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June 2, 2022 8:06 AM Subscribe
yep. Did Ceglowski make this?
edit: nope, @li_guangyi
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:13 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
edit: nope, @li_guangyi
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:13 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
We have really spent billions of dollars and the finest minds of computer coding, SEO-hacking, and design just to re-invent 1998 internet.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:14 AM on June 2, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:14 AM on June 2, 2022 [17 favorites]
Unrealistic because I was allowed to turn off the "necessary cookies"
posted by RobotHero at 8:24 AM on June 2, 2022 [34 favorites]
posted by RobotHero at 8:24 AM on June 2, 2022 [34 favorites]
I hate what the internet has become.
Companies must know how awful this is, right? They just recognize that they have completely broken the user experience. It's hard for me to believe that, profit-wise, it's really worth it.
posted by meese at 8:25 AM on June 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
Companies must know how awful this is, right? They just recognize that they have completely broken the user experience. It's hard for me to believe that, profit-wise, it's really worth it.
posted by meese at 8:25 AM on June 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
Does the "I" bit of the URL imply that there's a different way that other people experience the web now? Has Elon just subscribed to a service that unfucks websites, because he's a god now?
I mean, I'm so close to abandoning email because it's so fucked. News sites are so fucked because Murdoch/NineFax. Without my required work stuff of actually shifting data around, and my apparent ADD, I should just not internet, really.
posted by pompomtom at 8:29 AM on June 2, 2022
I mean, I'm so close to abandoning email because it's so fucked. News sites are so fucked because Murdoch/NineFax. Without my required work stuff of actually shifting data around, and my apparent ADD, I should just not internet, really.
posted by pompomtom at 8:29 AM on June 2, 2022
Accurate, but the back button should redirect you to the homepage instead of actually going back.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 8:29 AM on June 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
posted by evidenceofabsence at 8:29 AM on June 2, 2022 [16 favorites]
Firefox with automatic temporary tabs, plus the "I don't care about cookies" extension does a decent job of dealing with the cookie problem. (Unfortunately it doesn't work on mobile because ff mobile is almost useless, plugins-wise.)
posted by ropeladder at 8:30 AM on June 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by ropeladder at 8:30 AM on June 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
So many small touches that perfectly encapsulate the current experience.
I have become so used to this stuff I barely notice it, and yet once it is pointed out I realise how infuriating and tedious it has made every second of being on the internet.
In a roundabout way it reminds me of R. Crumb's comics and the photos of nondescript street corners he used to illustrate the settings of his comics (link, full of the irritating pop ups, sorry).
Crumb couldn't draw the urban detritus ("traffic lights, power lines, and other infrastructure") that make up the average urban setting without copying from pictures, even though we all see it every day, because it's impossible to draw from imagination or memory.
"“People don’t draw it, all this crap, people don’t focus attention on it because it’s ugly, it’s bleak, it’s depressing,” he says, “The stuff is not created to be visually pleasing and you can’t remember exactly what it looks like. But, this is the world we live in; I wanted my work to reflect that, the background reality of urban life.”
This website has captured the parallel crap making up the "background reality" of the internet.
posted by Probabilitics at 8:34 AM on June 2, 2022 [25 favorites]
I have become so used to this stuff I barely notice it, and yet once it is pointed out I realise how infuriating and tedious it has made every second of being on the internet.
In a roundabout way it reminds me of R. Crumb's comics and the photos of nondescript street corners he used to illustrate the settings of his comics (link, full of the irritating pop ups, sorry).
Crumb couldn't draw the urban detritus ("traffic lights, power lines, and other infrastructure") that make up the average urban setting without copying from pictures, even though we all see it every day, because it's impossible to draw from imagination or memory.
"“People don’t draw it, all this crap, people don’t focus attention on it because it’s ugly, it’s bleak, it’s depressing,” he says, “The stuff is not created to be visually pleasing and you can’t remember exactly what it looks like. But, this is the world we live in; I wanted my work to reflect that, the background reality of urban life.”
