The web is becoming an annoying garbagefest

[+Warwagon MVC]

5 minutes ago, 0sit0 said:

This! What a rip off! This month I went over my data limit and they basically forced me to pay $30 for unlimited (either that or $10/ 50GB). Xbox games are basically all over 60GB!

Yep, data caps should be illegal.

[0sit0]

4 minutes ago, warwagon said:

Yep, data caps should be illegal.

OMG you and I agree on two things (data caps and auto-play videos)! Hell is freezing over! 

[jpqf]

Oh is it the Festivus airing of the grievances. I got two annoyances of current era web.

 

1. Ensnaring you in site engagement. e.g. The time bomb scripts that throw registration popups or some other form of lure. Also the infinite scroll can burn in hell.

2. Excessively stuffing their data metrics. In other words filling every page with frames to load many social media posts as possible or autoplaying random videos forever.

 

I want to click a link, have it load quickly, view a discrete unit of content, and be done with it. It's annoying knowing every page will be resource eating lag fest. JavaScript can do neat things but the way it's used is exactly like casinos that want to make sure you enter, never leave, and spend as much money (in the case of the internet, attention) as possible. Then have you keep coming back and repeating thatcycle.

 

More over this narrative that unused PC resources are wasted is a thinly veiled excuse for poor coding and/or excessive JavaScript bloat. If they want to use so much compute power that's fine but make better use of it. My PC is not your personal ad money printing machine.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I also hate it when i'm researching a problem on google, I click a link to read an article and a free registration box pops up in the middle of the screen that I have to close.

[jnelsoninjax]

2 hours ago, warwagon said:

Yep, data caps should be illegal.

Xfinity (Comcast) here has a cap, and they like to pretend that you couldn't possibly go over it, but they are more than happy to charge you when you do (i still haven't figured out what caused us to go over the few times we did) I saw in the news that Xfinity is starting to cap areas that never had caps prior...

Just for the $hits and grins, here is my data use:

[neufuse Veteran]

1 hour ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Xfinity (Comcast) here has a cap, and they like to pretend that you couldn't possibly go over it, but they are more than happy to charge you when you do (i still haven't figured out what caused us to go over the few times we did) I saw in the news that Xfinity is starting to cap areas that never had caps prior...

Just for the $hits and grins, here is my data use:

yeah my North East region that I'm in goes to capped at 1.2TB on Jan 1st, I called them and they told me that's not true, yet the bill said yes it was, but the bill for me also said I am exempt from it because of my package.... ugh talk about confusing.... if you have the right package you are unlimited (signature more + and higher get it free) but if you aren't on that's a fast way to rack of $100 extra a month in charges.... if unlimited fee if you buy it is $30 they should cap the darn bill at $30 then not $100

[jnelsoninjax]

1 minute ago, neufuse said:

yeah my North East region that I'm in goes to capped at 1.2TB on Jan 1st, I called them and they told me that's not true, yet the bill said yes it was, but the bill for me also said I am exempt from it because of my package.... ugh talk about confusing.... if you have the right package you are unlimited (signature more + and higher get it free) but if you aren't on that's a fast way to rack of $100 extra a month in charges.... if unlimited fee if you buy it is $30 they should cap the darn bill at $30 then not $100

Got to love how they try to BS there way through things, and provide misinformation!

[+Warwagon MVC]

1 hour ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Xfinity (Comcast) here has a cap, and they like to pretend that you couldn't possibly go over it, but they are more than happy to charge you when you do (i still haven't figured out what caused us to go over the few times we did) I saw in the news that Xfinity is starting to cap areas that never had caps prior...

Just for the $hits and grins, here is my data use:

You need to get a router with that you can put a custom firmware on and install YAMON. It's the best for monitoring what uses what data when you have data caps. https://usage-monitoring.com/index.php

 

For example this was my usage yesterday

 

 

Here is my usage since reinstalling it in early December. I have unlimited data but it's still nice to see how much data devices use

 

[jnelsoninjax]

2 minutes ago, warwagon said:

You need to get a router with that you can put a custom firmware on and install YAMON. It's the best for monitoring what uses what data when you have data caps. https://usage-monitoring.com/index.php

 

For example this was my usage yesterday

 

 

Here is my usage since reinstalling it in early December. I have unlimited data but it's still nice to see how much data devices use

 

I really do, I think that the router we have can be flashed with custom firmware, I'll have to check, and then convince someone to do it!

