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Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

darkpatterns.org

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Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#261
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That link itself is a dark pattern. It tries to get you to sign into Google; you can't see the photos otherwise.

If it were truly the case that you couldn't see it without signing in, that would not be a dark pattern - there's nothing misleading about that, it's just a policy you don't like. using the buzzword of the moment to criticize something you don't like, without considering whether it really applies, is how phrases lose all their meaning. (of course, that's not true here and you don't have to sign in)

The distinction is subtle, because there is a common dark pattern where websites try to trick you into creating an account to access public content, even though you don't actually need to.

I'm thinking of Dropbox, which does this when you try to access a link that someone shared with you by email https://a3nm.net/share/2016-12-07_548165.png

This is a dark pattern because it's trying to make me believe that I should create an account when obviously I just want to get the file that my friend sent me. The link to download the file directly is at the bottom of the message.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#262

I'm not sure why this appears here on HN and received so many votes. Despite being a good site, it has been last updated in 2013: http://darkpatterns.org/whats-new/ I sent them 2 dark patterns in the past which they didn't put; in an email I received long time after inquiring about it one of the developers said they're under the pump and will get to it sometime. And they don't.

Technically, it was last updated in November 2015 (at least if the date here is correct):

http://darkpatterns.org/trick-questions/

Good luck figuring that out though, since the what's new page hasn't been working in pretty much forever and the only way to see if something has been changed is to check each category individually.

And yeah, it doesn't update much. I remember sending in my own examples before, and those never got added either. Kind of wish there was a site about this with a more regular update schedule or something.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#263
post #2

While I'm familiar with the site already, I'd love to have an RSS feed of newly added submissions. Unfortunately, when I click on Recently Added I get a list with pattern definition links that all 404, and no link to the actual submission.

That and a api where you could `GET darkpatterns.org/patterns/www.linkedin.com` and get a list. Would be great for building a nice browser plugin with.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#266
post #34
post #27

One pattern that I consider "dark", but don't see in this list, is using loaded options on a dialog box. One that I often see in apps is like: Rate our app! Those really get under my skin because the developer is clearly trying to play a psychological trick on me, but it's so brazen and obvious that it just pisses me off. And bigger companies do it too (e.g. Google).

Other big players like Microsoft are doing it too. And that dialog can be worse: Do you like our app? It's also freaking annoying because it interrupts your workflow, the thing for which you ended up installing that stupid app in the first place. It's basically disrespectful of their users' time and needs.

Medium does this too, no option to cancel. You can only click later. Tired of growth growth growth by all means...

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#268
post #228
post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, I'm disappointed how Amazon went from being a store to a "marketplace". Sometimes I want to buy somebody who'll actually curate their list of products and has a reputation to stand behind that they don't want to sully by selling garbage or price-gouging on items they don't normally stock. But maybe that's just me.

I buy a lot of used, old, obscure things (mostly books). Very often, Amazon is the only place I can find it reliably; my other options would probably be asking my Japanese/German/etc friends to dig through second hand shops and mail it to me. I love the Amazon marketplace. (I also hate the 3rd party seller feedback emails but I have strict email filters so who cares)

It's not that I think the Amazon Marketplace is a bad idea, it's that the way the Amazon Store and the Marketplace are conflated by Amazon that's the problem.

eBay and AliExpress do what Amazon Marketplace does better than Amazon Marketplace, but Amazon wins because they've leveraged their success as a store for it.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, marketplace sellers don't have access to your email address, Amazon relays email messages through their servers. I am a seller on Amazon. I didn't think I have access to email addresses but you got me curious. I just went into an order and clicked "contact buyer." It gives a contact form that has the receivers address as something like dq22t5nz9n27qma@marketplace.amazon.com with a note "IMPORTANT…

Going forward, you can append "+whatever" to the username portion of your email address, e.g. You+spam@gmail.com, and gmail and most other providers I've used will ignore that part. Use it to trace the sharing of that address. I used that when signing up for a particular mailing list and found that my address was shared with about a dozen other marketers.

This comes up every time and that's just too much of a pain in the ass for basically no reward. Do you think spammers are too stupid to strip out the + part themselves? Its not worth the effect to even open the emails so having the + doesn't personally help me. I'd have to worry about having a different email address for every service I use? no thanks.

Re: Dark Patterns – User Interfaces Designed to Trick People [video]

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never click a spammer's "unsubscribe" links -- that just tells them they have a valid account. If you use a big email provider like gmail, flag them as spam. Otherwise, make a rule in your mail client to automatically file anything from their domain to the trash.

I've had good success with unsubscribing from legitimate mailing lists using the links at the bottom of an email. It's not the company's fault if I unthinkingly subscribed to their newsletters - they shouldn't have all their emails forever tagged as spam for my mistake. Real spam however, rarely makes it into my inbox - it gets filtered out and deleted without ever being opened.

> It's not the company's fault if I unthinkingly subscribed to their newsletters - they shouldn't have all their emails forever tagged as spam for my mistake.

It is. Default checked "subscribe" boxes during sign in, hidden settings, new lists which you are auto subscribed to; it's a never ending battle and the incentives are wrong. If there was no unsubscribe link but only the spam button, publishers would be much clearer about these things.

Ironically, the unsubscribe link has probably led to more spam, rather than less.

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