I am getting sooooo sick of the Web...

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
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Upstate New York
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Geek on the Hill
< rant >

Is there some new rule I haven't heard of that requires that almost every site you visit pop some obstacle in your path before you're allowed to browse the site, and make it as difficult as possible to view the content?

I am soooo sick of being stopped in my path by offers to sign up for a newsletter, complete a survey, have a "live chat" session, apply for a credit card, receive special offers, accumulate loyalty points, or get a discount coupon emailed to me in return for providing my email address and phone number -- even before I've had a chance to find out what the hell kind of **** the site sells -- that I'm seriously considering doing what little is left of my Christmas shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The Web has simply become too annoying.

I mean, seriously, what is wrong with the people designing these sites? Have they lost their minds?

Consider this: What would people do if they walked into a physical store and were physically prevented from looking around by a burly guy who demanded their email address or phone number first, and who moved left and right every time they tried to get around him to make sure they couldn't? Most people would walk out -- as well they should. So why do so many Web designers seem to believe that putting the same sorts of obstacles in the paths of online visitors makes any more sense than a burly dude in a physical store would?

Even worse, many of these idiots go to great lengths to make their sites mobile-friendly -- EXCEPT for the scripts that obscure the entire page with some idiotic newsletter sign-up or similar request and that CAN'T BE CLOSED ON A MOBILE SCREEN! The "X" is somewhere outside of the viewport! Sometimes you can refresh the page and get to the content, but more often you can't.

Don't these bozos bother to test their pages? I test mine on eight browsers. They may not all render quite how I would like, but at least you can read the friggin content.

And then there are those annoying "Social" buttons that are statically positioned to obscure the text so you have to read around them no matter how you scroll. They're annoying enough on a desktop, but on a mobile device, they make some pages unreadable. Is there some new Web design philosophy that making it impossible to read your content is good for business? Why not put the buttons in the footer or off to the side somewhere so they're not in the way?

I am absolutely getting sick of being a user of the Web. I'm not the world's greatest Web designer and have never claimed to be. But at least I don't intentionally and actively push my visitors away.

< /rant >

Rich
 
It's all about making money.

If you don't like the pop-ups, they really don't want you using the site. Promote, promote, promote.

Most of those things are essentially advertising - if you get the newsletter, you get the ads.
 
It's all about making money.

If you don't like the pop-ups, they really don't want you using the site. Promote, promote, promote.

Most of those things are essentially advertising - if you get the newsletter, you get the ads.

I understand that on an advertising-supported site. But on an actual e-commerce site that actually sells stuff for an actual company? They're supposed to be making money off merchandise, not advertising.

I mean, seriously, if I'm already there, then probably I have at least a passing interest in buying something from them. I already found their site. They don't need to advertise it to me. I'm already there. So why push me away?

It really makes no sense to me.

Rich
 
I understand that on an advertising-supported site. But on an actual e-commerce site that actually sells stuff for an actual company? They're supposed to be making money off merchandise, not advertising.

I mean, seriously, if I'm already there, then probably I have at least a passing interest in buying something from them. I already found their site. They don't need to advertise it to me. I'm already there. So why push me away?

It really makes no sense to me.

Rich

A lot of them do make money on advertising. "Product Placement". And the advertising drives upsell of the merchandise.

Makes perfect sense.

I don't like it, but it's one way they make money for selling the products at a discount or monetize the sales channel. Think of it like credit card offers by the flight attendants on your next airline flight.
 
I feel your pain.

Sometimes I get sucked in to one of these photo sequence sites because the content looks interesting, and it's like click, click, click, click, click, then the next photo advances.

F that.
 
I just decided I didn't feel like driving to Kingston and would just give Amazon gift cards as my last five gifts. Three of them are for relatives' kids who probably prefer the gift cards anyway, and the other two are add-on gifts for my parents. My other adult relatives and I stopped exchanging gifts other than bottles of wine years ago. We only buy gifts for the kids in the family.

So now my Christmas shopping is officially over. Start to finish, it took me less than 90 seconds on Amazon to order the gift cards -- and I get free shipping for being a Prime member plus five percent back for using their plastic. They'll arrive Monday, well before I need them for Christmas. Problem solved, no gas burned, and no annoying popups.

Oh, that more sites were like Amazon's. They're crazy scary in terms of their tracking and how well they know my tastes, but at least they make spending money a bit less painful for me. A little bit, anyway.

Rich
 
< rant >

Is there some new rule I haven't heard of that requires that almost every site you visit pop some obstacle in your path before you're allowed to browse the site, and make it as difficult as possible to view the content?

I am soooo sick of being stopped in my path by offers to sign up for a newsletter, complete a survey, have a "live chat" session, apply for a credit card, receive special offers, accumulate loyalty points, or get a discount coupon emailed to me in return for providing my email address and phone number -- even before I've had a chance to find out what the hell kind of **** the site sells -- that I'm seriously considering doing what little is left of my Christmas shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. The Web has simply become too annoying.

I mean, seriously, what is wrong with the people designing these sites? Have they lost their minds?

Consider this: What would people do if they walked into a physical store and were physically prevented from looking around by a burly guy who demanded their email address or phone number first, and who moved left and right every time they tried to get around him to make sure they couldn't? Most people would walk out -- as well they should. So why do so many Web designers seem to believe that putting the same sorts of obstacles in the paths of online visitors makes any more sense than a burly dude in a physical store would?

