Internet Pet Peeves

[bmasters9]

On 1/4/2020 at 5:42 PM, WritinMan said:

I started the YouTube app on my TV through my cable system. I get a hint for the remote's audio function to say "search for Kanye West on YouTube" to watch videos.

I don't want to search for Kanye West YouTube! I have never done that. Damn....

I don't think it's actually telling you to do that-- I think it's more offering a suggestion than anything else.

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

On 12/25/2016 at 2:15 AM, Joe said:

Her's something new. Sites that require you to disable adblock to get their content. So you do, and they hit you with two popups and an autoplaying video, just the things you're trying to avoid! I hope whoever is responsible for this abomination dies of a particularly embarassing disease. Hanging is too good for them.

Let's not forget that while a lot of sites ask you to disable your adblocker, the sites requiring it (usually local newspaper sites) invariably have the most obnoxious ads, i.e. autoplaying videos, full-page banners, etc.

[Anduin]

Bloody hell. The new Facebook design is terrible. It looks ugly and removes functionality. If they want to drive people away from the site, then mission successful. Seriously, who thought that abomination was a good idea? I hope they add a retro mode with an actual functional interface.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 8/20/2020 at 8:00 PM, Anduin said:

Bloody hell. The new Facebook design is terrible. It looks ugly and removes functionality. If they want to drive people away from the site, then mission successful. Seriously, who thought that abomination was a good idea? I hope they add a retro mode with an actual functional interface.

Eh, I'd rather they spend their time trying to keep Facebook from destroying democracy.

[StatisticalOutlier]

God damn, the internet has become such a cesspool. 

I ran across a gigantic cooking/recipe website that seems reputable, until you look at the actual recipes, and it's pretty clear they're written by computers.  I noticed that they used a "foreign" sounding name as the author, maybe hoping that readers will think they just don't have a very good command of English.  The name is Friska Arisandhi, and it's clickable.  But if you hover the mouse, the URL is for an author named kang_uchiha, but if you actually click on it, the content is an Author: Friska Arisandhi page, with a photo of a redhaired woman who looks a lot like the "Suzanne" who is the person talked about on the "About" page.

There's a page for "figuring out" Safeway's tres leches cake.  It starts with this: "Who does not love eating tres leches cake Safeway? Everyone knows that Safeway is one of the finest bakeries in California and they have numerous great cakes and desserts to serve to its customers."  And goes on to say, "You do not have to worry about tres leches cake calories because it has fruits on the top to cut down the sugar and calories."

I ran across the site in the first place trying to find out if I can duplicate the sugar cookies at Potbelly sandwich shops.  The site's recipe starts with, "You might wonder how to make Potbelly sugar cookie recipe. This brand has special recipe that brings cookie into different level. People like it and start lining up to buy at the store."  It then gives the ingredients and directions, but jumps back into prose, including this: "Potbelly cookies recipe is easy to make and you only need at least 30 minutes. Baking is only less than ten minutes."

I'm stopping there because I don't want to give them any more clicks, and I don't want my blood pressure to rise any more. 

I first got on the internet in 1995, and marveled at what the possibilities were.  Now I weep about what the reality is.

 

[Blergh]

Re too many YouTubers to even start listing: If you've set up your channel to have lots of pranks to get as many subscribers as possible, don't be surprised if, after X amount of pranks, a large portion of your viewers won't take you seriously after you've had  an actual crisis or meltdown. The Boy Who Cried Wolf fable hasn't been passed down for centuries for no reason!  Either accept that you've trashed your own integrity via the pranks (and that you won't be able to rely on any of the viewership for support or sympathy in serious times) OR renounce and atone for the pranks and 'go and sin no more' if you want viewers to consider supporting you through serious times. 

[Anduin]

Twitter wants me to follow topics now. I don't want to follow any topics. Anyone know how to turn off suggestions?

[Anduin]

When websites get a terrible new interface that reduces functionality. Do the developers actually use the sites they're redesigning? Do the higher-ups who in theory approve of the new design?

[Anduin]

But I'm not peeved when wonky elements of new designs get fixed. I'm actually pretty happy about that sort of development.

