Suggestion for stronger cautionary language
mattmathis opened this issue · comments
From Sara W (reformatted):
This is a small, friendly suggestion.
On M-lab’s current home page, in the article about NTIA, beginning with the sentence that opens with “The different data layers,” I would suggest clarifying and strengthening the message.
This is an important cautionary note about understanding and respecting the vastness/complexity of the Internet and data therefrom.
It should be in the active voice, not the passive voice.
Also, the data layers may be revealing, but they cannot speak because layers don’t speak.
The cautionary note comes from the people who collect, report on, and make sense of the data. The message, in its current form, is too easy to miss. If it were my site, I would consider placing a clear, visible, carefully worded statement on most or all pages, stating that M-Lab collects these data for diagnostic purposes and shares them due to its commitment to transparency. However, this does not mean that they are simple or without limitations. (Funny, when I started to describe the message, I found it was harder to write than I expected.)
It’s a version of “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” tailored to this context. Hope this is helpful.
She also noted that https://www.measurementlab.net/tests/ndt/ is a bit too hare to discover when starting from the home page.
The sentence being referenced is talking about data layers in a third party tool, one of which is NDT aggregate data. If it's clarifying to say "the different data layers ... provide us a chance to step back and examine all ... " and the rest of that sentence, then this is exactly the intent of the sentence. Saying that data layers don't speak isn't so helpful. Of course they don't.
btw, pull requests as suggestions are welcome