This website has captured the parallel crap making up the "background reality" of the internet.
posted by Probabilitics at 8:34 AM on June 2, 2022 [25 favorites]
but the back button should redirect you to the homepage
Nah, the back button should just not work at all. "Back" is for Olds - everything is an app now.
Maybe it should pop up a "the script is asking to close the window" or some other js bullshit half the time.
posted by pompomtom at 8:39 AM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
Nah, the back button should just not work at all. "Back" is for Olds - everything is an app now.
Maybe it should pop up a "the script is asking to close the window" or some other js bullshit half the time.
posted by pompomtom at 8:39 AM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
I had Ghostery turned on when I loaded this page up, so I was very confused at first. Well done!
posted by May Kasahara at 8:41 AM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by May Kasahara at 8:41 AM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
Oh man, this hurt. I think I'm bleeding out my ear a little.
We have really spent billions of dollars and the finest minds of computer coding, SEO-hacking, and design just to re-invent 1998 internet.
I sort of miss those ads where they wanted to make you try to click the moving spider.
posted by Mchelly at 8:42 AM on June 2, 2022 [13 favorites]
We have really spent billions of dollars and the finest minds of computer coding, SEO-hacking, and design just to re-invent 1998 internet.
I sort of miss those ads where they wanted to make you try to click the moving spider.
posted by Mchelly at 8:42 AM on June 2, 2022 [13 favorites]
I hate what the internet has become.
This site is such a great distillation of how bad it is. Maybe needs to add some autoplaying video that isn't relevant to what you clicked on and which continues to other irrelevant videos after the first is done.
And web browsing is even worse on a phone. I am very lazy, but I have been sitting on the couch and realized I needed to spend some time in a web browser and decided to instead get up, walk downstairs to my office, wake up my sleeping computer, and use my desktop just because it is so much better than using a web browser on a phone.
posted by msbrauer at 8:43 AM on June 2, 2022 [22 favorites]
This site is such a great distillation of how bad it is. Maybe needs to add some autoplaying video that isn't relevant to what you clicked on and which continues to other irrelevant videos after the first is done.
And web browsing is even worse on a phone. I am very lazy, but I have been sitting on the couch and realized I needed to spend some time in a web browser and decided to instead get up, walk downstairs to my office, wake up my sleeping computer, and use my desktop just because it is so much better than using a web browser on a phone.
posted by msbrauer at 8:43 AM on June 2, 2022 [22 favorites]
Maybe needs to add some autoplaying video that isn't relevant to what you clicked on and which continues to other irrelevant videos after the first is done.
A news article that is actually a transcription of a TV news broadcast, and the article's header is a video of the broadcast, which then scrolls down the side of the screen as you scroll through the text of the article.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:48 AM on June 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
A news article that is actually a transcription of a TV news broadcast, and the article's header is a video of the broadcast, which then scrolls down the side of the screen as you scroll through the text of the article.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:48 AM on June 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
I don't understand?
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:50 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by tiny frying pan at 8:50 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Far too subtle and nuanced given my experience...
posted by jim in austin at 8:51 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 8:51 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
The header should expand and contract at random times, sometimes obscuring the content, and sometimes pushing it down and back up. Also additional ads should appear inline as I scroll, somehow always right at the paragraph I'm reading, causing the text to bounce around incessantly and making scrolling all jumpy.
Also for the truest Modern Web Experience, the headline of the article should indicate it is about the "something" I searched for, like "2022 (June update) - highest rated something for CONNECTICUT, USA" but the article itself should beat around the bush and never actually say anything useful about something at all. Despite this, the article is #1 on google, who has finally thrown out "pagerank" and replaced it with "whatever page would earn us the most money if we trick you into clicking on it rank".
posted by steveminutillo at 8:56 AM on June 2, 2022 [40 favorites]
Also for the truest Modern Web Experience, the headline of the article should indicate it is about the "something" I searched for, like "2022 (June update) - highest rated something for CONNECTICUT, USA" but the article itself should beat around the bush and never actually say anything useful about something at all. Despite this, the article is #1 on google, who has finally thrown out "pagerank" and replaced it with "whatever page would earn us the most money if we trick you into clicking on it rank".
posted by steveminutillo at 8:56 AM on June 2, 2022 [40 favorites]
Companies must know how awful this is, right?
