Well, it’s census time again. Some might recall that I complained about the online census process five years ago. To this day, I don’t know what they were thinking when they went with that overly complicated and buggy garbage in 2006.
This year, however, the experience was much better. First, I got a notice in the mail with an access code. My first thought was whether they were still using the same horrible software as last time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the site loaded quickly and had no notices about browser compatibility or anything like that, nor did it require Java. Of course, that was no guarantee they didn’t mess it up, but it was promising.
As I worked through the various questions, I was pleased to note that it ran very smoothly. Other than the fact that answering the questions is freaking annoying, I would have to say it was a pleasant experience overall.
So it seems they either took complaints to heart five years ago or they had an equally unpleasant experience internally. For once, they got something right.
Now, if only they would do their other survey junk the same way so (or at least give the option) to avoid pissing people off, things would be better.