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Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

#31

Post by solididiot »

secondaryacct wrote: post #11
ilikerashers wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying 100 euro for a test at the airport in Dublin when you depart so you can prove you didn't get COVID in the UK when you come back into Ireland 2 days later. No logic or reasoning.

In Hong Kong it's simpler: 3-week hotel quarantine when you enter and no guarantee that if you leave your airline will be allowed back in. I havent moved for the last 2 years and my daughter has grown her first years by seeing her grandparents on Skype. Im not risking what a friend lived through, stuck 6 months in Europe unable to come back. New people entering these days do so without their family and with the clear…

Heavily off-topic but I think he means that you pay and get the test _before_ actually making the trip on which you might actually get the virus. Which indeed makes no sense other than making Dublin airport richer. OTOH if you spend some time in Dublin I'm afraid you get used to burning money for no good reason as the city has become absurdly expensive in recent years.

Re: Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

#34

Post by chii »

r_singh wrote: post #27
antocv wrote: post #22

Users tolerating such bullshit is the reason why it exists and keeps on existing. Nobody is forced to continue using dark-pattern software, nobody was forced to use Apple and tie their credit-card to their "apple cloud account", yet normal users dont see a problem with it at all and just continue even paying for software which is hostile to them and their interests. Your question is like, "Why does DRM exist it is ac…

Users are the last ones to blame. If anything it’s policy makers, investors and industrialists. If you want to participate in society, you need a smartphone, and guess what? The whole world is okay with only 2 companies doing this….

but uses voted with their wallets - there have been many smartphone manufacturers, but they fell one by one to user's choices to flock to the iphone (and i guess android).

Re: Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

#36

Post by ratww »

antocv wrote: post #22

Users tolerating such bullshit is the reason why it exists and keeps on existing. Nobody is forced to continue using dark-pattern software, nobody was forced to use Apple and tie their credit-card to their "apple cloud account", yet normal users dont see a problem with it at all and just continue even paying for software which is hostile to them and their interests. Your question is like, "Why does DRM exist it is ac…

Yeah, that's the thing.

You can't really fight against results. Putting an annoying modal asking for an email will give you lots of email leads. Sending newsletters will give more returns to the website. Sending desktop notifications whenever there's a new article works and gives more visits. A website that takes 20 seconds to load is not an issue. Advertisements give more than zero moneys.

The reason it gives positive results is because this is "fine" for enough people. Some people are totally okay with having 5000 unread emails. The web is slow because computer/OS/ISPs are greedy. Ads? Look at television. Just blame cookie banners on the government.

Why it's fine for a segment of people, I don't know. Maybe they have no choice, maybe they don't know better, maybe they are completely fine with it. All I know is that they are the target users and I'm not, and companies are ok with either losing me or forcing me to go trough this bullshit. Or maybe they don't even have to worry, since there's no competition.

Re: Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

#37

Post by [deleted] »

r_singh wrote: post #27
antocv wrote: post #22

Users tolerating such bullshit is the reason why it exists and keeps on existing. Nobody is forced to continue using dark-pattern software, nobody was forced to use Apple and tie their credit-card to their "apple cloud account", yet normal users dont see a problem with it at all and just continue even paying for software which is hostile to them and their interests. Your question is like, "Why does DRM exist it is ac…

Users are the last ones to blame. If anything it’s policy makers, investors and industrialists. If you want to participate in society, you need a smartphone, and guess what? The whole world is okay with only 2 companies doing this….

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

#38

Post by tester34 »

sigmaprimus wrote: post #2

I agree with most everything you have said but wonder if it is just the internet or everywhere these days. I recently went through a McDonalds drive thru for the first time in a very long time and felt a longing for the old menu boards that had items and prices clearly listed instead of these TV screens with all the items and prices scattered about like a teenage girls dream collage. I walked into a new BestBuy store…

>The busses no longer accept cash in my city, you need to buy a prepaid card from a transit hub or from one of their partner retailers. So I need to get a ride to the store to get a bus pass?!?

Damn, I hate this too

Re: Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?

#40

Post by srcreigh »

Unregulated winner take all effects. Too many acquisitions - not enough competition. Giant companies providing market leading services at 3+ layers, increasing startup costs, enabling anti competitive behaviour.

However I believe the true reason is geopolitical. The entire digital market is simply the best espionage system. If the US govt had a better way to dominate other countries, they would use it instead, and the internet would improve.

Dark patterns in digital services are not just about greed. They give the US government greater power which translates to increased protection of its citizens.

What could be the solution? Tax loopholes to funnel money into open source code to compete at the govt's expense? Building a better geopolitical power system so they get off tech's lawn?

Realistically, it's probably to invest more in open source services and encryption tools, self hosting tools, proxies. Open source capital ownership governance model.

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