T&C are paramount to science fiction

There is a competition for the new Transformers movie on the Australian SciFi channel’s web site. Unfortunately there are some quality control issues with the competition entry form.

What you need to tick
Error on Transformers competition formThe form asks for your details, requires you to tick the ‘I agree to the Terms and Conditions’ checkbox, with an supposedly optional checkbox to join the Paramount Pictures Movie Club.

But as you an see from the screen capture, if you fill out all the required fields and tick the ‘YES – I have read and accept the Terms & Conditions’ checkbox you still get an error message.

The problem is that the Paramount checkbox is also marked required in the code, despite there being no indication that it is required. And why should I be required to sign-up for a opt-in mailing list?

<label>

<input type=”checkbox” name=”entry_additional_1″ value=”False” required=”true” title=”Terms & Conditions” />
YES – I would like to subscribe to the Paramount Pictures Movie Club</label>

Looks like a copy past job where they forgot to remove the required=”true” from the Paramount checkbox.

The above is the main problem I have with the competition entry form, but since I am posting errors I thought I might as well continue.

Verifying email
The JavaScript that verifies that fields are filled only checks there is something in the email field, not that it is a valid email address. The script the form is submitted to also doesn’t check the email address validity.

While they could say it is the responsibility of the entrant to check their details are correct. If you are going to check a field is filled you may as well check it is valid.

Squashed terms and conditions
The terms and conditions being squashed into five lines scrollable of text makes them a little hard to read. I understand that most people don’t bother reading them, but it is assumed that you have so it would be nice to make them easier to read.

Competition closed but form still available
I noticed the problems above a few days ago. Unfortunately I’ve only just had time to write them all up. As a result if you go to the SciFi competitions page you can no longer enter the Transformers competition. But if you enter the URL directly you still get the competition form.

Note: I noticed that they have now fixed the Paramount required checkbox. Not that you can enter the competition any more because it closed yesterday.

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