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What Is a Dickover?

daringfireball.net

71–80 of 227 posts

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#71
post #29
post #26

I'm sorry but this is such a stupid name. Where did the author get this name from? Why would I say that in front of any female colleage or any non-technical layman? We already have a name for this and it is a "popup". Which sounds better? "Remove this popup" or "Remove this dickover" Be honest.

I agree, but being mildly offensive is kind of the point: makes it more memorable, and clearly differentiated from “popup” which is too broad and has many valid uses in an interface. Dickovers never have a valid reason to exist.

> makes it more memorable, and clearly differentiated from “popup” which is too broad and has many valid uses in an interface. Dickovers never have a valid reason to exist.

This is hardly convincing. The author even describes it as a "popup" or a "popover" which is already descriptive enough without further explanation. It is just an "unwanted popup" or "unwanted popover".

The fact he brought up a definition of that word after mentioning "popover", just made the need for "d*ckover" uneccessarily redundant.

It may work with 30 people in tech, but will not work on TV. "unwanted popup" or "unwanted popover" is better to say on TV than "d*ckover".

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#72

Did you know that a Substack's author can turn the annoying popup off? Go to dashboard -> settings, and then it's "Enable subscribe prompts on post page" under "Growth." It's the first thing I did. Recommended.

I sort of make an exception for that popup. I.e. I don't mind seeing it. It's the tax to get good free content. Medium forcing you to log in is too much tho.

I don't at all mind a link on the page that directs me to a subscription or notification signup.

If I get a popup, I'm pretty likely to just close the page, especially if I'm on mobile where closing them is more trouble.

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#73
post #45

I explicitly disable these on Substack but it adds them to my posts anyway. I'm not sure if that's a bug or the thing working as intended, but it was enough to make me stop using it. I don't want to do that to my readers.

Substack’s dubious practices aren’t as bad as their dubious politics. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-s...

Oh yay, the nazi content again. Don't let the Feb 2026 article date fool you, this has been talked about for years and they don't lift a finger. It's like how Meta isn't incentivized to block scams because they profit off of them to the tune of a billion dollars a year.

However, I do appreciate white supremacist trash outing themselves in public. Get it on the record. Some of them try to hide, but: Patriot Front had a huge leak of data in 2022 (400GB).

"Patriot Front Fascist Leak Exposes Nationwide Racist Campaigns"[0]

You can download it at the following torrent address:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:2c87816e4c81990fb25bbca43dd8d578eaa55886&dn=patriotfront&tr=udp%3A%2F%2F9.rarbg.to%3A2920&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fexodus.desync.com%3A6969

I'm seeding this on a permanent basis. I have gigabit uplink. Please leach and share.

0. https://unicornriot.ninja/2022/patriot-front-fascist-leak-ex...

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#74

I have a theory that about 97% of developers and managers completed the cookie consent (or whatever) on their own product 5 years ago and hence never see it again, and they have no idea how bad the experience for new customers actually is. So the developers and bosses all think they're doing a great job and they've got a carefully curated homepage, even though the regular users get a cloudflare captcha, then a cookie…

I suspect many developers know the truth, at least to some degree. Their boss said "it's only one [more] popup, add it anyway."

Repeat ad infinitum

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#75
In a similar vein, If I had to explain what javascript was to someone non-technical I would say "you know all that crap that covers up a web site you are trying to look at? That's javascript."

dickover n. : a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, mandatory interaction

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#76
post #63
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"popups" or "popovers" is just fine. Both of them are shorter than the "dickovers" or "clickovers" nonsense.

dickovers are a subset of popups, they are not interchangeable terms. The derogatory term is for practices that rightfully deserve contempt.

The problem with that is it cannot be used towards people outside of this tech bubble and would just confuse them. It would even fail many profanity filters in chats and forums.

> The derogatory term is for practices that rightfully deserve contempt.

But it doesn't mean that you should expect the layman to use it in common parlance.

Either "Unwanted popup / popover" and even "popup" / "popover" is a far sensible descriptive alternative for the layman than whatever the author is proposing.

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#77
I've used the politer term "pie" for these things, since they are usually thrown in the user's face like a pie, after the normal screen has been shown for a few seconds.

In the old days, JS allowed window.open() which would create a new window on the user's sceren. That naturally was abused horribly, leading to pop-up-blocker extensions and then built-in browser permissions. We need the same thing for pies/dickovers, which are at root a workaround to the presence of pop-up blocking.

My first reaction to "dickover" was that it sounded like another Marion Zimmer Bradley fantasy fiction series...

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#78
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh we care, but when it comes to cookie dickovers, we care more about making the corporate lawyers happy. I’ll admit that I definitely like collecting my paycheck much more than I worry about customer annoyance at acknowledging a cookie policy. Some hills ain't worth dying on.

Or your company could respect its users and only use cookies for essential site functions. Then you don't need a dickover.

I like the make the cookie for hiding the dickover be 30-60 minutes in duration for anyone in a company IP address. Own medicine is the best dog food.

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#79

I've used the politer term "pie" for these things, since they are usually thrown in the user's face like a pie, after the normal screen has been shown for a few seconds. In the old days, JS allowed window.open() which would create a new window on the user's sceren. That naturally was abused horribly, leading to pop-up-blocker extensions and then built-in browser permissions. We need the same thing for pies/dickovers,…

> My first reaction to "dickover" was that it sounded like another Marion Zimmer Bradley fantasy fiction series...

That hits way more darkly given what has come out about Marion Zimmer Bradley and her husband...

Re: What Is a Dickover?

#80
post #76
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dickovers are a subset of popups, they are not interchangeable terms. The derogatory term is for practices that rightfully deserve contempt.

The problem with that is it cannot be used towards people outside of this tech bubble and would just confuse them. It would even fail many profanity filters in chats and forums. > The derogatory term is for practices that rightfully deserve contempt. But it doesn't mean that you should expect the layman to use it in common parlance. Either "Unwanted popup / popover" and even "popup" / "popover" is a far sensible desc…

> The problem with that is it cannot be used towards people outside of this tech bubble and would just confuse them.

Doubtful ... where did that odd notion spring from?

> It would even fail many profanity filters in chats and forums.

Perhaps in LDS or uber Christian pearl clutching circles, it's absolutely milquetoast in UK / AU Commonwealth English cultures.

eg: UK public broadcast TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbSqdSKaXTw

> But it doesn't mean that you should expect the layman to use it in common parlance.

I'm pretty sure that horse bolted long ago.

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