It's like the front end industry has been working tirelessly for decades to serve the most beautiful fuck-you possible to each and every user.
How I Experience Web Today
171–180 of 326 posts
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#172So true, so sad. These days, when even a few hurdles of crap present themselves, I often just leave. I don’t care what the site has to say or sell me. Whenever I come across a site that just displays content immediately, it fills me with joy. Usually it’s some obscure personal or academic site, but for a moment I feel like I’ve found a gem in the desert and I browse happily for a while…then I promptly add to a list o…
> These days, when even a few hurdles of crap present themselves, I often just leave. I don’t care what the site has to say or sell me.
I find that disabling JavaScript often helps. I have it enabled by default, but disable it in uBlock on a per-site basis if some crap pops up. A lot of the times that fixes things.
For example for some reason the BBC thinks it's helpful to display a big fat "Register for an account today!" every fucking time I visit their website, but with JS disabled you don't get it. I think missing out on all BBC content would be too high of a price to pay, especially since most news sites do something similar (or worse).
Downside is that sometimes stuff like images no longer work. It's usually not a big deal.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#173Web development and it's tools are often a top topic on HN. Better tools, new languages, new frameworks, improved frameworks etc. So now someone tell me why we get such sites? Why should I care about developers if they don't seem to care about me? And that's only the design and UX not to mention the whole tracking and spying.
> So now someone tell me why we get such sites?
People posting on HN usually work on web applications. Those don't need to serve ads because somebody is already paying for the service provided (e.g. Netflix, Salesforce, JIRA).
Similarly, they don't serve annoying email popups because every user is already logged in, and their email is already known. A random website you came across while searching for X, doesn't have that luxury.
So they can afford to talk about bad UX elsewhere, because their websites don't have to compromise on UX to make money.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#174An admirable attempt. But nowhere near sufficient. - Not NEARLY enough link-litter (social links). - No Taboola Chumbox. SAD! PATHETIC!!! - Needs a CTA interruption about 15--30s after landing on the payload page. - Needs a useless hero image. - Needs more interstitial nags within the article itself. In bold and annoying context. - Needs more social links after the byline. Yes, today's web is an utter and complete cl…
- Social Share buttons served by a third party script loaded with trackers. Bonus points if they include the usually pathetic number of likes and retweets.
There are two of those (or at least, representations), for Twitter and Facebook.
Could use another few dozen, just for luck.
(A few years ago I started collecting screenshots of link litter. I think the max was about a dozen links, though most sites seem to keep it to 3--5.)
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#175Advertising crams itself into every nook and cranny unless some external factor keeps it out. if you're old enough, you remember the inserts (usually advertising cigarettes) in pulp paperbacks: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/Collins-t.ht...
A static ad wouldn't be nearly as bad as a "audience-targeted" ad that's dynamically served several seconds after the page loads, reflowing the entire layout and causing page jank.
For example, I know that every issue of the Economist is going to have an ad for a luxury watch I will never buy on the inside cover. I have full-on banner blindness to that. That's impossible on display ads that are dynamically placed right in the middle of the article body.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Money. The web was great until someone said "I love this, but how do we make money with it?"
Nothing on the internet is free and has never been. If it appears free that's because somebody pays for it with time, money, hardware, or lost opportunities.
idk, back in the day ISPs offered FTP servers so that customers could launch and run their own sites. The internet was marketed as a consumption + creation tool. It's now slanted almost entirely to the former.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really hate that about Reddit. I liked browsing discussions on my phone occasionally but the web page kept nagging me into using the app instead. So finally I installed it. But now when googling for information and finding Reddit boards about my topic of interest clicking on „use app“ does not open Reddit app but instead directs me to the stupid App store. Useless! But maybe it’s Apple‘s fault here?
Nope. Deep linking to apps is a solved area. Reddit completely drops the ball on this, and has for years. Their engineering is a complete shambles. The only reason they survive is their market share, not for any reason of 'good experience'
I'm almost tempted to apply for a job at Reddit to see why their engineering is such omnishambles. It's impressive in a way. The only good thing I have to say about it is that they're committed to keeping old.reddit.com alive indefinitely.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#178I love how it also asks the "Are you sure you want to leave?" Everything about this experience is so true.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if you click past it to remain on the web version, you're presented with truncated lists ("Download App to read the rest!") or a slew of missing features. I have an old Instagram account that I created over 10 years ago. At the time, I used it for the photo filters. Never cared about the social networking aspect. Just a month ago I logged into it for the first time in forever, and realized I wanted to delete thos…
Not surprising. Facebook has very strict rate-limiting for deletion of posts, unfollowing of friends, leaving communities, and anything else that can potentially reduce your "engagement". Disabling it on some platforms was just the next step.
I think it was just never implemented. The web page is fairly basic compared to the app, and AFAIK always has been (although I never used it much and haven't had an account in quite a while). Quite a few products are actually app-only now, without even any sort of web or desktop version.
A few years ago I had trouble using the Dutch thuisbezorgd food service, I think it didn't allow me to change my address or something and just kept erroring out. I contacted support and they told me to use the app. I told them I don't have a smartphone. They said I was out of luck.
Re: How I Experience Web Today
#180How did we get here? Does any and everything ultimately get absorbed by the marketing department?
VC-backed companies like Buzzfeed have made serious ad money peddling the lowest-brow "content" possible (excl. Buzzfeed News, which came later). They in turn attracted numerous entrants like Vox, Mic.com and a bunch of others. Together they've compiled quite the SEO landfill.