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The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

cedwards.xyz

291–300 of 403 posts

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#291
post #135

I have a bigger beef with other Fuck You patterns. 1. The increasingly high number of sites that will show a blank page when I disable Javascript. 2. The increasingly high number of sites that will show a blank page when I disable cookies even if I have no intention to login and often the site doesn't even involve any kind of membership. 3. Sites that refuse me their content because my browser "is no longer supported…

What's wrong with Cloudflare?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11404770

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#292
post #62
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still go to the restaurant to eat presumably they'll have some paper menus in there, or QR's or whatever

Aren't QR codes just a fundamentally flawed system due to how much easier they make phishing attacks?

i found out the hard way about that network of scammers. recently a friend had a serious motorbike crash and the hospital where he was at had a QR code registration. i hadn't slept and wasn't thinking. i just downloaded the first free QR reader from the google app store and scanned it. there was tiny writing saying 'open this link in browser' then a big green box in the middle saying 'OPEN'. i didn't even see the first link and just hit the big button. and yeah that took me to a registration page asking me to enter my credit card to verify my identification, which i thought was the hospital. d'oh!

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#293
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a Trojan Horse pattern, really. They give away the service for free membership with billions of VC until their competitors collapse or fade away, then they start becoming more aggressive with ads and/or charging for premium access which used to be free.

This is not new, Gillette used to give out free razors to get people used to their ecosystem and get recurring revenue. It’s just more “in your face” now.

Veering off topic, I started using safety razors for just as good a shave, for 10cents a blade. At ten cents each, I use a new blade every shave and it's so much nicer than a 2nd use top-of-the-line gillette.

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#294
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to change the world, but if no one tries to change things that are bad, they will not change. So don't have a defeatist attitude all the time, but once in a while try to actually have an impact. We will all be much better for it.

There's a difference between being defeatist and going around thinking that your malicious compliance is somehow fixing broken things.

There is power in avoiding services when many people do it.

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#295
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every for-profit public company. And so they should/have to.

Why should they? Why does there need to be a dichotomy between doing something good and living in poverty, or else do everything possible to squeeze out the next short-term dollar. It strikes me as a profound failure of imagination to think there's no possible way to structure our economy where more companies could pursue profit in balance with other goals that can not directly be translated into next quarter's P&L s…

Hence the '/have to', I'm not saying they philosophically or morally 'should' - I'm not commenting on that at all - I'm saying they have a duty to 'maximise shareholder value', a legal obligation to owners to (aim to) make as much money for them as possible, basically.

A privately owned company can do as it (that is: its owner(s) without state oversight) wishes.

--

If you want me to comment on the philosophy or morals of it though, I suppose I think 'meh, whatever' - a private company is free to spring up and compete, free of public shareholders and free to maximise customer satisfaction instead. Of course it's easy to say 'free to spring up', and really there are all sorts of barriers to entry in many almost monopolistic markets, but that's rather a separate issue I think - it's just as much an issue for any less customer-oriented, perhaps public or wannabe public, company trying to compete.

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#296
post #274

I feel the same burning hate like a thousand suns for FB/Meta, Google/YT and other platforms that monetize their users. But, let's be frank here: They monetize you and me, us, the users because 1 they can and, 2, they have to. Yes, they have to. Imagine they provided access to their platforms for free. How would the shareholders (your retirement funds included) respond when less profit was made? You see, we view them…

Won't someone think of the shareholders? This denial of responsability is a cancer on society. Poor devs, they can do no better because their manager ordered them to. Poor managers, they can do no better because they must reach their OKRs. Poor CxOs, they can do no better because they must please the board. Poor board, who must maximize the returns of the shareholders. Poor shareholders, who just want their retiremen…

The idea that everyone involved in the economic system of app development simply lacks moral character is a pretty weak take. Most apps/companies exist within a capitalistic framework. They likely wouldn’t exist without early external capital providing upfront funding for R&D.

In your mind, who should bear the cost of building and maintaining large services like Instagram?

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#297
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every for-profit public company. And so they should/have to.

They do not have to, regardless of whether it's what the shareholders would prefer . They only have to do what the shareholders demand if the shareholders actually vote to make them. The meme of the "fiduciary duty" meaning that profit must be maximized at all costs has been debunked so many times by now it's really not funny.

In what sense is it 'debunked'? I'm not aware of a meme nor trying to be funny.

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#298
post #274

I feel the same burning hate like a thousand suns for FB/Meta, Google/YT and other platforms that monetize their users. But, let's be frank here: They monetize you and me, us, the users because 1 they can and, 2, they have to. Yes, they have to. Imagine they provided access to their platforms for free. How would the shareholders (your retirement funds included) respond when less profit was made? You see, we view them…

Won't someone think of the shareholders? This denial of responsability is a cancer on society. Poor devs, they can do no better because their manager ordered them to. Poor managers, they can do no better because they must reach their OKRs. Poor CxOs, they can do no better because they must please the board. Poor board, who must maximize the returns of the shareholders. Poor shareholders, who just want their retiremen…

Yup!!

When I criticize Google, or some other company, I am not forgetting that they are motivated by making money.

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#299

I don’t wish to be too much of a fly in the ointment. I understand the darkness of dark patterns. But if we wish to not be secretly tracked (which is dark), then isn’t the alternative to openly ask if I want to exchange knowledge of my identity in exchange for the content I seek, so they can target the ads that pay for the content aggregation service I am using? The preceding question mark is not rhetorical. Maybe I…

Sure, but with reddit,their pattern is to push you to their app.

If they were just trying to wrangle a user into a simple adnetwork proposition, _why can't they do that with a webapp_.

It's because they want far more privacy invasive features.

Re: The 'fuck you' pattern (2021)

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you go out for launch and see this random guy "loudly insulting" the staff because of some random internet stuff you don't understand or care about. Maybe you won't call the guy "Karen", but I'd be very surprised if you approved of the situation... Unless, of course, you think that insulting low paid workers loudly is something good and to be proud of.

The point is not to persuade you of my point of view, the point is to ruin the mood of the workers and customers. So if I leave you fuming about the Karen (eg me, but wrong gender fyi), mission accomplished. If it were legal I'd pull the fire alarm on my way out.

It's just sad that such a great tech like QR's has caused you so much pain
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