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Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#171

Post by jakub_g »

SifJar wrote: post #166
jakub_g wrote: post #164

FWIW: I got pissed some time ago about Booking.com and Easyjet doing this, so I created an adblocker filter list to filter out those messages. I haven't really checked lately if it still works, but feel free to use and contribute if you want. It should work with ABP and uBlock Origin. https://github.com/jakub-g/no-urgency/blob/master/no-urgency... All you need to know to contribute is basic CSS.

Related: Chrome extension specifically for this https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/no-stress-booking/...

ah good, thx for the link!

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#173

Post by BrissyCoder »

kuon wrote: post #114

Lately, I found that booking directly with the companies was often the same price or cheaper that all site I could try. It might be different in US (I book flights from Europe, because, well, I live there). Lufthansa often has the best price directly on their site. Same thing for hotels, you can get a better price if you book directly with the hotel, but of course you don't get all the booking.com (or similar site) n…

Same thing in Australia. I use sites like lastminute and trivago as search engines then contact the hotels directly.

If I stay in an AirBnB that is good I'll make sure I get the hosts contact details so can bypass AirBnB next time I stay there.

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#174

Post by zimbatm »

jchw wrote: post #29

A dark pattern implies something that is intentionally misleading. This is just lying. This is not a dark pattern because it’s Worse.

Maybe they know that statistically, based on their historical traffic, there are between 28 and 45 people visiting the page. Calling 28 + rand(45 - 28) is certainly much more efficient than fetching the data on the fly.

That would be the most charitable interpretation.

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#175

Post by lizmat »

djsumdog wrote: post #99
Insanity wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Booking.com is horrible to use in my opinion. It is handy but you need to ignore the dark patterns on every. Single. Page. Honestly it makes me want to use the website less, and does not urge me to buy.

Last time I had a phone screening with the, I learned their entire codebase was in Perl, with no plans on migration to anything else. There were almost no unit tests anywhere. Most developers could push directly to production. Everything the girl on the phone said was horrifying and I decided not to continue. Their recruiter kept trying to call me over Skype though, and they offer more than most other companies of th…

One should understand that at Booking, the only thing that counts is "conversion". In other words, the ability of converting a pageview into a reservation. Because that's the part of the process that creates value.

Since hotel reservations refer to a real world, where people change their plans, hotels get overbooked, burn down, are not reachable because of strikes, volcano eruptions, etc. etc. there is a huge customer service department. These people are able to cancel reservations, or force availability (after consultation with the hotel). In other words, until people have stayed at the hotel, and the hotel gets the bill for that, it really does not matter whether something was correct or not: the customer department can fix any problems.

So the only valid test is really: does it convert? And this is very closely monitored in close to real time.

The financial part of the system is thoroughly tested, as Booking.com is a listed company, so the scrutiny is extra severe.

> Most developers could push directly to production.

This is facilitates ownership and empowerment. You need to be sure that what you're doing, will not break things. If you are, it should be ok to push to production. If you were wrong, then that's ok the first time. Just don't do it again for the same reason: always make new mistakes!

This was the situation in early 2012, when I basically retired. Things have changed since then, but I still think the above is still basically true.

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#176

Post by matz1 »

cgriswald wrote: post #148
matz1 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same thing with morality, its subjective. There are no such thing as inalienable rights. Every right has to be earned and fight for.

One of the ways you earn and fight for those rights is by not claiming they don’t exist. There are already enough people in the world who think you don’t deserve those rights. Best to keep the goal posts far away and convince as many others as you can that that’s where they belong.

Yes, any rights exist because someone earn it or fight for it.

Its not just given from god or something.

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#177

Post by matz1 »

stouset wrote: post #128
matz1 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morality is subjective, according to my moral framework, telling people there are 38 room left, if I'm the business owner and the benefit > cost then yes. Same thing with slavery, extermination camp, weed. To some people these are moral.

Frankly speaking, your moral framework needs work. Sincerely, the rest of society.

Its normal. You may disagree with my morality and me or other people may as well disagree with your morality, whatever that is.

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#178

Post by matz1 »

exergy wrote: post #151
matz1 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morality is subjective, according to my moral framework, telling people there are 38 room left, if I'm the business owner and the benefit > cost then yes. Same thing with slavery, extermination camp, weed. To some people these are moral.

Brother, you need to grow the fuck up. Right now, you're coming across as one of those try-hard college students on a 'Rationality Rulez' bender. Morality is subjective but not in the manner you're describing. It's not arbitrary . Our values are conjured out of thin air but for reasons that DO involve the betterment of humanity. Slavery isn't subjective, and extermination camps sure as hell are not either.

Sometimes is not, some people values does not involve the betterment of society. Unless you claim everyone think alike.

How is slavery or extermination camps not subjective? The slave owner may think slavery is good thing but the slaves may think its horrible.

Re: 38 People are looking at this post right now

#179

Post by csorrell »

another dark pattern these kinds of aggregator sites do is up the price on flights/hotels that you've recently viewed. so if you are looking at a flight, then continue to browse for a bit to see other options, when you come back to that flight the price will have increased, as though it were no longer available. if you clear your cookies or open in another browser though, you'll find the original lower price again.
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