Poll: Do you select text while reading? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#131

Post by andrewla » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:23 PM UTC

patmcguire wrote: post #8

For a long time the New York Times had a javascript thing that would pop up a dictionary reference for anything you double clicked on. As someone who compulsively doubleclicks to highlight and unhighlight, it bugged the hell out of me.

Yes, the New York Times was the worst. In a similar vein, snopes.com also forbids selecting on the page. And when they "fixed" Chrome so that clicking and dragging from within a selection dragged the selection instead of starting a new selection, I died a little inside. Why would I want to drag text on a web page? I guess random clicking and selecting is no more of a useful use case, but I still find myself messing this up.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#132

Post by drivebyacct2 » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:23 PM UTC

I don't understand how people do this unless they just read really slowly. It's maddening to try to do and have it actually be where you're reading.

It also kills me that HN seems to embrace this practice, yet is also so incredibly skeptical of SSS and dyslexia.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#133

Post by hhjj » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:23 PM UTC

Yes i use text selection to scroll especially on trackpads : begin selection of text near window edge then scroll while selecting further.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#134

Post by cpeterso » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:25 PM UTC

tgb wrote: post #15

evan_ wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can vote for multiple options.

Is there a way to see the number of unique voters for the combined "yes" options? Otherwise this poll isn't particularly useful.

Since this poll will have a heavy selection (ha-ha ;) bias towards people who do select text, I figured the reasons why people select is more interesting data.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#135

Post by tambourine_man » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:26 PM UTC

Yes, to track my reading position, but only when I'm exhausted.

I doubt I'd have enough brain juice left at this stage to remember to use an add-on.

But it would be nice for very large texts, sparsely read and on normal attention conditions.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#136

Post by alphang » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:27 PM UTC

Yep, it's one of the things I miss when I'm reading on a multi-touch screen - that extra tool of interaction with the page.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#137

Post by edzme » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:27 PM UTC

You all are nuts.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#138

Post by BjoernKW » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:28 PM UTC

I used to do this for scrolling. Weird habit, actually.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#139

Post by superkinz » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:30 PM UTC

patmcguire wrote: post #8

For a long time the New York Times had a javascript thing that would pop up a dictionary reference for anything you double clicked on. As someone who compulsively doubleclicks to highlight and unhighlight, it bugged the hell out of me.

Totally agree, super annoying. I will highlight and re-highlight a paragraph over and over as I read through it. I'm not sure why I do it, maybe it's my impulse to go faster that I can satisfy by moving my cursor rather than reading more rapidly.

Re: Poll: Do you select text while reading?

#140

Post by nsoldiac » Tue, Nov 27, 2012, 11:31 PM UTC

patmcguire wrote: post #8

For a long time the New York Times had a javascript thing that would pop up a dictionary reference for anything you double clicked on. As someone who compulsively doubleclicks to highlight and unhighlight, it bugged the hell out of me.

Quora does a similar thing, it's beyond annoying for a fellow compulsive text-selector.