How about you disable autoplay? Firefox does this.
You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
81–90 of 318 posts
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#82Feels almost as bad as opening a HN story and discovering that the only content is a whiny tweet/mastadon about a minor annoyance.
You're welcome to go through the New submissions list, or my submissions, or any other user's, and upvote the more substantial content.
Trust me, I do try to steer discussion in directions I think would prove more valuable for HN and its readers. There's some help in this through the 2nd Chance and invited submissions queues. See:
https://news.ycombinator.com/pool
https://news.ycombinator.com/invited
That said, the hivemind has certain rather predictably-popular themes. I wish myself it would steer more substantive, but site mechanics make that challenging.
That said, the unanimity of the response, given the ubiquity of the practice, shines a light on, oh, say, the "consumer value" arguemnt usually put forth. And that's possibly worth noting.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
When it comes to chumboxes aka "articles you should also read" I could definitely see old people less experienced with the internet's scumminess falling for them at least the first few times.
I take a particularly dim view on websites that have these. I don't care if that's how they make their living - they are making money by scamming people.
The sites themselves are aware of this reputational damage risk, and discuss this openly.
https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/10/a-merger-of-chumbox-monger...
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#84Something about the post itself: while I'm firmly in the "it's annoying" camp, as is the author, the poll is a textbook example of how to make a heavily biased poll. Maybe there is a person or two who actually like it, but the dripping sarcasm of the poll's response is saying "whoever you are, you're cretins", and is not quite inviting for a discussion. I'd love to hear from someone who actually liked this pattern (a…
The poll is pretty obviously flippant.
All the same, for such a widely-used dark pattern, the visceral hostile response is absolutely overwhelming.
Think of all the weasly, greasy, contemptuous justifications that have been offerred for this practice. Clearly, someone's lying, and not at all convincingly.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How exactly do you ban a browser extension? browser vendors can blacklist it. >How do you consider legitimate traffic illegal? It's fairly obvious that sending traffic for the sake of generating traffic isn't "legitimate" by any means. Your excuse is flimsier as websites that sell ddos services as "stress testing" services.
> browser vendors can blacklist it. How would they do that? They can remove them from their list of extensions, but I can just download it from elsewhere and add it manually, right?
If you hadn't noticed, extensions have to be signed by the browser vendor, so that you can run them.
A few people who re-compile their Firefox or Chromium to get rid of that requirement will not make a great DDoS botnet.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#86Anyone remember how terrible Macromedia Flash ads were?
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#87Marketing is a trash industry episode #451.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#88How about an extension that disables video elements until you click on them ... Like how Internet Explorer treated Java applets towards the end on their days.
You could add a whitelist feature to the extension for YouTube et al.
Sure, it would be nice if websites didn't do shitty UX, but as others have said, don't visit those sites.
The other extension idea I had was one which would reference a database of sites known to use dark UX, and warn you not to click thru.
I myself run a userscript on Google that removes results from websites that I'd prefer to avoid.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#89Anyone remember how terrible Macromedia Flash ads were?
10 years ago I wrote this:
"what will the ad-haters use in this future world of 2022? Some amalgamated FlashBlock equivalent that can easily just turn off all the annoying stuff? This line will be blurred and it won't be possible."
I wish I was wrong on these types of things.
Re: You click a link to a news site, to read an article that seems interesting
#90If they can trigger a "video fired" message in the analytics, that's one more "Person viewed our video" they can show to a potential advertiser. That's all it's about, not the end user's experience.
+1 - duh. This is like asking people if they find the experience of stopping at a toll booth to be a pleasant part of the driving experience
Except it's a toll booth that you don't pay. It's part of some weird scam that depends on annoying you.