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Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

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Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#291

Post by anigbrowl »

k__ wrote: post #249
blunte wrote: post #8

This is a good an informative essay. However, there's another element of "user-hostile" that I didn't see addressed (maybe I missed it in my haste?) -- that is the websites trying to control exactly how the content is consumed by the user. It seems increasingly that web content is being delivered in video form. That itself is hostile to some people. Some of us want the freedom to read (or scan quickly). But many of t…

Same problem with messaging these days. People increasingly do voice messages. 1. Because messages are faster spoken than written 2. Your "listeners" can't interrupt you, like on a phone call 3. Your messages aren't searchable as easily as text-messages

4. it's easier for people who are driving etc. which is at least somewhat valid

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#292

Post by anigbrowl »

abritinthebay wrote: post #247
Filligree wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, of course people stay longer in the site. You're forcing us to, since skimming and searching is no longer an option. It's a worse experience, and I avoid that sort of site if at all possible.

Yes, I know you may think that that but that's not based on the numbers I'm afraid. It can be true for you of course. But if so you're an outlier. Long story short - we see people actively engage with video content more (ie - they share it, they comment on it, they respond to it more positively, etc etc). The numbers don't lie, and they're pretty clear. Article-based/written content isn't going anywhere, but it's not…

Are you giving people a real choice, though? And to what extent are they just hooked on your eye candy?

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#293

Post by dep_b »

blunte wrote: post #8

This is a good an informative essay. However, there's another element of "user-hostile" that I didn't see addressed (maybe I missed it in my haste?) -- that is the websites trying to control exactly how the content is consumed by the user. It seems increasingly that web content is being delivered in video form. That itself is hostile to some people. Some of us want the freedom to read (or scan quickly). But many of t…

It's strange that text content needs to be semantic having all kinds of divisions for different kinds of text. Yet video can remain an unstructured unnavigatable blurb of content. It should have semantic stuff like menu, header, footer, h1, h2 or p as well.

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#294

Post by livatlantis »

halayli wrote: post #245

> Cedexis: a CND/ad-delivery platform Cedexis is not an ad-delivery platform. It's a multi-cdn platform that allows you use multiple cdns under the hood and picks optimum cdn based on the user's location. OP loses credibility when making such false accusations just to make their point.

Fair point, that was an error on my part. I've corrected it with a note of the change right below it. Thanks for pointing it out!

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#295

Post by sien »

tomjen3 wrote: post #264
vog wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. Exactly this. I don't get why anyone would listen to a podcast with ads and/or bad information density. I mean, the whole point (and value) of podcasts is to remove the private radio station crap, not to replicate it. BTW, the German podcast scene is a quite positive example of the directions podcasts can go.

Do you mean podcasts in German or by Germans? If the latter, any good suggestions?

Omega Tau - a Science and Engineering Podcast is fantastic:

http://omegataupodcast.net/

Long episodes, such as 2 hours interviewing a physicist at ITER are really well done.

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#296

Post by deong »

vog wrote: post #248
tomjen3 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are podcasts like that, but I admit I am strange because all my favourite podcasts are multiple hours long, getting really deep into the content. Jocos podcasts, which doesn't really have ads other than for his own products, fx are often more than 3 hours, Dan Carlins Hardcore History is typically that long per episode, but often they are also part of a series, like his 5 episodes on the first world war (probab…

This. Exactly this. I don't get why anyone would listen to a podcast with ads and/or bad information density. I mean, the whole point (and value) of podcasts is to remove the private radio station crap, not to replicate it. BTW, the German podcast scene is a quite positive example of the directions podcasts can go.

To be fair, a lot of podcasts have ads, but ads aren't what I'm objecting to. The modern web doesn't suck because of ads. It sucks because of the technologies around ensuring you look at the ads, around sharing your behaviors as you look at the ads, etc.

Any podcast player I can imagine anyone would ever use has a convenient way to skip ads, and the neither the presence of the ads themselves nor my decision to skip them degrades the experience of listening to the podcast. My podcast player doesn't demand I look at Forbes' "thought of the day" or disable my fast-forward button in order to play. It doesn't connect to 280 random third-party tracking domains as I listen to an episode. It downloads a file and plays that file for me.

Who really cares that much about ads that don't track you or destroy your experience?

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#297

Post by tau255 »

I browse mainly on mobile devices and forward link to interesting articles. Earlier I just bookmarked page after reading and it was fine, but now that linkrot made a mess of my bookmark list I tend to print to pdf.

It is amazing how much thought is put into looks and design of web pages that just ends scrambling everything during printout or just prevents to obtain any meaningful result (ie. imgur)

I look around and see options to share on tweeter, pinterest, tumblr, reddit, facebook. But no print button that would make it easy to archive. It is like articles are disposable and not thought to be of any reference in future (even highly technical ones).

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#298

Post by Zelizz »

fiddlerwoaroof wrote: post #289
akoncius wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure and drain the whole battery on my smartphone/laptop while I watch that video? thanks but no thanks.

The browser could throttle the cc mining based on your battery level/power state. In theory, your device could even mine while charging and then distribute the mined tokens later.

Or you could distribute tokens mined from a computer that's plugged in somewhere, or even purchased with normal currency. But I'm not sure I'd want to navigate a web where I'm constantly making purchase decisions with every hyperlink.

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#299

Post by rrix2 »

lern_too_spel wrote: post #262
gruez wrote: post #2

>If you use Chrome as your main browser, consider switching to Chromium, the open-source version of the browser. Consider minimalist browsers like Min (and choose to block all ads, trackers and scripts) to browser news websites. no love for firefox? or for that matter, any non webkit browsers? >HERE WeGo for maps (free) i'm not sure that's any better in terms of privacy

Also, FastMail isn't any better for privacy, and you have to pay for it to boot. The article was more or less reasonable until the nonsensical recommendations at the end.

FastMail is much better than google mail because it's not fueling google's hegemony over the web. That you have to pay for it means their sustainability is not tied to abusing their users. If you want privacy in the way you seem to mean privacy (end-to-end no-trust async messaging) of course anything speaking SMTP isn't going to be "better for privacy", but those systems largely are incompatible with how 99% of the web wants to communicate with you.

Re: Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

#300

Post by anon151516888 »

dep_b wrote: post #293
blunte wrote: post #8

This is a good an informative essay. However, there's another element of "user-hostile" that I didn't see addressed (maybe I missed it in my haste?) -- that is the websites trying to control exactly how the content is consumed by the user. It seems increasingly that web content is being delivered in video form. That itself is hostile to some people. Some of us want the freedom to read (or scan quickly). But many of t…

It's strange that text content needs to be semantic having all kinds of divisions for different kinds of text. Yet video can remain an unstructured unnavigatable blurb of content. It should have semantic stuff like menu, header, footer, h1, h2 or p as well.

PornHub is making some headway there already. Though they are using other tags than h1, h2 and p.
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