Guess what happens when you make one group of people responsible for making content, another group of people responsible for site design, and several other competing groups of people responsible for monetizing the content in various ways — oh, and a group of people responsible for making sure everything is lawsuit-proof.
posted by heyitsgogi at 8:56 AM on June 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
Guess what happens when you make one group of people responsible for making content, another group of people responsible for site design, and several other competing groups of people responsible for monetizing the content in various ways — oh, and a group of people responsible for making sure everything is lawsuit-proof.
posted by heyitsgogi at 8:56 AM on June 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
Howling with laughter, seeing this after staying up to 3 AM updating in bare HTML my personal home page (which I shall not link), while cackling about things like “CSS”. I’m really just delighted by how well it nevertheless renders on a smartphone.
If it’s the web 1998 again, doesn’t that mean the bubble is right around the corner?
posted by Verg at 9:00 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
If it’s the web 1998 again, doesn’t that mean the bubble is right around the corner?
posted by Verg at 9:00 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
Also by show of hands, who here has the old “non-professional” blue Metafilter theme turned on?
posted by Verg at 9:11 AM on June 2, 2022 [152 favorites]
posted by Verg at 9:11 AM on June 2, 2022 [152 favorites]
If only we knew how to get people to pay for articles they wanted to read online, or if only we could imagine a better model where the online content didn’t have to make money.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:15 AM on June 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by Going To Maine at 9:15 AM on June 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
Also there was no auto-playing video with loud embarrassing audio, even though I've disabled that in my browser (I thought?), the page never once asked for my location or to access my microphone, and none of the yes/no popups were insulting. You know, like "Subscribe to our newsletter! [Yes Please!] [No I prefer to wallow in freakish misery forever]"
posted by steveminutillo at 9:17 AM on June 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by steveminutillo at 9:17 AM on June 2, 2022 [5 favorites]
I searched something...
Ad Something that's kind of relevant if you buy our thing
Ad Something else that's almost relevant but not quite
Ad Yet another ad.
Video A youtube explanation of something
Actual result (which is still the nightmare site they depict, but also with markov-generated, nearly meaningless "content" about something.)
posted by condour75 at 9:19 AM on June 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
Ad Something that's kind of relevant if you buy our thing
Ad Something else that's almost relevant but not quite
Ad Yet another ad.
Video A youtube explanation of something
Actual result (which is still the nightmare site they depict, but also with markov-generated, nearly meaningless "content" about something.)
posted by condour75 at 9:19 AM on June 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
I feel seen.
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 9:22 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by SonInLawOfSam at 9:22 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
> If it’s the web 1998 again, doesn’t that mean the bubble is right around the corner?
That was when I turned down the AOL job that might have made me a millionaire in favor of doing something cool instead of figuring out how to make people look at popup ads.
Maybe this time I should take the money and run.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 9:44 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
That was when I turned down the AOL job that might have made me a millionaire in favor of doing something cool instead of figuring out how to make people look at popup ads.
Maybe this time I should take the money and run.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 9:44 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'm using Brave, which blocks most stuff, so I think I missed something.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:44 AM on June 2, 2022
posted by kirkaracha at 9:44 AM on June 2, 2022
Cookies have evolved from a pain in the ass to a giant in-your-face pain in the ass. Using them to stalk us silently was bad enough, but now every goddamn site has a notice not to sell my personal information, the opt-out screens are often maliciously designed to be confusing, and even if you opt out, they still track you.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:48 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by kirkaracha at 9:48 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
Before the invention of the cookie banner: Every site had my implicit permission to track me.
After the invention of the cookie banner: Every site has my explicit permission to track me.
posted by steveminutillo at 9:57 AM on June 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
After the invention of the cookie banner: Every site has my explicit permission to track me.
posted by steveminutillo at 9:57 AM on June 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
So painful, so true.
posted by lock robster at 10:06 AM on June 2, 2022
posted by lock robster at 10:06 AM on June 2, 2022
Also by show of hands, who here has the old “non-professional” blue Metafilter theme turned on?
