If there is one thing that is possibly more annoying than software that asks a yes/no question without offering “yes” and “no” as the options then it must be websites that insist that I enter my e-mail address twice in order to register an account.

The implication is clear:

“We don’t trust you to type anything important without making a mistake… you crooked-fingered, myopic half-wit.”

If you are responsible for writing web applications, please don’t do this.  It makes me angry.  It’s utterly pointless because I just end up copying and pasting from one field to the next.  It makes sense for password fields because you can’t see what you are typing so you might not notice a typo, but I can recognise whether my own e-mail address is correct or not when it’s clearly displayed on the screen.

Strangely, no website has ever asked me to enter a shipping address twice, even though it would be more costly to get that wrong.

I can kind of understand the thinking behind it:

“We need to be certain that you give us a valid e-mail address and we’re not convinced you’d give us the same answer if we asked you twice… you easily-distracted, feckless simpleton.”

But the solution is not just annoying, it’s ineffective too.  It doesn’t guarantee that the e-mail address is valid.  If I can make a mistake once I could conceivably make the same mistake twice.  Or, if I don’t want to reveal my real e-mail address, I can enter the same fake address twice.  The way to make sure the address is valid and under the user’s control is to send a confirmation message containing an activation URL.

So please don’t treat me like I’m incompetent.  If my e-mail address is vital then verify it properly.