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Environmental mischief at fecal face.com - Ryan McLennan interview.


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Random Wikipedia Article of the day:

Queue area

"Queue areas are places in which people in line (first-come, first-served) wait for goods or services."

"Since queuing can be a boring and time-consuming activity, but one that may also have high stakes (e.g. attempting to purchase a good or product with a limited availability, such as a concert ticket), people can become angry when the unwritten rules of queuing are broken.

For example, in Britain it is unacceptable to queue-jump (to push in, skip, or cut in line), although it's sometimes acceptable for one member of a party, waiting in the queue, to allow a second member of the party to join the first halfway through the queuing process, without the second member having to join the back of the queue.

In the United States, the above example from Britain (second member of a party) would also generally be accepted. It is acceptable for waiting persons to leave the queue briefly (to use the bathroom, etc.) and return to their original place, without having to ask neighbours to hold their place or to be allowed to return (however, many individuals would still tell their neighbors in the queue). It is also common to allow others to jump to the front of the queue in a train station to buy a ticket if their train is about to leave and if waiting from the back of the queue would cause them to miss their train."

Cutting (in line)

"Cutting in line, also known as line/queue jumping, butting, budging, skipping, ditching, breaking, or pushing in (UK) is the act of entering a line or queue at any position other than the end.

NEGATIVE RESPONSE
A negative response from the rear of the line is expected when someone has cut in line up ahead. According to one study, a person cutting in line has a 54% chance that others in the line will object. With two people cutting in line, there is a 91.3% chance that someone will object. The proportion of people objecting from behind the cutter is 73.3%, with the person directly behind the point of intrusion objecting most frequently.

COVERT CUTTING
In lieu of following the procedure mentioned above, some will cut in line by joining up with family members or friends already standing in line. This action is usually more acceptable, but can still be considered "cutting". Many times, this action is purely out of convenience, when one member of the group "saves a place" for the other members, especially when the wait is lengthy. However, this is not always the case. It is more acceptable when the two people are simply together to conduct one transaction, however if both people plan to conduct one transaction each, it is particularly disrespectful (especially in queues with slow cycle times due to high individual transaction times).

In busy areas where time is of the essence, such as in airports, one can sometimes observe queue drift, where an impatient person treats the line as though it were a slow-moving race, using every movement of the line to cut in front of others in an effort to achieve the pole position. This is enabled by a funnel effect, where there is a large number of people trying to enter the same narrow entrance at the same time and where no formal queue is in place. Queue drifters are usually less obvious than more overt line cutters; while they are annoying to those who notice them, they usually manage to avoid detection.