[adrynalyne]

If Centurylink ever implements a data cap, I am screwed.

 

Last 30 days (and for some reason, its not showing my machine (which is another TB).  

 

[fusi0n]

On 28/12/2020 at 19:28, adrynalyne said:

If Centurylink ever implements a data cap, I am screwed.

 

Last 30 days (and for some reason, its not showing my machine (which is another TB).  

 

Are you using the Dream Machine? Just curious, I have mixed feelings about it 

[adrynalyne]

34 minutes ago, fusi0n said:

Are you using the Dream Machine? Just curious, I have mixed feelings about it 

No, it’s older unifi equipment. 

 

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 29/12/2020 at 00:00, Steven P. said:

If you aren't catfished into clicking on BS headlines that claim something and then end up being nothing more than clickbait with nothing of what is claimed in the headline (like for example "Air date for Strange New Worlds" and then it ends up claiming "sometime in 2021" those sort of articles). I immediately block these sites from Google News, which is mainly where it happens for me.

 

Here are some annoyances in no particular order

• Random captchas showing up on sites I visit every week (like for example my local supermarket order online) without VPN, why then?
• North American sites denying entry for visitors from the EU (seriously F*** YOU!)
• GDPR cookie banner annoyance

Yes I do have an extension to bypass GDPR cookie warnings, but while it works in 80% of the time, it creates an additional annoyance on sites it doesn't work on by disabling the page altogether until I disable it manually for that site and reload the page/accept the cookies.

 

Honestly, people couldn't be more annoying if they tried with just these examples.

Here's one that annoys me Steven.

 

Websites who run contests that are only for U.S citizens. That really pi**es me off. 😋

 

Having said that, happy new year Steven. 👍

[+Edouard Subscriber²]

On 29/12/2020 at 02:45, adrynalyne said:

 

 

Here is my annoyance to add to the list: sites that have more ads than content.

Windows Central is terrible for that. The site is plastered with paid advertorials posing as articles and even the legitimate news articles are plastered with paid links to buy products.

 

It's a toilet of a website.

[0sit0]

On 28/12/2020 at 14:06, neufuse said:

yeah my North East region that I'm in goes to capped at 1.2TB on Jan 1st, I called them and they told me that's not true, yet the bill said yes it was, but the bill for me also said I am exempt from it because of my package.... ugh talk about confusing.... if you have the right package you are unlimited (signature more + and higher get it free) but if you aren't on that's a fast way to rack of $100 extra a month in charges.... if unlimited fee if you buy it is $30 they should cap the darn bill at $30 then not $100

That's what I tried to explain to customer support but ended up signing up for the $30 extra. I will make sure I go over 2TB a month just because 

[neufuse Veteran]

2 hours ago, 0sit0 said:

That's what I tried to explain to customer support but ended up signing up for the $30 extra. I will make sure I go over 2TB a month just because 

I pull about 4TB a month right now with normal usage, kids going to virtual school on web conferences all day (That alone eats up over 1TB a month according to my DPI monitoring system) then add in streaming, and then work from home (which its another 1+TB)

 

and for the work from home I've heard "why doesnt work pay for it" yeah work is going to pay for internet for 100 to 1000 users for who knows how long......... and they'd also say you could only use it for work then and that creates another problem of comcast only lets you have one account per address so no way to have a work and home internet connection (Comcast is the only ISP I can get where I am at, not even DSL is avaiable)

[+Thom Vee Subscriber²]

Is becoming? It's been on this trajectory for quite a while.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 28/12/2020 at 16:04, Steven P. said:

Video ads that autoplay without audio still payout, and was a requirement from me to our advertiser. When they started with this bright idea they autoplayed audio and I had them disabled until they fixed this oversight. Ads are fine and necessary to pay for things, but when they start taking over the content like others have pointed out, then it's not great at all.