[Anduin]

"Aha!" says some internet mogul. "This is an interesting website. I'm going to buy it! Now it's mine, what will I do with it? I'll close it down and recoup exactly none of my money, letting all that hard work and good will go to waste."

I discovered I still had TWOP bookmarked. I decided to try it, expecting... something. What I got, the link timed out. Why?

But in related news, I just discovered something funny. Some old baseball video game generated a list of players, kind of pseudo names. One of those names, Dave Glark. I wonder if that's where our Glark, David T Cole, got it from.

[GaT]

6 hours ago, Anduin said:

I wonder if that's where our Glark, David T Cole, got it from.

Whatever happened to him? He seems to have disappeared when the board became Primetimer.

[Anduin]

13 hours ago, GaT said:

Whatever happened to him? He seems to have disappeared when the board became Primetimer.

The site was bought out by someone else. Looks like he's gone into photography and still has Extra Hot Great going. He's on twitter, but protected. I feel weird about following him just to ask a point of idle curiosity.

[Anduin]

When podcasts have a million different sites where you can stream it, but none let you download it for later listening. Let me download!

[Anduin]

No, Quora, I don't want to follow any topics. I just want to read that question and it answers. I'd rather not even log in if I didn't have to. Just let me read.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Hey!  Bed Bath and Beyond let me log into their website without having to engage in two-step verification!  Huzzah!

All I want is my regular 20% off coupon, to buy a Sodastream CO2 canister.  The only thing I've ever done with my "account."  And for the past year or two it's been REQUIRING two-step verification (getting an email with a code) just to log in.  Didn't even ask me if I wanted the enhanced security to access my 20% off coupon--just started requiring it.  

I was not enjoying the irony of being able to log into my bank account just by using my user name and password, and not being able to log into my BB&B account without getting a code emailed to me.

[Popples]

Twitter now only lets you see a few tweets on accounts if you aren't signed in/have an account yourself. UGH! How long until I can't scroll through the "Trending" topics before this happens there?

[JustHereForFood]

18 hours ago, Popples said:

Twitter now only lets you see a few tweets on accounts if you aren't signed in/have an account yourself. UGH! How long until I can't scroll through the "Trending" topics before this happens there?

This peeves me too. I don't have any desire to sign up there, but I have been checking few profiles to get news about some upcoming TV shows and stuff like that. The way around this that I use is to refresh the page and then quickly scroll through the place where you get that pop-up. If you are quick, it works and you can then scroll through a lot more posts before you get one again.

[Anduin]

I visited FB, and in the last couple of weeks they've managed to make the site even worse. Say what you like about the content, but at least it was technically competent. Now every so often the page will autoscroll down a little, so you miss several posts unless you want to scroll back up again. It's just utterly useless.

[Anduin]

IMDB have a redesign! It looks uglier and reduces functionality. I still don't understand why this keeps happening. Do they want to drive away users?

[Popples]

11 hours ago, Anduin said:

IMDB have a redesign! It looks uglier and reduces functionality. I still don't understand why this keeps happening. Do they want to drive away users?

I just looked and it's so awful. Why does someone always feel the need to fix what isn't broken?

[Anduin]

4 hours ago, Popples said:

I just looked and it's so awful. Why does someone always feel the need to fix what isn't broken?

I know. Endlessly frustrating.

[Anduin]

What the fuck are Google playing at? Removing proper image search entirely. Lens just doesn't work. Are they afraid of success?

Also, does anyone know a plugin, alternative browser, whatever? I just want to find all alternative sizes of an image.

[GaT]

9 hours ago, Anduin said:

What the fuck are Google playing at? Removing proper image search entirely. Lens just doesn't work. Are they afraid of success?

Also, does anyone know a plugin, alternative browser, whatever? I just want to find all alternative sizes of an image.

I have no idea whose idea Google Lens was, but it seriously sucks the big one. I have never been able to find what I was looking for, & the setting for not using it no longer works. If you want to search using Google Images instead, go to the very bottom of the search box that opens on the right side of the screen when you do a search using Google Lens. There's an option to search using Google Images instead & you can get the different sizes that way.