Who still uses LoFi Metafilter?
the opt-out screens are often maliciously designed to be confusing, and even if you opt out, they still track you
Cookie opt-outs remind me of when they bundled browser toolbars with downloadable software. "How can get people to click the opposite of what they want?"
posted by mrgrimm at 10:27 AM on June 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
Who still uses LoFi Metafilter?
the opt-out screens are often maliciously designed to be confusing, and even if you opt out, they still track you
Cookie opt-outs remind me of when they bundled browser toolbars with downloadable software. "How can get people to click the opposite of what they want?"
posted by mrgrimm at 10:27 AM on June 2, 2022 [9 favorites]
We have really spent billions of dollars and the finest minds of computer coding, SEO-hacking, and design just to re-invent 1998 internet.
BUT NOW IT'S ON THE BLOCKCHAIN
posted by chavenet at 10:27 AM on June 2, 2022 [17 favorites]
BUT NOW IT'S ON THE BLOCKCHAIN
posted by chavenet at 10:27 AM on June 2, 2022 [17 favorites]
Really enjoyed that when I clicked to play a video pop up, it said “Sorry, this content is not available in your country.” Ahhhhh I feel seen as a non-American.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:30 AM on June 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:30 AM on June 2, 2022 [18 favorites]
Hah! My cookie consent blocker blocked their cookie consent banner. I thought the gag ended at the blurred out page with no modal.
Totally missing from the otherwise completely accurate portrayal of the commercialized web is the hovering header that either lingers forever in all its preposterously oversized glory or, more infuriatingly, tries to auto hide on scroll but manages to reassert itself directly over the line of text you are reading on the slightest scrollback.
I'm getting to the point where I'm just going to run all traffic through a privoxy, disable CSS or maybe switch back to w3m.
posted by majick at 10:42 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
Totally missing from the otherwise completely accurate portrayal of the commercialized web is the hovering header that either lingers forever in all its preposterously oversized glory or, more infuriatingly, tries to auto hide on scroll but manages to reassert itself directly over the line of text you are reading on the slightest scrollback.
I'm getting to the point where I'm just going to run all traffic through a privoxy, disable CSS or maybe switch back to w3m.
posted by majick at 10:42 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
And web browsing is even worse on a phone.
So annoying, how sites must be 'optimized' for the smart-phone crowd. I never use my cel for that, and wish you'd all stop too, and go back to your laptops for the wwweb, as God intended.
Also by show of hands, who here has the old “non-professional” blue Metafilter theme turned on?
The show of hands I want to see is, who's got your title font size set to zero, so you can enjoy classic, no-titles MetaFilter?
posted by Rash at 10:44 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
So annoying, how sites must be 'optimized' for the smart-phone crowd. I never use my cel for that, and wish you'd all stop too, and go back to your laptops for the wwweb, as God intended.
Also by show of hands, who here has the old “non-professional” blue Metafilter theme turned on?
The show of hands I want to see is, who's got your title font size set to zero, so you can enjoy classic, no-titles MetaFilter?
posted by Rash at 10:44 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
Rash: lofi omits titles.
I use the lofi on my portables on the longboats and late at night with the colors inverted. And I can read and read and bury myself in everyone's smart takes and be extra para-social. Pure ADHD sugar.
posted by zenon at 11:22 AM on June 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
I use the lofi on my portables on the longboats and late at night with the colors inverted. And I can read and read and bury myself in everyone's smart takes and be extra para-social. Pure ADHD sugar.
posted by zenon at 11:22 AM on June 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
To really complete the effect, my virus scan just made me restart the computer. No wonder our stress levels are so high.
posted by Acey at 11:30 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Acey at 11:30 AM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I just tried it on my phone, but was disappointed it didn't include a giant "download the app for a better experience" banner.
