Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2014 April 4

= April 4 =

How much time has the human race lost listening to the answering machine lady?
"The person you are trying to call: ONE...EIGHT...ZERO...ZERO...EIGHT...SIX...SEVEN...FIVE...THREE...ZERO...NINE... is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished recording, you may hang up, or press one for more options. To leave a callback number, press five."

That's what I have to hear almost every time I want to leave a five-second message. It's longer than most messages I leave. Worst of all, after the first time somebody hears it and leaves a message, there is no reason to have to hear it again for the rest of your life; waiting for the beep and talking is one of the easiest things to do in recorded human history.

How much time is wasted on the planet by people sitting through this useless monologue every day? Why can't phone companies truncate it to, say, a five second request: "The person you are trying to call is not available. At the tone, please record your message. *beep*"

I'm just baffled at how phone companies think this 20-second message is necessary on such a common, simple and longstanding system like answering machines. 50.43.180.176 (talk) 22:26, 3 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Same reason they loop the hold music: mind control via sub and superaudible tones, via secret, updated phreaking boxes. Can't have you tuning out halfway. Of course, it's just some stoner on the Internet telling you this without a source, so take it as you will.


 * But yeah, it's annoying and I also wish it'd stop. Whyever it happens. "Too much" is how much. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:53, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Pay for an Answering machine that lets you pre-record your own greeting and callers will admire you for every precious second you save. If you own a telephone operating company, by all means take the risk of telling thousands of callers that their message will reach only the person they think they probably dialled, because impatient people never make mistakes citation required and messages of life or death importance are nevercitation required sent by telephone. 84.209.89.214 (talk) 23:23, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
 * But the repeating of the number lets you know if you have reached a correct number or if you misdialed. Bus stop (talk) 23:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Maybe I'm old fashioned, but mistakes should have consequences and patient, careful people should be considered as having paid their dues, thus the world cater to them. Instead, we get this nonsense, and our properly spelled words get AutoCorrected. Good products get recalled (or changed) because careless, impatient people hurt themselves. If I wasn't a stoner, I'd be outraged. InedibleHulk (talk) 01:19, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Try pressing #. On many voicemail systems, this will take you directly to the beep. Or, you can try telling the person you're calling they should record a personal greeting in their own voice that is shorter. The voicemail greeting you are hearing is a default system greeting. Voicemail systems let you record a personal greeting in your own voice, but some people never bother to do this, or actually prefer the system greeting. --Bavi H (talk) 00:56, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * I also find that not caring tends to solve problems like this best. Try that for a while and see how it goes.  -- Jayron  32  01:38, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Funny thing is that if you pay attention the first time, when she speaks slowly in case you have difficulty, and learn the prompts, and press them as soon as you hear the voicemail has picked up the next time you make a call, the system will work immediately, and the mechanical woman won't bite back. μηδείς (talk) 03:02, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * It is incorrect that there is no reference available. If you order a service such as voice mail from a Local Bell in the U.S. they will usually send you an instructional leaflet separately or in the next bill.  You are free to ignore this, which is what many customers do.  But you can also read it, request a new pamphlet by calling your customer service center, and even tell frequent callers how to avoid the time-consuming prompts. μηδείς (talk) 21:23, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Featuring Articles
how do i feature or connect my website and blog to you. We help addiction treatment all over the US providing unique photos, reviews, ratings and more at http:www,therehabsearcher.com

Thank you Wiki!

www.therehabsearcher.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jwayneccn (talk • contribs) 06:59, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * We are an encyclopedia. Nothing more, nothing less. I'll tell you this, we're very unreceptive to approaches like the one you've taken. It screams of pandering. That's the one thing you'll find we all agree on... we don't like pandering. Present a real indication of notability, and then create a page that presents that. But until then, we will not host pages for anything less than what meets our notability criteria. Shadowjams (talk) 07:32, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Or, to put it another way: Wikipedia does not allow promotion, no matter how worthy the cause. --ColinFine (talk) 08:36, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * You can feature our website or connect to us any time and in any way you wish, which is, it seems, the answer to the question you asked, rather than the answer to the question you might have thought you asked. --Dweller (talk) 13:55, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Not sure, they might have meant it either way. If they do want to provide links to our addiction related web pages, they can do that by first going to those pages, then cutting and pasting the URL address, from the top, into a link at their site.  For example, the URL for our addiction page is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiction. StuRat (talk) 17:23, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

who preceded Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson
who preceded Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.85.72.238 (talk) 23:25, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * If I'm understanding it correctly, he replaced Murray Costello as president. However, that was when it was known as the Canadian Hockey Association. Bob is (or was, I guess) also the chief executive, but he doesn't seem to have taken on that role at the same time. According to this, Bob MacKinnon (not the one we have an article on) was chairman at the time and Nicholson assumed those duties later. That's assuming the titles of CEO, Chief Executive, and Chairman are all referring to the same post. Matt Deres (talk) 02:17, 5 April 2014 (UTC)