Rant: Sites that want to take over your info

Halvar · 01 Jun 2016, 11:39

Ok, that's not too bad then, I agree with educating the lazy ones.

Muirium · 01 Jun 2016, 12:06

So how best to do that? My manual nagging seems to have had a limited impact. Some just get cross and push back! Most simply do not notice. The kind of users who don't even notice the ad at the bottom of every post they're writing with an app often aren't the kind of folk to follow topics closely and engage.

I say automation. If banning their app forum-wide is too much, can we automatically refuse posts which include their ad? It's a pretty simple regex.

Making the feedback at the instant of posting would also actually tell people there's something going on. My delayed nagging (no I am not in fact a script on DT's server!) easily passes unnoticed.

seebart · 01 Jun 2016, 12:15

Muirium wrote: I say automation. If banning their app forum-wide is too much, can we automatically refuse posts which include their ad? It's a pretty simple regex.

Fine, but be kind enough to tell them why their post is being refused. A juicy one-liner Mu...

Muirium · 01 Jun 2016, 12:24

Hello Tapatalk user! Thanks for posting to Deskthority. We like to keep dirty spam off our clean forum so we'd appreciate it if you changed your settings to turn off that stupid signature they added to your post. Cheers!

A one liner is tricky, because there's a bit of explanation required while still being welcoming and accommodating the fact this spam isn't the user's fault. Allowing it to remain, however, is.

Also, re: your comic. That word doesn't belong to you. No bashing identity! Edit: Gone, thanks!

andrewjoy · 01 Jun 2016, 12:24

I can see the value of taptalk a few years ago , but phones are so powerful nowadays just use the web browser

seebart · 01 Jun 2016, 12:27

Muirium wrote: Hello Tapatalk user! Thanks for posting to Deskthority. We like to keep dirty spam off our clean forum so we'd appreciate it if you changed your settings to turn off that stupid signature they added to your post. Cheers!

Sure, that's more than polite and informative.

chuckdee · 01 Jun 2016, 14:06

chzel wrote:Just once.

Per device if you didn't make an account. What are these ads you speak of? I don't have any ads in my instance.

chzel · 01 Jun 2016, 15:07

I get ads among the posts, but I can't find an example right now, either because I'm not on wifi, or something else. I'll post a screenshot when I get one

cookie · 01 Jun 2016, 18:38

elecplus wrote: I just did a Google search for something, and the answer was on something called Quora.com. You have to be at least 13 and sign in with Google or Facebook. Hmm. Signed in with Google, and it said it wants to manage my contacts. What? No way! So I said decline, and it refused to let me see the answer. What kind of shit is this? According to Wikipedia, it is a rapidly growing public website with the best questions and answers. If people valued their privacy at all, this thing would never have gotten off the ground.

This is basically a piece of Pinterest like cockblocking asshole site with catchy content but with said "registration cockblock" I fucking hate this shit! My google picture search goes that way: -site:www.pinterest.com <search term>

You can add this to your regular search as well I guess: -site:www.quora.com <search term>

You're welcome

JBert · 06 Jun 2016, 11:01

andrewjoy wrote: I can see the value of taptalk a few years ago , but phones are so powerful nowadays just use the web browser

Deskthority is one of the few forums I regularly visit which don't have a mobile CSS.

Unsurprisingly it is unusable when the mobile browser tries to layout the page like it would on a PC's widescreen when it is tilted: the user info on the left is shrunk so that it's pointless, and the content tries to fill 2/3 of the screen width in a tiny font. I constantly have to zoom in and out to read the content, then read who actually posted it and when.

So until webwit finishes his CSS prototype I think the use of Tapatalk is still relevant for anybody who surfs this forum with anything smaller than a tablet. I don't want Tapatalk so I just ignore the forum on most days instead.

scottc · 06 Jun 2016, 11:26

Yeah, honestly, trying to send PMs on DT on mobile is terrible currently. If you type enough text it spills down past the submit button which makes submitting or editing anything you've written pretty difficult. I still deal with it instead of pandering to Tapatalk's bullshit, though.

Muirium · 06 Jun 2016, 11:31

Ninja'd by Scott, update after my counterpoint:

Speak for yourself. Most of my reading and writing on DT is from my iPhone (6s Plus). No apps, just my browser. Love it.

If we had a shitty "what the fuck is this: WAP?" mobile CSS, as you say, then I'd need to disable it for my account. Too many sites like to load that bollocks on my phone, and then make it awkward to disable. Puts me off visiting them, full stop.

Now, about PMs: yeah, composing them is more awkward on the iPhone than the rest of DT's desktop interface. I could see that screen being improved. Not sure how, but it's pretty rough compared to general Quick Reply / regular post composition on DT. Most of my PMs are one liners as a result. Which explains this problem, when I put off answering them till I'm at my desk:

deskthority-f17/mark-as-unread-t13816.h ... k%20unread

scottc · 06 Jun 2016, 11:32

That's hilarious because I had that whole spiel written and sitting here waiting for about 10-15 minutes while I was catching up on e-mails.

Muirium · 06 Jun 2016, 11:35

You've suddenly got me imagining DT Live: an asynchronous interface where we can all see what everyone is typing in these post compose boxes, as they do it. In my case, you'd see a lot cursor movement where I strip down / double up the swearing just before I hit Submit…

andrewjoy · 06 Jun 2016, 16:13

Muirium wrote: Ninja'd by Scott, update after my counterpoint:

Speak for yourself. Most of my reading and writing on DT is from my iPhone (6s Plus). No apps, just my browser. Love it.

If we had a shitty "what the fuck is this: WAP?" mobile CSS, as you say, then I'd need to disable it for my account. Too many sites like to load that bollocks on my phone, and then make it awkward to disable. Puts me off visiting them, full stop.

Now, about PMs: yeah, composing them is more awkward on the iPhone than the rest of DT's desktop interface. I could see that screen being improved. Not sure how, but it's pretty rough compared to general Quick Reply / regular post composition on DT. Most of my PMs are one liners as a result. Which explains this problem, when I put off answering them till I'm at my desk:

deskthority-f17/mark-as-unread-t13816.h ... k%20unread

I agree , i hate it when something loads the mobile version of a site, some of us have phones with a decent screen and processor ! Its not 2006 anymore we don't have to cater for the original iphones , nokia N95s and that crap samsung called an OS back before they went full android!

elecplus · 06 Jun 2016, 17:39

It is even worse when the mobile site and the desktop site don't show the same info! We were apartment hunting recently, and I was using the tablet, and my husband was at the desktop. I found an interesting site, and was looking at the floorplans. I asked my husband to do the same, but the desktop site did not have the link for the floorplans. Very strange!