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Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Correctonatural

A month ago, right after Seattle debuted its Homeric new tourism slogan, "Metronatural", I sent a friendly note to the head of the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau. In my note, I pointed out—in a friendly way foreign to those who only know me through the blog—some problems with the Metronatural.com website's prominently-featured climate data chart for Seattle.

I was assured that I "raise some good points about the content of our site" that would be passed on to the appropriate people.

I just paid a return visit to see how it had all worked out. They did about as well as your typical financial printer on the first turn of a document. Here's the scorecard:
  • Problem: Second column is labeled "Average Max. Daily Rainfall" (with figures below often in double digits). Obviously (except at times during the last three weeks), the correct heading should be "Average Monthly Rainfall".

    Resolution: They changed the heading to "Average Monthly Max. Rainfall".

    Comment: Of course, the new heading is as meaningless as the original, but at least now people will understand what is meant, and not think "Oh, my goodness, it's much, much worse than I thought" or simply "Ach Gott!" I made the mistake in my email to them of not actually spelling out what the column heading should say. Instead, I coyly wrote "I think you will agree that the heading of the second column is NOT the best way to promote Seattle."

    Lesson: Coyness never worked at the financial printer, why did I expect it to work here?

    Deathbed version of lesson: Place a period after "worked" and delete remainder of sentence. Sigh heavily.

    Grade: B-

  • Problem: "Fahrenheit" is spelled wrong.

    Resolution: They still have it as "Farenheit"

    Comment: Sometimes you have to submit the same change more than once.

    Lesson: "Nice guys finish last at the printer." - MWR's legal mentor

    Grade: F

  • Problem: Table omitted the month of October

    Resolution: Table now includes the month of October

    Comment: A clear-cut win for MWR in his campaign to popularize the Gregorian calendar and eliminate the need for an annual "leap month".

    Lesson: Demonstrable, obvious truth can win you a lot of arguments.

    Grade: A


posted at 1:10 AM

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here is a video interview with some of the key decision makers around the new Metronatural tag line for Seattle.

http://peoplegeek.wordpress.com/2006/12/16/seattle-straight-but-very-gay-acting-2/

Enjoy!

December 16, 2006 8:10 PM  

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