Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a bookmarklet just to deal with this kind of websites lol
Would you share perhaps?
Yeah, do share it!
Just let me select text
451–460 of 621 posts
Re: Just let me select text
#452[dead]
Re: Just let me select text
#453I must admit, one of my favorite recent-ish Android[1] features is that all text is made selectable in the app switcher using on-device OCR. Regardless of the app[2], you can just swipe up and start selecting text. [1] ...at least on the Google Pixel. [2] ...unless it's a banking app and it blocks permissions for screenshots and similar things.
> unless it's a banking app and it blocks permissions for screenshots and similar things.
Can you not disable this? I just tested on stock iOS, and I can screenshot all of my banking apps.
Re: Just let me select text
#454Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently read something that stated we've never really had more than 30% of students in the US at a level of mathematical understanding where they can tell that 3/4ths and 0.75 are the same thing, conceptually. I cannot stop thinking about this; it honestly explains so much.
Indeed, one thing I keep in mind is that almost all progress, social, technical, political, etc. are wrought by an exceedingly small proportion of people. These are usually the people derided as deviant, nonconforming, abnormal. Left to the vast majority of "normal" people who want to half-ass everything, there'd be absolutely no progress whatsoever, and what is more, society might actually fall apart.
I like Kandinsky’s metaphor of a flying pyramid with progressors at the tip and more down-to-the-earth people at the base. Such a good idea.
Re: Just let me select text
#455Earlier quoted context omitted.
Real-world example I use nearly daily: Selecting the nav header that's the ticket number in our ticketing system. I copy-paste the number elsewhere. Of course there are many other bad design decisions that go into requiring me to do this, but it's still a real example of why all text should be selectable.
My company has dedicated years of engineering time to add custom "copy" buttons next to text that they spent months to make non-selectable.
> text that they spent months to make non-selectable.
Just curious, what was the original reason(s) to make the text non-selectable.
Re: Just let me select text
#456Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are people these days so dense (i.e. stupid) they couldn't figure out it was a joke by the author?
Being unable to get the joke here implies that someone is obtuse or unable to grasp social cues (ie autism-adjacent), not that they are stupid. Which is further confirmed by the fact that HN's audience skews towards the former and away from the latter.
This is a good clarification, thank you.
Re: Just let me select text
#457Oh, God yes. I've often thought that this is actually a fundamental failure in mouse-and-screen based UI that we sadly didn't catch early enough in the design of the desktop. One of the mouse buttons should be dedicated to text selection and able to select any text. Document contents, browser contents, the text in an error message or a button... It should all be selectable and there should be a dedicated button for i…
That’s a fun idea, though I realize we’re too deep in backwards-looking design to ever fix that.
Re: Just let me select text
#458[Trigger warning: Old man yells at cloud.] One of countless reasons I hate doing anything on my phone. Text selection is imprecise, slow and janky. Text input is slow and error prone, and autocorrect (or predictive text) produces danish with wrong grammar (so does Chrome). It's like using a computer with boxing gloves on. And despite phones now being huge, I prefer my triple monitor desktop. And also most apps are pr…
OkCupid sold out to Match, that's why they became crappy. (OkCupid also had an article saying why you should never pay for online dating, which coincidentally was taken down the same day they were acquired by Match.) Also, OkCupid gave people different prices based on whether they said they were a man or woman. I wonder if anyone ever sued them in a class action.
Pure does that pricing thing too, and that kind of makes sense given how disproportionate privilege and “supply/demand” is on dating apps.
Re: Just let me select text
#459I have a habit of selecting and highlighting text on computer screens, while reading. I have no issues tracking lines usually, but somehow I still select and highlight. Maybe it is just easier to track lines this way. When I see some web page, that prevents this, then that website gets a -50 reputation score out of 100 in my book. So if the site is perfect in every other way (almost no site is) then -50 still makes i…
What are example web pages that prevent this for body text? I feel like I've never come across it before, expect TFA which is making a point...
I also can't recall ever coming across a clickable action trigger on every word. Just links that might have some popup action. And I use opt+click to select things within regular links.
I'm genuinely curious because it seems like lots of people are agreeing, and this is not a problem I've ever encountered before. Are there common sites known for this that I just haven't visited?
Re: Just let me select text
#460God I absolutely abhor "UI takeovers": Not allowing text selection, disabling scrolling where there should be scrolling, disabling autocomplete/text substitutions, or corrupting the Back/Forward buttons... Websites are guilty of this more often than apps, which usually just do whatever the device OS allows. Even worse are the outright LIES that even Apple has been guilty of for a while now: • Refreshing a webpage doe…
I did write on scrollbars too: https://aartaka.me/scrollbar.html