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, GaT said:

I have no idea whose idea Google Lens was, but it seriously sucks the big one. I have never been able to find what I was looking for, & the setting for not using it no longer works. If you want to search using Google Images instead, go to the very bottom of the search box that opens on the right side of the screen when you do a search using Google Lens. There's an option to search using Google Images instead & you can get the different sizes that way.

They seem to have removed that option. That's why I'm so frustrated!

[GaT]

1 hour ago, Anduin said:

They seem to have removed that option. That's why I'm so frustrated!

Crap, you're right, & I tried disabling it again, & it didn't work, even using Bing brings you to Google Lens. 👿

[Anduin]

10 minutes ago, GaT said:

Crap, you're right, & I tried disabling it again, & it didn't work, even using Bing brings you to Google Lens. 👿

Well, at least it isn't me. I wonder if another search engine might move into the abandoned space. If there's a gap in the market, surely someone will fill it.

[Anduin]

Wait! I may have just found a workaround! Until they remove it, of course. You search for an image in lens. It pops up in the side-sidebar. Up the top, it says find image source. This gives you the option to find the image in other sizes. Bit of a process, but for now it's better than nothing.

Also, bing presents the option of seeing an image in different sizes. Bing, the perpetual also-ran. Who knew that at least someone knew what they were doing over there?

[GaT]

4 hours ago, Anduin said:

Wait! I may have just found a workaround! Until they remove it, of course. You search for an image in lens. It pops up in the side-sidebar. Up the top, it says find image source. This gives you the option to find the image in other sizes. Bit of a process, but for now it's better than nothing.

Also, bing presents the option of seeing an image in different sizes. Bing, the perpetual also-ran. Who knew that at least someone knew what they were doing over there?

YES! It never occurred to me to click on find image source, but that does it. I also didn't know about Bing, because I only use that when I want a certain layout which Google never gave you the option for. I'm so glad you found this.

[KWalkerInc]

I'm getting tired of unwanted videos that come up when you're trying to use a site, then pop up again on the side of the screen after you scroll past the initial video.  I'm sure it's to bring more revenue to the sites because the supposed content in the videos is constantly interrupted by ads, but I'd actually probably be less annoyed by ads only.  Like the last few days, whenever I try to look at any page on the Baseball Reference site, they come up with some video totally unrelated to that player or page--like highlights from some game from the day before, or people I don't recognize yammering on about their opinions about various baseball topics.  (When it said their topic was "How did the Cleveland Guardians win the AL Central?" I muttered, "They won more games than the other teams did!" and closed the video.)  Weather.com (on my desktop but not the laptop) also has videos on the side when I'm trying to look at the local forecast. 

The worst though is when I look at an article from a local news station, it insists on having videos of various headlines and doesn't even allow you to close it down.  That is rude, and I don't need to be depressed by reality when I'm just trying to look at their Pet of the Week article!

[Anduin]

26 minutes ago, KWalkerInc said:

I'm getting tired of unwanted videos that come up when you're trying to use a site, then pop up again on the side of the screen after you scroll past the initial video.  I'm sure it's to bring more revenue to the sites because the supposed content in the videos is constantly interrupted by ads, but I'd actually probably be less annoyed by ads only. 

Considering it takes time and effort and bandwidth to create and upload them, you'd think they wouldn't bother making something people don't even want. But no. I agree entirely. Useless and wastes of effort.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 9/28/2022 at 4:25 AM, KWalkerInc said:

The worst though is when I look at an article from a local news station, it insists on having videos of various headlines and doesn't even allow you to close it down. 

I use a laptop.  Recently, I've noticed that the videos that show up unbidden on pages I'm viewing don't have a way for me to stop them from playing.  It's obviously annoying, but worse, I don't have unlimited internet so I can't "afford" to have videos playing willy-nilly.  I'm wrestling with this on IMDB and may have to stop going to that site.  And I think it's happening on Metacritic, too. 

I have my Firefox all ad-blockered up, and sometimes a page won't work on Firefox so I open it in Edge, or worse, Chrome.  Good god, the ads are unbearable.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that if all my internetting had to be done with those ads, I'd just stop using the internet.  And that's saying something, as someone who first logged on in 1995 and thought it was the best thing ever.

