# US/UK web and database developers: not everyone has a zip/post code! (Warning: lame) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 30, 2003, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872 "2003-07-30T09:45:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/41 "2003-07-31T10:17:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ice Wolf \* > Heh. So Aussies get all excited over winking, huh? Heh, heh, heh. Well we have to be kind to those Ockers after the netball and rugby eh. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/42 "2003-07-31T10:25:41Z")
Isn’t “winking” a word for masturbation, said with a Kiwi accent? ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/43 "2003-07-31T10:51:42Z")
No \*\* jjimm\*\* you have been misinformed. Aussies are winkers not kiwis. (awww I love em really 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Pergau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7c8e57/32.png) [@Pergau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pergau)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/44 "2003-07-31T12:12:10Z")
This is slightly off topic, but our office in the IFSC (international Financila Services Centre) of Dublin received a letter addressed to the “Eye of the sea” So our postmen are not only cool but they are poets too. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/45 "2003-07-31T12:14:13Z")
**Wolfie** , I thought you meant yer postcode was Auckland 4. Thinks for the wunks. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/46 "2003-07-31T12:23:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TheLoadedDog \* > \*\ ***Wolfie** , I thought you meant yer postcode was Auckland 4. > > Thinks for the wunks. > > 😉 \*\* I’d be somewhere a tad more upmarket, if that were th’ case. And it’d be 1970 all over again. And you’re welcome. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/47 "2003-07-31T12:37:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ruadh \* > \*\*It probably does, although as jjimm and I live in the same neighbourhood (which neither crosses nor indeed sits anywhere near the border 😉 ), it wouldn’t explain why I could get a .ie address and he couldn’t. > \*\* Put it down to Yahoo weirdness. From 16 000 miles away, I have a .uk yahoo junk email. I don’t really mind, but I did specify I live in Australia, and it insisted on giving me the .uk one. I tried to get around this by going back and re-doing parts of the online form, but nope. It was .uk or nothing for me as far as they were concerned. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/48 "2003-07-31T12:42:47Z")
I think it must have been some kind of Yahoo! glitch that lasted a few months and was then corrected. I know a few Irish people with [yahoo.co.uk](http://yahoo.co.uk) addresses because that’s all they could get at the time. Anyway, I stand by the [map](http://uk.maps.yahoo.com/py/lg:uk/lc:uk/maps.py?BFCat=&Pyt=Tmap&newFL=Use+Address+Below&addr=&csz=Dublin&country=uk&Get%A0Map=Get+Map) thing. ---
**Author:** ![StarvingButStrong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/starvingbutstrong/32/335_2.png) [@StarvingButStrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StarvingButStrong)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/49 "2003-07-31T12:49:09Z")
Actually, some form designers manage to screw even Americans with utterly routine addresses. How? I _think_ there must be some difference in requiring a field to be numeric vs. requiring it to be a number. As in, I have on three occasions run into this little routine: ME: enters address, hits submit FORM: Invalid address! The zip code must be five digits. ME: whoops, did I mistype? re-enters zip code, hits submit FORM: Invalid address! The zip code must be five digits. ME: Try a third time, punching each of the five numbers slowly and carefully, hits submit FORM: Invalid address! The zip code must be five digits. \ The first time it happened, it took me a long time to figure out what happens. You see, my zip code starts with a zero. So your clever form sucks it in, applies the ‘rule’ that leading zeros don’t count in numbers, thus converting it to a four digit zip code, and then gripes! As in, this particular company is now unable to accept orders from most of the New England states…maybe 1/5 of the entire US population! Way to go, form designer! \ I usually end up putting in a ‘9’ for the zero, figuring it is far enough wrong that maybe some postie will notice the state/zip mismatch and still deliver it. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872/50 "2003-07-31T12:54:28Z")
Try registering at [gettyimages.com](http://gettyimages.com) (the form that finally pushed me over the edge to write this). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-uk-web-and-database-developers-not-everyone-has-a-zip-post-code-warning-lame/191872.md?page=2)