The 'Fuck You' Pattern • Hacker News Board

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#31

Post by insomniacity » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:15 PM UTC

avalys wrote: post #22

Groxx wrote: post #11

Yeah - this is why I stay out of Instagram. They're repeatedly, blatantly hostile to any non-user use. At least they're not as bad as Pinterest, which has done this for years, plus their million alternate domains polluting search results.

What exactly is a “non-user use”?

Anyone who hasn't signed up for various tracking!

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#32

Post by binarymax » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:15 PM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #3

Another fuck you pattern from Instagram is hiding the keyboard when you go to search for a user to encourage you to get distracted and tap on a suggestion rather than what you were searching for. You have to tap search three times to actually see the keyboard. It has to be intentional because it's been happening for years.

IMDB is doing this now too. Infuriating.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#33

Post by Aperocky » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:15 PM UTC

JoeyBananas wrote: post #10

axbytg wrote: post #5

Reddit is full of these patterns in order to drive users from mobile web to app. Reddit mobile web really sets the bar for user-hostile UI in my opinion.

Microsoft Windows is even worse. Constant disruptive updates, forcing you to make an account during install, ads in the start menu, that creepy "Cortana" process that you can't kill...

From this perspective it's amazing. I ditched Windows completely for about 5 years (coinciding with my time in Software). And had to deal with none of these problems any more, I always remember that I hated windows for some reason but can't seem to pinpoint/remember, but now you've reminded me.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#34

Post by judge2020 » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:15 PM UTC

rescripting wrote: post #12

axbytg wrote: post #5

Reddit is full of these patterns in order to drive users from mobile web to app. Reddit mobile web really sets the bar for user-hostile UI in my opinion.

What is worse, is that even though I installed the official app to squelch this nonsense (the Fuck You Pattern is effective) the mobile site still prompts with "Open in the Reddit App". When I click it my iPhone opens the App Store. The App Store then has a big blue "Open" button to launch the app, but of course all context is lost and opening from there brings you to your Reddit front page.

Reddit's app registers itself as a uri handler for reddit links but (thanks to google) AMP or iframe results don't prompt the actual system uri handler that would take you to the app.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#35

Post by LocalPCGuy » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

JoeyBananas wrote: post #10

axbytg wrote: post #5

Reddit is full of these patterns in order to drive users from mobile web to app. Reddit mobile web really sets the bar for user-hostile UI in my opinion.

Microsoft Windows is even worse. Constant disruptive updates, forcing you to make an account during install, ads in the start menu, that creepy "Cortana" process that you can't kill...

This may have been true when Win10 just came out, but it isn't anymore. You can schedule your updates (and if you don't, they try to schedule them for you in non-use hours), there are ways to bypass the MS account creation and just use a local account, I haven't seen an ad in my start menu in ages, even after multiple large system updates and there is not a single reference to Cortana in my Task Manager or Services (I turned Cortana off in settings).

Granted, I'm aggressive at turning off startup items, managing what services run on boot, and so on, but my point is, each of the things you mention may have been true at one time, but they are not necessarily true today.

edit to note: I'm not defending Microsoft's use of dark patterns, they definitely do push them out and then sometimes back off if there is enough pushback. And that is bad, and should be called out. Just aiming for accurate information here.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#36

Post by bidirectional » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

The alternative is that life is made very easy for dystopian, privacy-invading companies like Clearview AI. Really I find this a lot less galling than on somewhere like Reddit, where most content isn't so personal.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#37

Post by fishtoaster » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:16 PM UTC

I'm glad we now have a name for this. If I may take a stab at a more formal, reusable definition of the Fuck You pattern:

A UI pattern whereby content a user wants is provided, then yanked away before it can be consumed, to be replaced by a demand for something the site wants (log in, sign up, subscribe, pay, etc). It's distinct from merely providing a limited amount of content in the first place, as when a site offers 3 articles for free before requiring payment.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#38

Post by lmilcin » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:17 PM UTC

klyrs wrote: post #13

I love instagram. It's the best social media site. Last time I checked, I couldn't even make an account from my desktop computer. I'm not gonna even try to install their app on my G-free phone. When a friends sends me a link to Instagram, I know that I don't need to click on it -- the thumbnail contains all the information that I'd ever see without creating an account. When news articles consist of a bunch of embedde…

Best part, it is all conveniently grouped on a single site unmarred by useful content so you can easily just ignore it all without anxiety you are going to miss out on something important.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#39

Post by anikan_vader » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

klyrs wrote: post #13

I love instagram. It's the best social media site. Last time I checked, I couldn't even make an account from my desktop computer. I'm not gonna even try to install their app on my G-free phone. When a friends sends me a link to Instagram, I know that I don't need to click on it -- the thumbnail contains all the information that I'd ever see without creating an account. When news articles consist of a bunch of embedde…

Thanks for this comment. I've been annoyed by the fact that click-baity articles don't load Instagram content in the past, but re-framing the issue as a bullet dodged and time saved is a surprisingly powerful shift of perspective.

Re: The 'Fuck You' Pattern

#40

Post by throw7 » Mon, Jun 28, 2021, 8:18 PM UTC

Facebook does this too. I'll go to a link to a facebook page and be greeted some seconds later with nonsense about having to login. There's also that facebook login box that covers the bottom of the page.