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| Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae: The Federated States of Micronesia |
Every time I fill out a form online, I eventually come to the dropdown menu for "State" and hit the "F" key to jump directly to Florida (the only state in the union starting with the letter "F").
But does Florida pop up? No.
The Federated States of Micronesia does!
For the record, I have nothing against Micronesians or whatever they call themselves. My beef is with the database programmer who listed "Federated States of Micronesia" as one of the fifty U.S. states decades ago, and the millions of other programmers who have blindly followed his or her lead ever since.
Do the Federated States of Micronesia really need a spot on that list? Of course not.
Then why does everybody do it that way? Because we always have.
How many things in your business model are done just because that's the way you've always done it?
How many of them infuriate your customers?
For the record, according to Wikipedia:
The Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM, is an independent, sovereign island nation, made up of four states from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. It comprises approximately 607 small islands in the Western Pacific Ocean spread over almost 1,700 miles (2,700 km) longitudinally just north of the equator some 2,500 miles (4,000 km) southwest of the main islands of Hawaii and about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) north of eastern Australia, lying northeast of New Guinea, south of Guam and the Marianas, west of Nauru and the Marshalls, and east of Palau and the Philippines.
If anyone can explain to be why everyone lists them as one of the 50 states, please leave a comment!
The FSM is part of the US postal system. When you send mail to the FSM using USPS you use FM and the appropriate Zip code. This is part of the Compact between the US and the FSM.
ReplyDeleteThe Federated States of Micronesia has a Compact of Free Association with the US and as one of the benefits the US postal service provides mail service and zone 8 prices (similar to Hawaii) to the FSM. For that reason, you will generally see the FSM (or FM) on the drop down box as a choice for a US state and not a foreign country when you're ordering something online. Hope this helps solve your mystery!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, and for solving this mystery that has been bugging me for years!
ReplyDelete