Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#31

Post by TeMPOraL » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:32 AM UTC

Another point for 100% deny. Not just because of annoyance, but also in order not to have stuff running in the background when my browser is not open.

Hell, I'm actually tuning down in-app notifications as well, especially on chats. I've learned that notifications are distracting, and 99% of time not worth the cost of interruption. I had to get over my FOMO for that, but it's been worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#32

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:36 AM UTC

Never accepted on, blocked this in browser settings, I've only seen it abused. It's roughly at the same level of irritation as follow up spam, asking the browser to set the page visited as your home page and spam asking for read confirmation.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#33

Post by aorth » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:42 AM UTC

I have never accepted a notifications request ever. Now, because of this thread, I've learned how to disable the feature entirely in Firefox (set dom.webnotifications.enabled to false).

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#34

Post by olfactory » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:51 AM UTC

I disable all notifications in all programs, browsers and also those generated by the OS.

The whole idea of notifications is that I want to be interrupted from whatever I'm doing to learn the information in a timely manner. This is pretty much never true.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#35

Post by rypskar » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:53 AM UTC

I deny them all, I also turn off most notifications from programs on my PC and on my phone. My email clients, direct messages on HipChat and some facebook notifications on my phone (and phone calls and SMS) are the only notifications I want. I like to be in charge of when to consume information, instead of being force feed information.

So except HipChat at work I get less than 10 notifications a day in total on all platforms. Most can be looked at when I notice them, and closed right away. Still keep them on for the 1 in 10 that I want to read.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#36

Post by Meph504 » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:56 AM UTC

I've never actually seen one, I deny all of them, because I've never thought to myself, that they could possibly be useful.

To me, They are an annoyance. I become suspicious of any site wanting me to accept them.

I would disable this feature globally if I could (or cared enough to figure out how.)

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#37

Post by natch » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 6:57 AM UTC

I allow them for a very small and selective number of sites that I mostly trust. For me this is a pretty high bar. I have three sites whitelisted right now.

Conditions to be whitelisted:

1) I have been using your site for years.

2) Your site has timely important information in my specific field of interest.

3) Your site doesn't engage in monetization practices that lead to a poor user experience (ads that pop over or otherwise interrupt the articles, self-playing audio, self-resizing ads, begging for account creation, etc.)

4) Of all the existing sites on this topic, yours needs to be the best one (proven with many years track record).

Has your site been around for many years?

99.99% of the time I would deny them and consider even the request to be a rude annoyance. If your site is not in the top 1% of long-established quality sites, you shouldn't even request the permission imho.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#38

Post by taneq » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 7:09 AM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #11

I allow for chat webapps and GCalendar, and deny for everything else, even email. I don't trust any other site not to abuse them, and even if I did, there isn't anything else that would warrant an immediate interruption. Now, if you're looking for arguments whether or not you should implement them for a user-facing webapp based on a sampling of HN readers' behavior, my guess is we're not really all that representativ…

For me it's a natural extension of my antiphishing/antiscam/antiadvertising responses. If a web site pops up a thing demanding access to a resource (credentials/credulity/attention) the response is automatically no.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#39

Post by Powerofmene » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 7:25 AM UTC

Deny them all because they tend to be obtrusive and when I did allow a select few, they were frequently of little value or importance. Since denying them all I get more done and am not subjected to frequent interruptions.

Re: Ask HN: Are browser notifications user-hostile?

#40

Post by gpvos » Tue, Dec 19, 2017, 7:25 AM UTC

The main problem is that the request to allow notifications pops up the first time you visit a site, at a time when you have no idea yet how much you like and trust the site. This leads me to always permanently deny them (because the second and third time I visit the site, I am still unlikely to know them well enough, so the popups would just be annoying). Then, after that, the notifications have been permanently denied, and you don't get a chance to re-enable them anymore.

So sites should never ask to enable notifications by default, but instead have an easy-to-find-but-not-too-obnoxious button on the homepage to later enable them. (I don't even know if this is technically possible at the moment.) I would still do this for <1% of sites, but at least the functionality would be useful and usable. A Javascript pop-up div in a corner might be acceptable when you visit the site for the 5th time or so.