This not really an Apple thing. It’s an “IT thing”. There’s always some bozo somewhere writing validation criteria for any number of input fields. I used to have a “care of” mailing address. You have no idea how often it was rejected on websites because some wet-behind-the-ears coders had not thougth of allowing those addies. Even writing one’s year of birth has become an ordeal. I was born in 1951. Why can’t I write that number instead of scrolling down a list which starts with 2021 (I mean NOBODY born in 2021 uses those things, right?).
Continuing with off-topic rants (and I do not mean to imply in any way that the quoted complaint is invalid)…
You touched a nerve.
Why don’t people who want dates or phone numbers in a particular format say so? Sometimes web sites wait until I enter information in the “wrong” format and then tell me what the “correct” format is; other times they just say “Enter a valid [blah blah].”
I’ve already complained elsewhere about programmers who reject valid email addresses (with no hint about what the site considers invalid, although I can usually figure it out). Maybe that’s better than the site that accepts an email address but then never uses it, because (I assume) some back end rejects it silently, so I never get the promised email.
And then there are the sites that have drop-down menus but no indication where the focus is. For example, when I press tab on one site, it accepts the contents of the current field but doesn’t move the focus (so if I type, I overwrite what I just entered) and I need to press tab again to get to the next point. Another site accepts the contents and moves the focus, but again with no indication of where the focus is. Apparently I’m supposed to use the keyboard, then the mouse, then the keyboard, then the mouse, and so on.
Sorry, I couldn’t control myself.
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