New Hungarian Government OMGs All Gov Sites 59
An anonymous reader writes "The new Hungarian government chose to replace the home pages with a 'disclaimer' page on several governmental websites such as ministries or the Foreign Office. The title and the main message is 'OMG,' which is followed by an explanation that the inherited websites 'lack any kind of uniform structure' and this is 'unworthy of Hungary.' Today is the takeover day in most ministries for the new administration."
Judging by the "OMG" page... (Score:3, Insightful)
...the new policy will be that all text shall be in 2 point type.
Re:Oh My Hovercraft (Score:3, Insightful)
What does OMG stand for in Hungarian then
Te jo eg.
In this case it mean OMG. The page, even the Hungarian language version, has wikipedia links explaining that OMG is an English abbreviation meaning something like "Istenem!" (My God!) or "Te jo eg!" ("Oh, great heaven!").
I never would have thought that Fidesz [wikipedia.org] (the new ruling party) still had anyone in it with a sense of humor. Back in the day (1990) they had the best campaign posters. I guess when you have complete control of parliament (more than 2/3) you can take a few risks. Also keep in mind that in Hungary, the Internet is used mostly by the young.
Re:Talk about a stupid pissing contest (Score:4, Insightful)
Are you a hungarian?
Can you authoritatively say the old sites did work?
Outdated information with no hint that it is outdated is worse than none at all.
Sinkhole email address, where letters from people are never read, placed next to a snailmail address is worse than no email at all, just snailmail.
Information, from which most -just- got out of date (because it's about the government, and the government just changed) needs to be changed ASAP. If there are no uniform procedures what and where needs to be changed, it's better to disable anything that is suspected of being out of date than allow the old (mis)information stay online.
If a website is in violation of laws - say, data retention laws, it should not be left to perpetrate the violation until corrective mechanisms are in place.
Sometimes no news is good news...
Re:Talk about a stupid pissing contest (Score:3, Insightful)
First of all, we've all been operating under the incorrect assumption that the prior content is down. It isn't down. There's a link at the bottom of the OMB page that takes you to the old site. So there is nothing really pernicious here (just bad design)
This "unworthy" business is an attempt to humiliate the previous government and plays into the tone of the campaign. Considering that Fidesz won so overwhelmingly in the elections, they could afford to be more gracious now. But no doubt they want to continue with the message that the parties to the Left of them are unworthy to be considered Real Hungarians.
Still, I wish Fidesz well. They have an enormous task ahead of them. This is where the real test lies. Will they do what is necessary but unpopular or will they just work to stay in power? Certainly they will be able to go after local government spending (where the largess and patronage of the previous government really was), but will they get rid of the various child support programs (which give a lot more money to rich mothers than to poor ones). Will they get serious about property taxes (which will end up sending pensioners out of their big empty nests in the countryside)? Maybe if they keep picking symbolic fights with Slovakia and Romania so they'll be able to maintain their True Hungarian credibility as they swallow the IMF pill.