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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?

#221
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? I never had to justify it, nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office, they expected me to deliver a thesis or other document. When there was the "5% expectation", kindly decline, uninstall. The road I picked, was not always success or easy, I got failed in high school "informatics" class because I could not show that I could use Office. Twice. I refused to le…

> I never had to justify it, nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office... You had it easy it seems. When someone sends you a document which contains convoluted structures and only renders in a very recent version of Microsoft Word, and you have to fill it for work purposes, you have no other choice (We're a Linux shop, but not everyone we interact uses Libre Office, so yeah). > Whats ease is what you have le…

> you have no other choice

You always, always have a choice. Throw away the victim and obey mentality. Freedom is taken, not served to you.

When someone send you a trojan horse.virus.exe you do not have to open it. Neither do you have to open a convoluted proprietary binary format requiring you to buy a license to read said binary. Politely decline, reject. You have that power.

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

#222
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? I never had to justify it, nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office, they expected me to deliver a thesis or other document. When there was the "5% expectation", kindly decline, uninstall. The road I picked, was not always success or easy, I got failed in high school "informatics" class because I could not show that I could use Office. Twice. I refused to le…

>nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office >I got failed in high school "informatics" class because I could not show that I could use Office. Twice How curious.

The first part should be suffixed with "at any workplace".

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

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's consider a basic example: How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? Easy. I don’t want to give Microsoft money and libreoffice/notes are fine for all of the basic use cases.

> ...fine for all of the basic use cases. What if some business partner sends you a completely loaded Office document to fill/work together/whatnot?

It has happened, I declined. Many worked with LibreOffice with me, those who did not, my career took a different route than working with them.

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

#224
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How can you justify not using Microsoft Office? I never had to justify it, nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office, they expected me to deliver a thesis or other document. When there was the "5% expectation", kindly decline, uninstall. The road I picked, was not always success or easy, I got failed in high school "informatics" class because I could not show that I could use Office. Twice. I refused to le…

>nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office >I got failed in high school "informatics" class because I could not show that I could use Office. Twice How curious.

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

#225
post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>nobody forced me or expected me to be using Office >I got failed in high school "informatics" class because I could not show that I could use Office. Twice How curious.

The first part should be suffixed with "at any workplace".

Many workplaces, especially those that deal heavily in Word and other Office software, heavily restrict work machines so that no un-approved software can be installed. Your experience, though very real, may not reflect that of a majority of others.

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

#226
My perspective as someone running a small content website:

* Most users are freeloaders. Some websites are fine with offending those users to get more paying users.

* Blogspam works well enough. Few writers have the patience to do in-depth research on vacuum cleaners, so most content is poorly written or plagiarised from a better source. Most content is written by copywriters to rank a website on Google, not to spread good information.

* Stats are valuable, or at least perceived as such. This calls for tracking, and thus for somewhat compliant cookie banners. The person or department who is responsible for tracking things will necessarily want more tracking to occur.

* There is a financial incentive to recommend specific products with high commissions. It's hard to ignore how much money you're not making because of your honesty.

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

#227
post #139
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> was unable to have a meaningful conversation as they felt whatever was on their phones was more interesting I hate that. If you're expecting something important - fine, take a quick glance to check, if it vibrates. But don't start scrolling while I'm trying to have a conversation with you. Put it down for 20 minutes, you'll be ok - it will still be on there. > The world got itself in a damn hurry and it seems there…

Meh. Whenever I see such things, it's usually because their interlocutor is boring. People aren't interesting just because they are people. In fact, most people are boring as hell. There is such a thing as manners, of course. But that's a two-way street. The other party also has to make an effort to not be boring, and that effort is rarely made either.

>>> The other party also has to make an effort not to be boring, and that effort is rarely made either.

Would you please elaborate what you mean by this?

I am familiar with how conversations work or at least how they used to...

This looking at your phone and tuning out of a conversation seems to be somethin new and lacking as you said, manners.

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

#228
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…

[deleted]

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

#229
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, let's say I won't tolerate it. What do I do? crickets And no, average users have never avoided scams, email spam is older than web.

Don't like something? Take your money elsewhere, and make sure to tell why on social media, even if you don't have large following. Besides making bad practices unnoticeably less profitable this normalises caring about this. In the future we will see more business will see practices that you like as advantageous.

try buying a ticket to a concert by avoiding ticketmaster and you’ll find yourself not going to concerts…

I can’t subscribe to any local newspaper without a digital opt-in and a phone opt-out…

…a bunch of these services are much harder to avoid than you think

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