic for us to use, and getting used to it and this was the first thing that made me confused.

3 Likes
9

Fab! If you are not yet on Slack, head over to Mautic Community On Slack and get an invitation, then join us in #tt-ux_ui :partying_face:

10

I still don’t know the answer!!
If I DON’T want to overwrite values, is it the Yes or No option???

So confusing please change this

1 Like
11

The default used to be: overwrite every imported field.

Then a ‘do not overwrite’ feature was introduced, which you can activate (yes) and values would not be overwritten.

Don’t overwrite = no will OVERWRITE your existing values
Don’t overwrite = yes will NOT OVERWRITE your existing values

1 Like
12

It happens to me also, like a short circuit inside my brain, when I try to understand the end effect of “Don’t overwrite = no”.
I would find this wording better:

Keep existing values = no => will OVERWRITE the existing values
Keep existing values = yes => will NOT OVERWRITE the existing values

This could also be updated in Transifex, is it ?

13

Sure it can be

14

I tried and found out that I am not able to change it. I am not a member of the English team.
Anyway, it looks strange, that the Text in Transifex was created 14 days ago (19 of June 2023) and this topic about the wording was created a year ago.

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@escopecz : do you find also better the wording: “Keep value if already exists”
instead of “Don’t overwrite value if already exists”
=> if so, can you update the text in Transifex?

15

You can change it in this file: https://github.com/mautic/mautic/blob/7312a18494c20fd19333bb3a391b6744fae9142a/app/bundles/LeadBundle/Translations/en_US/messages.ini#L181C38-L181C38

Let me know if you’ll have trouble to create the pull request on GitHub.

16

Thank you for the tip ! I created a PR on GitHub :slight_smile:

2 Likes