[Anduin]

Anyone else get a lot of crypto spam these days? That seems to be all there is. No more viagra, hair regrowth treatments, or especially dodgy porn. Even if China did launch a cryptocurrency, I don't know why anyone would care except for the normal enthusiasts and journalists covering same. I very much doubt any banks would care.

[Anduin]

The balkanisation of twitter. Elon Musk finally takes over, starts making all kinds of stupid decisions. The first front runner in replacement stakes was mastodon, and I signed up there myself. But then people caught wind of cohost. Just when I'm thinking about that, along comes hive. There's also counter social, but that doesn't get a lot of talk in my circles.

You know the big problem with hive? It's phone only. Right now, they don't have a desktop app. Yes, these days most people like to have their social media on their phone. It's nice that that's an option. It shouldn't have to be compulsory. I prefer desktop, thanks.

And who's to say that another great platform won't emerge next week? It's getting ridiculous.

[bmasters9]

On 9/28/2022 at 5:25 AM, KWalkerInc said:

 Like the last few days, whenever I try to look at any page on the Baseball Reference site, they come up with some video totally unrelated to that player or page--like highlights from some game from the day before, or people I don't recognize yammering on about their opinions about various baseball topics.  (When it said their topic was "How did the Cleveland Guardians win the AL Central?" I muttered, "They won more games than the other teams did!" and closed the video.) 

This could be quite annoying if, say, you were looking up more info on the 1986 Mets, and that video was trying to make you be more interested in the baseball of today-- this is, I believe, what you're talking about (I may be incorrect).

[KWalkerInc]

I think all the videos on Baseball Reference are about very recent stories or games, and during the season it's often people talking about betting lines.  There is hardly ever a connection to anything you've looked up.  The worst with the videos was once when I apparently bumped something that turned the volume on when I was trying to close it.  There was suddenly a doorbell ringing, and it happened to be right when I was expecting a package, so I jumped up and opened to door to find nothing.  It was only when I returned and heard a second doorbell that I realized it was coming from an ad on the site.

[omgsowicked]

On 11/12/2022 at 6:50 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

I use a laptop.  Recently, I've noticed that the videos that show up unbidden on pages I'm viewing don't have a way for me to stop them from playing.  It's obviously annoying, but worse, I don't have unlimited internet so I can't "afford" to have videos playing willy-nilly.  I'm wrestling with this on IMDB and may have to stop going to that site.  And I think it's happening on Metacritic, too. 

I have my Firefox all ad-blockered up, and sometimes a page won't work on Firefox so I open it in Edge, or worse, Chrome.  Good god, the ads are unbearable.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that if all my internetting had to be done with those ads, I'd just stop using the internet.  And that's saying something, as someone who first logged on in 1995 and thought it was the best thing ever.

Go to Firefox's settings, click Privacy & Security, then scroll down to Permissions and click the Autoplay settings. (Or just go to the settings page and search for "autoplay".) You can make a global rule to block autoplaying audio and video, but still allow autoplay for other sites, like Youtube, if you want. You'll have to do that when visiting the site in question by clicking on the highlighted icon:

[StatisticalOutlier]

1 hour ago, omgsowicked said:

Go to Firefox's settings,

Bless you, my friend.  I thought I'd done the proper setting, but apparently I hadn't.  It was set only to mute.  Which is nice, but all that does for me is silently gobble up all the data I have.

I just changed the setting and went to Metacritic and for once didn't have to find where to click CRITIC REVIEWS as fast as possible in order to get away from the page with the video.  Sweet relief.

[GaT]

I saw a commercial for a company that makes frames that stick on the wall without damaging it & thought it was interesting, so I went to the site to check it out. Exactly what the company wants, right? Only problem, there's no way to just look at anything because when I tried, I got a message that said something like "tell us all about you" & asked for my name. No way around it, & it looked like it was going to be the 1st in a bunch of questions. No surprise, I just closed out the tab & forgot about it. How can a company try to make you give them personal information just to look at what they sell? I'm assuming that the merchandise isn't even what they really sell, it's your personal information they're making money from. So sick of always having to be on the lookout for internet scams.