Metafilter is one of a few sites that works perfectly fine on my phone.
posted by RobotHero at 11:36 AM on June 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
Metafilter is one of a few sites that works perfectly fine on my phone.
posted by RobotHero at 11:36 AM on June 2, 2022 [12 favorites]
Missing: thing you want to click on is x number of pixels down the page, you click in that area and just as you do, a delayed-loading ad appears in that space, tricking you into opening that instead of the thing you wanted.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:38 AM on June 2, 2022 [21 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:38 AM on June 2, 2022 [21 favorites]
in the book contact, by carl sagan, the billionaire who helps ellie arroway fund the building of the alien device got his fortune by figuring out the best way to block ads for people
i'm glad ublock is free
posted by i used to be someone else at 11:51 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
i'm glad ublock is free
posted by i used to be someone else at 11:51 AM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
They failed by not using redirects so that when you click on a link, you get the specific content you wanted, but the back button takes you to the article's website's front page which is full of garbage you don't want to see.
Or, scrolling acts like you've clicked a "next" button so if you scroll through the whole article you have you hit 'back' five times to get to where you came from.
Or, every video (which is poorly described so you're not sure if you want to watch it) starts with the same minute-long snackfood/alcohol/car ad that you can't skip.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:59 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
Or, scrolling acts like you've clicked a "next" button so if you scroll through the whole article you have you hit 'back' five times to get to where you came from.
Or, every video (which is poorly described so you're not sure if you want to watch it) starts with the same minute-long snackfood/alcohol/car ad that you can't skip.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:59 AM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
I have been noticing this a lot more lately - the internet is basically broken!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:06 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:06 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
The disturbing part of this is that it feels like a actual template/mock-up to build a real-world site in 2022.
posted by UN at 12:14 PM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by UN at 12:14 PM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
It's hard for me to believe that, profit-wise, it's really worth it.
You're not the people the advertising agencies try to convince that it is.
The advertising racket is all about the telling of barefaced lies for money, and the first and most insidious lie that any of them ever sells is that they actually have something worthwhile to offer: "Nice little business you've got here. It would be a shame if nobody ever heard of you."
Advertising is a parasitic infection on the parasitic infection that is late-stage capitalism, and the frankly insane amounts of money that advertising's cocaine-addled rentiers extract from everything the rest of us do amounts to an entirely unjustifiable form of privatized taxation.
posted by flabdablet at 12:35 PM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
You're not the people the advertising agencies try to convince that it is.
The advertising racket is all about the telling of barefaced lies for money, and the first and most insidious lie that any of them ever sells is that they actually have something worthwhile to offer: "Nice little business you've got here. It would be a shame if nobody ever heard of you."
Advertising is a parasitic infection on the parasitic infection that is late-stage capitalism, and the frankly insane amounts of money that advertising's cocaine-addled rentiers extract from everything the rest of us do amounts to an entirely unjustifiable form of privatized taxation.
posted by flabdablet at 12:35 PM on June 2, 2022 [7 favorites]
I use Firefox + NoScript for most browsing. NoScript initially blocks ALL Javascript (which is resonsible for most of the chaos), and then you can meticulously allow (Temporarily!) the bits of JS needed to actually let the site function.
Everything with "cdn" in the name allow, everything with "ad" or "personalize" or "chart", "count", etc, leave blocked. This can take some back-and-forth but it's worth it to me because I rarely see nightmares like the sample site linked at the head of this post.
Alternatively, Firefox has a little button you can click in the address bar shaped like a sheet of paper icon 📄 - this will render JUST the HTML in the page and is very useful in showing only "the article I want to read"
posted by mmrtnt at 12:47 PM on June 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
Everything with "cdn" in the name allow, everything with "ad" or "personalize" or "chart", "count", etc, leave blocked. This can take some back-and-forth but it's worth it to me because I rarely see nightmares like the sample site linked at the head of this post.
Alternatively, Firefox has a little button you can click in the address bar shaped like a sheet of paper icon 📄 - this will render JUST the HTML in the page and is very useful in showing only "the article I want to read"
posted by mmrtnt at 12:47 PM on June 2, 2022 [8 favorites]
This seems normal and that makes me sad.
