quibble

The Ministry of Detail // Fixing the small stuff
Quibble is a non-profit campaign to fix overlooked public interest and consumer issues

[quibble @quibbleUK]

Hello, we are Jonathan and Abigail - unashamed pedants who want to bring this affliction to bear on all things public policy and practice.
We believe that details matter, especially in public administration. This is why today we are founding quibble: a campaign to fix the small stuff.
Think, for example, about the cookie banner that we click on every webpage. Each instance is not a big deal, so we just put up with it. But its cumulative impact adds up - on average we press it 5 times per day. The European Commission estimates that it costs EU citizens 343 million hours per year.
And who is there to represent the impacts of seemingly minor issues like this in a systematic way? We want quibble to be the answer. In the case of the cookie banner, lots of advocacy has rightly focused on privacy, but has this meant that user experience has taken a backseat? We believe there are ways to improve user experience without compromising on privacy. We will share more about this soon.
Consider another example. Did you know that in some government-run car parks you can be fined for a minor keying error, such as accidentally typing a zero instead of an “o”? Again, we will come to the detail of this quibble in the coming weeks, but for now just consider again the question: who? Who is there currently to systematically represent the interests of the parker who is given an unfair ticket?
An inherent feature of consumer interests is that those who have them rarely have enough other things in common to make collective organisation and representation feasible. This is the gap that quibble seeks to fill. Now of course excellent consumer interest groups exist. But understandably quibbles might not be at the top of their lists. Our hope is that quibble will be complementary; picking up the bottom-of-the-list issues faced by various groups - the stuff they are almost too embarrassed to raise because they are too small.
We are not embarrassed about detail. If you’ve ever had a splinter, you know small things can have a big impact. This is what quibble is committed to tackling, and our wider hope is that by doing so we will also incentivise policy makers to be even more careful about detail.
Check out our website here, including our first four campaigns: https://t.co/gZiqqHbhIL

[Rory Sutherland @rorysutherland]

@QuibbleUK @Atomskibomb Mind? I am absolutely delighted. Flattered!

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@thetimes 👋

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@eagm Interesting, thank you - shall take a look.

[quibble @quibbleUK]

Hello, we are Jonathan and Abigail - unashamed pedants who want to bring this affliction to bear on all things public policy and practice.
We believe that details matter, especially in public administration. This is why today we are founding quibble: a campaign to fix the small stuff.
Think, for example, about the cookie banner that we click on every webpage. Each instance is not a big deal, so we just put up with it. But its cumulative impact adds up - on average we press it 5 times per day. The European Commission estimates that it costs EU citizens 343 million hours per year.
And who is there to represent the impacts of seemingly minor issues like this in a systematic way? We want quibble to be the answer. In the case of the cookie banner, lots of advocacy has rightly focused on privacy, but has this meant that user experience has taken a backseat? We believe there are ways to improve user experience without compromising on privacy. We will share more about this soon.
Consider another example. Did you know that in some government-run car parks you can be fined for a minor keying error, such as accidentally typing a zero instead of an “o”? Again, we will come to the detail of this quibble in the coming weeks, but for now just consider again the question: who? Who is there currently to systematically represent the interests of the parker who is given an unfair ticket?
An inherent feature of consumer interests is that those who have them rarely have enough other things in common to make collective organisation and representation feasible. This is the gap that quibble seeks to fill. Now of course excellent consumer interest groups exist. But understandably quibbles might not be at the top of their lists. Our hope is that quibble will be complementary; picking up the bottom-of-the-list issues faced by various groups - the stuff they are almost too embarrassed to raise because they are too small.
We are not embarrassed about detail. If you’ve ever had a splinter, you know small things can have a big impact. This is what quibble is committed to tackling, and our wider hope is that by doing so we will also incentivise policy makers to be even more careful about detail.
Check out our website here, including our first four campaigns: https://t.co/gZiqqHbhIL

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@ScottGoetz_ Interesting - will look into it, thanks.

[The Times and Sunday Times @thetimes]

Enraged by life’s minor annoyances? The Quibble alliance can help https://t.co/vP7ON4p8zp

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@RobLister4 Interesting, thank you - will look into it.

[quibble @quibbleUK]

It was great to be on @BBCr4today and @TimesRadio on Tuesday morning. Do also listen out for us on @LBC this Saturday morning, and @BBCWiltshire on Monday morning.

