When you design a new website it’s common to fill the pages with temporary text, text that will be replaced before the website actually goes live. Usually this is done by using Latin text, so that it’s easy to spot and replace it, and the site won’t go live with the text in place.
However, sometimes designers like to place their own temporary text on website designs; temporary text that amuses them in some small way. This temporary text may even be offensive to some individuals, but it’s OK because it’s never meant to be read by anyone… unless of course they forget it’s there, and the site goes live with the temporary text in place.
That’s what happened to the BBC this last week when they launched a section of their website for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. The site contained links to social networking websites Twitter and
Facebook, and said that people could become fans of the site on Facebook by using the text:
“You can also become a saddo on Facebook”
The Media Blog first spotted the mistake by the BBC, who are no doubt holding an internal enquiry now and will be reviewing their approval process for websites going live, and the sort of temporary text that gets used on designs.
If you’re in the process of redesigning your website, you should be careful to not add any text that is potentially offensive to your customers or clients, even if the text is not supposed to go live as mistakes do happen, as the BBC has now found out.