*puts hand up for non-professional blue background*
posted by dg at 1:36 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
*puts hand up for non-professional blue background*
posted by dg at 1:36 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
I often use my old, original iPad Air for casual browsing. Over the past year, I’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of websites that crash in my equally-old version of Safari. Safari itself doesn’t crash. It’s something on the sites themselves that don’t play nice with Safari, and websites just crash and try to reload.
I’m assuming it’s some new script/whatever that all the cool web-dev kids are using. I’m sure it has nothing to do with any actual, usable content on the site, and is something running underneath to do some sort of analytics/tracking thing. Remember kids, you can’t spell “analytics” without “anal”.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:16 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m assuming it’s some new script/whatever that all the cool web-dev kids are using. I’m sure it has nothing to do with any actual, usable content on the site, and is something running underneath to do some sort of analytics/tracking thing. Remember kids, you can’t spell “analytics” without “anal”.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:16 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
'Y?' 'Anal tics.'
posted by dg at 2:37 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by dg at 2:37 PM on June 2, 2022 [2 favorites]
And web browsing is even worse on a phone.
I rediscover this every time I go to look up a recipe while cooking and have to spend minutes of my time frantically collapsing ads and embedded videos before they start playing, then I get to squint at the 2 lines of text I can see of the actual recipe between the ads I couldn't get rid of. I don't know why recipe sites specifically are the worst for this.
posted by fight or flight at 3:30 PM on June 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
I rediscover this every time I go to look up a recipe while cooking and have to spend minutes of my time frantically collapsing ads and embedded videos before they start playing, then I get to squint at the 2 lines of text I can see of the actual recipe between the ads I couldn't get rid of. I don't know why recipe sites specifically are the worst for this.
posted by fight or flight at 3:30 PM on June 2, 2022 [4 favorites]
I regret to inform you that the 2 lines of text of the "actual recipe" are, in fact, the start of a long and pointless anecdote.
posted by condour75 at 4:21 PM on June 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by condour75 at 4:21 PM on June 2, 2022 [6 favorites]
...and all the embedded videos destroy my phone's battery. Can't tell you the number of times I've looked up a recipe on my phone just to double-check the amounts of ingredients while I'm cooking, and within minutes my phone is dead and I need to go find my computer anyway and set it up on the counter.
posted by chaiyai at 4:30 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by chaiyai at 4:30 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is why I have multiple ad blocking extensions and a pi-hole on my local network.
posted by SansPoint at 5:50 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by SansPoint at 5:50 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Also by show of hands, who here has the old “non-professional” blue Metafilter theme turned on?
With Monospace as the default font as the good web intended
posted by JoeXIII007 at 5:55 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
With Monospace as the default font as the good web intended
posted by JoeXIII007 at 5:55 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
Tor's website has a great quote on their Frequently Asked Questions page: "Only criminals have privacy right now, and we need to fix that." And a few years ago, I learned that The New York Times also publishes on the dark web. I thought that was really cool.
I wonder if there's another way to fight this massive data collection besides ad-blocking. Can users take actions to maximize uncertainty and make it harder to make inferences about them using their data? Maybe render a no-script webpage instance for me, and feed garbage data into their servers with a parallel browser instance to make it harder to find correlations? My browser size is 1 pixel x 9,000,000 pixels, and my language is Klingon! Anything to increase dimensionality and make them work harder.
posted by chinesefood at 6:30 PM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
I wonder if there's another way to fight this massive data collection besides ad-blocking. Can users take actions to maximize uncertainty and make it harder to make inferences about them using their data? Maybe render a no-script webpage instance for me, and feed garbage data into their servers with a parallel browser instance to make it harder to find correlations? My browser size is 1 pixel x 9,000,000 pixels, and my language is Klingon! Anything to increase dimensionality and make them work harder.
posted by chinesefood at 6:30 PM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
> And web browsing is even worse on a phone.
If you have Android, pay the $2 for Naked Browser Pro (there's a free version, but paying means you can export and import bookmarks as a text file, which is amazing for convenient backups), open it, tap the button to turn off JavaScript, and browse away. It's my main browser on my phone.