We’re still holding out for North Norfolk Digital… reckon Alan would ruddy love quibble.

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@GARP1967 Please tell us more.

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@remotecto @helen_macnamara @rorysutherland @zoebread Yes, thank you, we have followed some of her work!

[quibble @quibbleUK]

Well... it’s been a rather overwhelming first couple of days!

Thank you to all of you who have shown your support and interest. We've received huge numbers of comments and emails with excellent and fascinating suggestions of quibbles, which we're still working our way through.

To start with, in addition to the first four quibbles listed on our website, we plan to select a few more in the coming weeks from amongst your suggestions. But all are being noted and considered, and we will always remain open and attentive to new quibbles - so please do keep them coming!

In terms of actually fixing this stuff, one thing we recognise is the importance of leverage - which in our case will need to largely come from the size and engagement of our following. In other words, quibbles will become harder to ignore when there is a real and credible prospect of public ​exposure and pressure standing behind the​ technical work and organisation that we are providing. This is one of the reasons why your support has been so encouraging​.

If you are on other social media apps, please consider following us there too. These will feature different styles of content​, including more personal videos documenting our journey and progress - a couple of which you can find already on our Instagram​​ and Facebook​. We are also now on Bluesky. All links below.

​Again, thank you so much - and more soon!

https://t.co/y4mD71yxwp

​https://t.co/SxDFuajvhl

https://t.co/9FoqNv9fwy

[Nico Macdonald @Nico_Macdonald]

Good to hear about new problem-identifying and -solving online platform @QuibbleUK, with co-founder Jonathan de Leyser (@Jon_deLeyser) interviewed by Anna Foster on #r4today where de Leyser notes their flagship campaign is on an issue about which I have often railed:

‘In order to do effective work on this kind of campaign, you need a couple of things: one is technical know-how on how decisions get made and how policy works; and the second is leverage of some kind. In our case, that is going to be the audience we can pull together.

‘The response we have had in the last day has been overwhelming, and yesterday we had hundreds of messages. It really seemed to resonate with people that we experience nuisances in our lives, and that we want recourse towards fix these.

‘One of our flagship quibble campaigns will be the cookie banner that we all have to press on every webpage. Each time, it takes only a few seconds, so it is not a big deal, we all just get on with it. But when you think about the fact that millions of us are having to press it, on average, five times a day, it starts to add up. I think it becomes something worth trying to fix. The European Commission estimated it was costing EU citizens 340 million hours per year.’

‘We did some estimates to work out how much time people just spend doing really boring things. The example of cookies is a good one: you just learn to ignore it. We estimated it is about an hour a day that people have to do really annoying, crappy things they don’t really want to be doing. Can we just get rid of that?

‘Similarly, a key thing which something like Quibble can do, like something geographically, @FixMyStreet I know [unclear], but you don’t know who to call. So to be able to go to a general site and say, “This is an annoying thing”, and a platform like that can figure out whose desk it should end up on.’

‘One of the things is that it gets you out. It's not just you, but you can then start to find solutions. There are some examples in other countries which are really nice, where people identify the problem and then someone else who’s involved in it also just solves it, like another neighbour or someone else says, “We can fix that”.’

< One of the remarkable things about cookie banners is that I have never heard anyone in mainstream media, or a politician, discuss their impact on productivity, or how they “enshitify” the Web (pace Cory Doctorow), perhaps as they approve of the nonsense trope about keeping our personal data safe?

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@JakeOfPoole Thank you. Do you know whether anyone has raised it locally? Curious about any exchanges. Potential for this to end up fitting into something wider on design of public signage.

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@caroline_hind We're struggling to find the original thread on their Facebook page, and would like to clarify something with the person who wrote it. Would you be able to link it to us? DM or email also fine.

[createstreets @createstreets]

Here's our top quibble. Street Scars ! In Stoke and Coventry ...

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@ZengoMay Interesting, thanks - will consider.

[Lutfey Siddiqi (Personal) @Lutfeys]

#quibble

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@recrudescent Thanks a lot for this list - will look into them!

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@cihatimamoglu Thank you!

[quibble @quibbleUK]

@Keen1971 Thanks for this - will look into it.