Clickwrap UI mini-rant

When I am ruler of the universe, this will be my first edict:

Any clickwrap license which:
(a) is longer than 1000 words, OR
(b) is longer than ten (10) times the height of the text box it is enclosed in, OR
(c) is displayed in a text box that uses less than 5% of the total display area and cannot be resized by the user for easier reading, OR
(d) cannot be selected for copying and pasting into another document, OR
(e) cannot be read before purchase,
IS AUTOMATICALLY NULL AND VOID.

Inspiration abounds, but today it’s the Firefox 3 clickwrap license window’s that fails (c) and probably also (a) and (b) which reminded me of this common UI issue.

The Mozilla Platform’s Catch-22 Problem

Starting with Netscape 4.5, I’ve used Netscape, then Mozilla, then Thunderbird for email. I have a similar relationship with Firefox. I’ve watched with great hope and been disappointed over the years as Thunderbird bugs that really annoy me just… stay. I think I know why. It’s because Firefox and Thunderbird are built in such a way as to create a catch-22 situation — one that actually discourages new contributors.
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