When creating a Contact Group the Or Logic is wrong.
As an example,I am creating my contact group, and add new Values, the list size should be reduced. However, when I add the condition "Hard Bounce" the list size increases from 38,998 names to 51,970. The correct group size is 37,701.
Boolean Logic.
The logic is correct (for a computer). You have a "negative condition" with the "Not Equal To" conditions, and that reverses the meaning.
It's a little bit like a double negative in grammar ... while we know the phrase "He ain't got none" really means the person has "none" at all, but the literal meaning of it is that he has "some".
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No, Frank.. the logic as coded is lazy and violates the UX design "Principle of Least Surprise".
If I say "Frank's name is not equal to Joe or Sally"... would you say that's true?
As coded, Frank would end up in the resulting group. This has bit me more than once and caused incorrect emails to go to numerous people!
It is boolean logic, Ben. We won't be changing from that standard.
Say whatever you will, Frank, and I understand why you'd say that. But I'm a computer scientist and have coded numerous systems with similar filters, so I know better.
However, properly implemented Boolean logic has a rule called De Morgan's laws, which indicates that:
NOT A OR NOT B = NOT (A OR B)
This is unlike ordinary math. Check out the section on Double Negation on the Wikipedia page for Boolean logic if you don't believe me.
It also requires that someone code the SQL accordingly, with parentheses in the right place, and doesn't just keep adding clauses to the SQL OR clause for each filter without thinking it through.
So, it's lazy coding, it's NOT valid Boolean logic, and it violates people's expectations.
In my book, that's a deficiency. Ontraport is choosing to be rigid about even though changing it would break 0 people's logic since we've all had to work around it.
Sigh.
Thanks for your comments, Ben. We do appreciate the feedback.