Even worse, many of these idiots go to great lengths to make their sites mobile-friendly -- EXCEPT for the scripts that obscure the entire page with some idiotic newsletter sign-up or similar request and that CAN'T BE CLOSED ON A MOBILE SCREEN! The "X" is somewhere outside of the viewport! Sometimes you can refresh the page and get to the content, but more often you can't.

Don't these bozos bother to test their pages? I test mine on eight browsers. They may not all render quite how I would like, but at least you can read the friggin content.

And then there are those annoying "Social" buttons that are statically positioned to obscure the text so you have to read around them no matter how you scroll. They're annoying enough on a desktop, but on a mobile device, they make some pages unreadable. Is there some new Web design philosophy that making it impossible to read your content is good for business? Why not put the buttons in the footer or off to the side somewhere so they're not in the way?

I am absolutely getting sick of being a user of the Web. I'm not the world's greatest Web designer and have never claimed to be. But at least I don't intentionally and actively push my visitors away.

< /rant >

Rich

Not that I disagree, but don't you make your living placing ads on websites? It's not that things are really different from the 90s pop up ads, we've just run out of 'thwart', but since May of 1978 when Gary Thuerk from DEC sent the first Spam, the Internet has been about making money directly and has been annoying people since. Your own industry annoys you.:rofl:
 
For us youngsters, getting to what we want becomes robotic. We "zone out" until we get to the destination. If the subtle adverts aren't working, they get more aggressive. I expect to be bombarded with adverts and block or close them all as if they were a simple hurdle to get to where I want.

Also, AdBlock.

For those of you that ready every word, I can see how it would become incredibly irritating.
 
For us youngsters, getting to what we want becomes robotic. We "zone out" until we get to the destination. If the subtle adverts aren't working, they get more aggressive. I expect to be bombarded with adverts and block or close them all as if they were a simple hurdle to get to where I want.

Also, AdBlock.

For those of you that ready every word, I can see how it would become incredibly irritating.

The problem is, depending on the platform, you may not be able to get past it.
 
Not that I disagree, but don't you make your living placing ads on websites? It's not that things are really different from the 90s pop up ads, we've just run out of 'thwart', but since May of 1978 when Gary Thuerk from DEC sent the first Spam, the Internet has been about making money directly and has been annoying people since. Your own industry annoys you.:rofl:

Some of my sites are ad-supported, but most aren't. I only make maybe a grand to $1.5K a month from ads. The rest of my working income is from work I do maintaining clients' sites.

I don't use popups or any other intrusive devices for ads (or anything else, for that matter); and the social buttons on sites that have them are usually in footers, not plastered in front of the content.

Like I said, I'm not the world's greatest designer. I'd rank myself in the lower third -- and that's probably generous. But I do know enough not to chase away my visitors.

Rich
 
Some of my sites are ad-supported, but most aren't. I only make maybe a grand to $1.5K a month from ads. The rest of my working income is from work I do maintaining clients' sites.

I don't use popups or any other intrusive devices for ads (or anything else, for that matter); and the social buttons on sites that have them are usually in footers, not plastered in front of the content.

Like I said, I'm not the world's greatest designer. I'd rank myself in the lower third -- and that's probably generous. But I do know enough not to chase away my visitors.

Rich

Right, but as Greenspan found out, the market's have no moral limits. Every player is as bad as the worst participant when the market pervades the public. Once you open Pandora's box the result is the same regardless the subject. If you choose to make income in an industry your right to complain about it is directly coupled to your efforts to change it, not how you personally operate. Otherwise you're just another whiny hypocrite.
 
Dang interweb is just CB radio on TV screens. This too shall pass. 10-4 good buddies.
 
Right, but as Greenspan found out, the market's have no moral limits. Every player is as bad as the worst participant when the market pervades the public. Once you open Pandora's box the result is the same regardless the subject. If you choose to make income in an industry your right to complain about it is directly coupled to your efforts to change it, not how you personally operate. Otherwise you're just another whiny hypocrite.

Touché, sir.

Rich
 
I might somewhat tremulously and fairly hypocritically point out that there is a world beyond the internet outside your door.
 
I might somewhat tremulously and fairly hypocritically point out that there is a world beyond the internet outside your door.

Yea but on the internet I'm a pilot.:yes:
 
actually, the web designers are trying to reduce traffic on the servers.

The more people get tee'd off at the P*** Poor design, the fewer people will return just to kick the tires.
 
I think the pop ups of which you speak have a place and a purpose, but I agree they are used far too often and in abrupt fashion.

I also get tired of having to click through ump-teen different pages to read an entire story, just to up the click count on many of the the smaller (and larger for that matter) so called news sites that get linked.
 
I bet Mrs. Finally There never used the words tremulously and hypocritically in the same sentence, so there.

I must admit, that is an impressive and possibly unique accomplishment.

Rich
 
I must admit, that is an impressive and possibly unique accomplishment.

Agree that it is possibly unique...and I think dubious is perhaps a better descriptor than impressive...YMWV
 
I might somewhat tremulously and fairly hypocritically point out that there is a world beyond the internet outside your door.

Might be a disqualifying medical condition.
 
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