Preventing users from doing stupid stuff

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[edit] The problem

The problem is that it's possible to do some pretty stupid/bad things with your computer on accident! For example, delete an entire folder, delete an important document, close out of a program without saving so as to lose all of your changes.

These type of accidents can happen for a number of reasons...

  • may have accidentally clicked something (you "missed" when you aimed your mouse)
  • or maybe their kid was playing with the keyboard and accidentally hit something
  • or (unlikely but possible) maybe some malware on your computer simulated some mouse clicks or key presses

... all with the effect that you triggered the start of a process that you may not actually want started.

Fortunately, most programs have the sense to prompt you and require confirmation from you before they let you do anything stupid.

Examples:

  • Firefox
    • You are about to close 22 tabs. Are you sure you want to continue?
  • PuTTY
    • (When you attempt to close the window:) "Are you sure you want to close this session [and lose everything you were working on in this PuTTY session]?"
  • Many document-editing programs:
    • You are about to exit this program. Do you want to save your document first?

Unfortunately, that's not enough!

[edit] The solution: a waiting period

What we need is a mandatory waiting period that must be waited through from after you initiate a potentially dangerous operation to the time before it will actually budge and start the aforementioned operation.

Examples of software that makes use of a waiting period + confirmation (sightings):

  • Firefox after you click on a link for installing an extension / running an executable which may contain malicious code
    • It forces you to *wait* to give you time to *think* about your decision before finally deciding "yes I'm really sure I want to do this" or "no, actually, you're right, I really don't want to do this"
  • Pandion (Jabber client) (slightly different but very related problem)
    • If you try to close your chat window right after a message is received, it will force you to confirm that you really intended to close it (since it is likely that you were trying to close the window before the latest message arrived and you haven't even read the latest message yet).
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