I keep Firefox around for things that actually require JavaScript, but most web browsing doesn't.
posted by Ahniya at 7:26 PM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
If you have Android, pay the $2 for Naked Browser Pro (there's a free version, but paying means you can export and import bookmarks as a text file, which is amazing for convenient backups), open it, tap the button to turn off JavaScript, and browse away. It's my main browser on my phone.
I keep Firefox around for things that actually require JavaScript, but most web browsing doesn't.
posted by Ahniya at 7:26 PM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
Chinesefood, unfortunately I think that would just be making you more unique, unless it's changing it up for every new page you move to.
posted by jellywerker at 7:33 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by jellywerker at 7:33 PM on June 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
The root of these problems is Google.
They earn with each accidental embedded ad click. They don't pay sites much per banner, so sites trying to earn from ads plaster their sites with it. To track users obsessively, they want analytics and other tracking code that then required cookie banner popups. They don't earn from sites that don't track and don't use ads all over the place — so they promote sites that do instead, and punish those that don't (there are some EU court cases about this). And so on and so on.
Break up the monopolies, we'll have a better internet.
posted by UN at 11:50 PM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
They earn with each accidental embedded ad click. They don't pay sites much per banner, so sites trying to earn from ads plaster their sites with it. To track users obsessively, they want analytics and other tracking code that then required cookie banner popups. They don't earn from sites that don't track and don't use ads all over the place — so they promote sites that do instead, and punish those that don't (there are some EU court cases about this). And so on and so on.
Break up the monopolies, we'll have a better internet.
posted by UN at 11:50 PM on June 2, 2022 [3 favorites]
(I mostly don’t see ads with Safari on an iPhone. A pi-hole helps, but I think B that setting up an ad block extension is what really had an impact. YMMV.)
posted by Going To Maine at 1:12 AM on June 3, 2022
posted by Going To Maine at 1:12 AM on June 3, 2022
This is great and makes me think it will be hard to explain to my kids why the WWW was ever considered cool or why they should use it.
posted by johngoren at 1:19 AM on June 3, 2022
posted by johngoren at 1:19 AM on June 3, 2022
Recently, Facebook (I refuse to call the thing “Meta”) has launched a song-and-dance ad extolling the virtuous, life-changing goodness of personalized advertising. It’s kind of horrifying, really. Just let us mine everything about you, and we’ll tell you about this vegan bakery in town.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:59 AM on June 3, 2022
posted by Thorzdad at 1:59 AM on June 3, 2022
Well ... we got exactly what we asked for. Remember all that talk about how the internet was a separate place where everything was available for free, and the old rules for constructing and maintaining a society did not apply?
The internet we've got 20 years later is exactly the kind of dysfunctional public space that these illusions will give us. Instead, the internet needs to be constructed as a society fit for human life, because it is a society - we are part of the same society online or offline.
posted by Termite at 2:34 AM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
The internet we've got 20 years later is exactly the kind of dysfunctional public space that these illusions will give us. Instead, the internet needs to be constructed as a society fit for human life, because it is a society - we are part of the same society online or offline.
posted by Termite at 2:34 AM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
In case anyone else is as confused as me, it works in a chrome with every extension turned off. (It does nothing at all in any browser I actually use on any device. Which, I guess, is not a coincidence.) This is fun.
posted by eotvos at 7:46 AM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by eotvos at 7:46 AM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Remember all that talk about how the internet was a separate place where everything was available for free, and the old rules for constructing and maintaining a society did not apply?
I think that was the lunatics.
I think I vaguely recall a time when the World Wide Web was a method for accessing documents (including forms), over a standardised communications protocol.
posted by pompomtom at 6:38 AM on June 6, 2022
I think that was the lunatics.
I think I vaguely recall a time when the World Wide Web was a method for accessing documents (including forms), over a standardised communications protocol.
posted by pompomtom at 6:38 AM on June 6, 2022
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posted by grobstein at 8:10 AM on June 2, 2022 [41 favorites]