Edited November 25, 2022 by GaT

[Anduin]

Apparently I'm over the limit of sending tweets for the day. I've sent three. In fact, I checked the rules. The limit is something like 5,000. Unless someone hacked into my account, sent 5,000 tweets, and then deleted them, I'm safely under.

A part of me wonders if this is connected to having my Mastodon account linked in my profile and pinned tweet. We've seen that Elon is thin-skinned and petty-minded about such things.

Edit: I think it was a glitch, and I wasn't the only one affected. Still, I suspect...

Edited February 8, 2023 by Anduin

[Anduin]

Has Google changed how its image searches work again? Reduced functionality again? It seem to me that if Microsoft want Bing to be successful, they should improve their image search to make up for Google's failure. Show me the picture in as many sizes as you can.

[Anela]

On 2/8/2023 at 5:06 PM, Anduin said:

Apparently I'm over the limit of sending tweets for the day. I've sent three. In fact, I checked the rules. The limit is something like 5,000. Unless someone hacked into my account, sent 5,000 tweets, and then deleted them, I'm safely under.

A part of me wonders if this is connected to having my Mastodon account linked in my profile and pinned tweet. We've seen that Elon is thin-skinned and petty-minded about such things.

Edit: I think it was a glitch, and I wasn't the only one affected. Still, I suspect...

It's been glitchy a lot, over the last few months. 

[Anduin]

12 minutes ago, Anela said:

It's been glitchy a lot, over the last few months. 

That's for sure. Apparently twitter is now only worth a third of what Elon paid for it. How do you lose so much value in such short a time? What the flying fuck is he playing at?

[Spartan Girl]

Now I can’t even look on ANYTHING on Twitter without an account! If this is a ploy from You-Know-Who to get more people to join, it’s not gonna work, at least on me.

Still kind of hoping this is a temporary thing, but that’s what I had hoped about not being able to use the search or look at trends without an account 😤😤😤😤

Edited June 30, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Anduin]

Google have chosen to steal everyone's data in order to fuel their AI development. I just deleted a lot of stuff from my gmail account and redirected a few logins away from them towards other services. Fuck you, Google. This makes me think twice about posting anything online, ever again.

[Anduin]

Maybe I missed something, but it seems that Microsoft Excel doesn't come with a subtract function. This applies to the online version, on office.com . Seriously? Excel is a useful program, but not including something like that is amateur hour. I had to do the regular way, with Windows calculator.

[Anduin]

For reasons I can't fathom, Deviantart has decided to play silly buggers with their main artists I'm watching page. Now it seems to be at https://www.deviantart.com/notifications/watch/deviations . Dropping it here in case anyone else is a little lost.

Also, I discovered Excel does indeed have a subtract function. Only you need to type the formula into the chosen cell. I initially thought that Autosum would handle other types of maths, not just addition. Thus my confusion. It should handle the others, but no.

[SoMuchTV]

Ugh.  It seems like anytime any website or app ever “upgrades” their interface, it just makes makes everything bigger and requires more scrolling to get to what I actually want to see. Currently looking at you, Fitbit, but this applies to pretty much every site ever. 

[Anduin]

24 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Ugh.  It seems like anytime any website or app ever “upgrades” their interface, it just makes makes everything bigger and requires more scrolling to get to what I actually want to see. Currently looking at you, Fitbit, but this applies to pretty much every site ever. 

Is there actually any more functionality, size aside? I find that too many updates make things harder to use in general.

[SoMuchTV]

5 minutes ago, Anduin said:

Is there actually any more functionality, size aside? I find that too many updates make things harder to use in general.

It seems like there was a sweet spot from maybe the mid 20-aughts to the mid 20-teens where websites made it sort of easy to find what you wanted. Then they went with posting a huge picture and saying, keep scrolling, suckah. Oh yeah and get off my lawn!

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

It seems like there was a sweet spot from maybe the mid 20-aughts to the mid 20-teens where websites made it sort of easy to find what you wanted. Then they went with posting a huge picture and saying, keep scrolling, suckah. Oh yeah and get off my lawn!

I feel your pain, so very much!