Saturday 8 January 2011

Website Fails Undermine Trust

Today we wanted to take the opportunity of younger daughter being at a party to go and see The Deathly Hallows part 1 on the big screen. Checking on the Cineworld website there was a perfectly-timed showing. However when we got to the cinema there was no record of that showing and the next one wasn't for three hours.

Out came my wife's iPhone (since my Nexus One is broken and the browser on the Samsung Genio isn't up to such complex activities) and we checked the other Edinburgh cinemas. Vue at Omni promised a showing with just enough time to jump in a cab and get there.

And, yes, you guessed it: that showing wasn't happening either! So we're now left wondering if on-line cinema times can be trusted. I don't suppose they offer phone numbers any more either.

Trust is a critical issue with all publishing. That's why people cling to their familiar titles - trust that the content will at least conform the reader's world view if not being entirely accurate. We've taken a decade for on-line sources to become the reference. Incidents like today undermine that.

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