That isn't the most catchy title in the world, but it's a phenomenon that I come across all the time when developing sites for clients.
What happens is, a client will come to me with a request that doesn't make sense for outside users of their site. It would make the site less usable and less understandable for anyone who didn't know the site intimately or use it the way the owners or content editors do. But it's something that they, as internal users/owners of the site, want based on how they use or perceive the site.
A recent example that inspired this post was a client asking if we could remove one particular category of events from the listing of past events on their site. In their opinion, there were "too many" of this type of event and they "overwhelmed" the other events.
This is purely an internal type of concern. When users come to a website and see a listing of past events, they don't care what category the events are—they're just looking to see past events. It would be very confusing to eliminate one category, and that's if outside users even realized that was what was happening, which they'd almost certainly not. You'd have to title the display something like "Past events not in x event category", which just isn't workable.
That's one recent example, but it happens all the time. Website owners simply don't have the ability to "step outside" of their own knowledge of their site and perceive how outside users with no knowledge of the organization use it. They want things that make sense to them, or make the site easier to use for them, without understanding that they would not make sense to outsiders.
This is not just a website owner phenomenon, it's a human phenomenon. We all tend to assume that others see the world the way we do, and think the way we do.
I've had clients who want things labelled using internal language that they understand, but which has little meaning for organization outsiders. Another client had to be convinced to add an "about us" block to the homepage, because it took up "too much space" and he just couldn't see how it could be useful—because, of course, he already knew all about the organization. Yet another couldn't be persuaded to add breadcrumb navigation to a large site with multiple levels of document hierarchy, because he knew where everything was!
A big part of my job is trying to explain this to website owners, and attempting to divert requests that don't make sense into proposals that do.
For example, in the case of the event listing request, I suggested that we convert the category filters on that listing from single-select to multiple-select and add a "select all" checkbox. That way, if anyone really wants to see the list without one category, they can easily do that.
The concept I have to try to put across, though perhaps not so bluntly, is this: your website is not for you. Unless it's an intranet, in which case this is less applicable, although the same concept could apply if long-time organization insiders are directing the development and don't understand how new employees might use it.
Your website is for your website users. If it doesn't make sense to them, it doesn't matter how easy to use it is for you, or how well you understand it.
Trying to communicate that concept is a big part of my job when fielding requests from clients. From 26 years of website development, I have a pretty good understanding of website usability. As an organization outsider, I am also able to see when things that insiders understand or want might not be understandable to those unfamiliar with the org and its website.