Video ads that autoplay PERIOD, with or without audio, are bandwidth thieves and should be banned everywhere.  I don't care when I'm at home but on mobile, I pay per GB and I don't want that stolen by ads.

[Steven P. Administrators]

45 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Video ads that autoplay PERIOD, with or without audio, are bandwidth thieves and should be banned everywhere.  I don't care when I'm at home but on mobile, I pay per GB and I don't want that stolen by ads.

They are designed to use very little bandwidth so I wouldn't worry about that, you might be pulling more from BMP image content on certain sites and other things pulling data like social media integrations (we do not have any of this btw). Others have already pointed it out, but a site like WindowsCentral is doing far more in the background than we are, we just have the generic advertising and that is why we aren't all millionaires or have a full team of full time staff on payroll, or venture capitol backing 😛 

[FloatingFatMan]

Just now, Steven P. said:

They are designed to use very little bandwidth so I wouldn't worry about that, you might be pulling more from BMP image content on certain sites and other things pulling data like social media integrations (we do not have any of this btw). Others have already pointed it out, but a site like WindowsCentral is doing far more in the background than we are, we just have the generic advertising and that is why we aren't all millionaires or have a fully full time staff on payroll, or venture capitol backing 😛 

Oh I know Neowin is pretty innocuous, but you guys are very much the exception rather than the rule.  That said, when I'm on my work laptop I have no control over the adblock software.. It's pretty aggressive (you're whitelisted on my home PC).

[TCA]

On 28/12/2020 at 11:12, adrynalyne said:

Here is another. Sites that have registration blocks for their content. Not even a paywall, but you have to sign up to continue reading.

 

Nope...will find another site.

Try it in incognito mode. I’ve done that and didn’t have to sign up

[adrynalyne]

16 minutes ago, TCA said:

Try it in incognito mode. I’ve done that and didn’t have to sign up

Some sites require it no matter what; there is no "trial" periood.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

On 28/12/2020 at 13:00, Steven P. said:

If you aren't catfished into clicking on BS headlines that claim something and then end up being nothing more than clickbait with nothing of what is claimed in the headline (like for example "Air date for Strange New Worlds" and then it ends up claiming "sometime in 2021" those sort of articles). I immediately block these sites from Google News, which is mainly where it happens for me.

 

This!

It's a shame the media is more focused on drawing traffic than actually doing their job - reporting.  They should have a duty to accurately report news.  I'd happily censor (or just get rid of) any news outlet that breaks a code of conduct (think News of the World).  This is why many smaller, local outlets tend to be better than the big national ones.

 

I generally only read news through the BBC app or see what's trending on Twitter.

While some people hate the BBC and think it isn't impartial, it tells me what's currently going on around the world with no ads and very little incentive to hype anything up.

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Other annoying things:

 

• As others have said, websites having popups saying "give us your email and we'll give you 10% off" behind another pop up with some sort of ad for their own website, plus the GDPR reminder...
   
• Similar websites that have popups saying "dont leave" when you hover over the X mark.  I'm leaving because I'm done.
   
• Websites / Edge trying to be helpful when copying links - it now seems to copy the link text name rather than the link itself
   
• Some websites still not being phone compatible
   
• Some websites disallowing full Desktop version when browsing on a phone (you can click desktop version but click further and it pushes you back to the mobile version - I guess detecting you're using Android and trying to be helpful)
   
• Websites using stupid wrappers to create an app, which is worse than just using the website - Kickstarter for exaple.
   

 

I'm sure there's more.

But then my web browsing these days is quite limited to perhaps less than 50 websites.  I generally only use others when I need them (for example, logged into the LG website as I need to claim on warranty for my washing machine.  Will probably never visit the site again).

[Sir Topham Hatt]

On 17/02/2021 at 07:08, Sir Topham Hatt said:

• Websites / Edge trying to be helpful when copying links - it now seems to copy the link text name rather than the link itself

Okay, so I see there is a setting for this: edge://settings/shareCopyPaste