Author Topic: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?  (Read 4698 times)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« on: 24 November, 2021, 04:54:40 pm »
I vote for YouTube adverts.  As a point of principle, I won't buy a product for which I am forced to watch an ad.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #1 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:01:48 pm »
People asking stupid questions in forums?

robgul

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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #2 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:03:46 pm »
The endless bloody pop-ups asking about cookies or whether I want to "chat with an agent" -

YT ads also come into the frame too . . . although I only look at YT on a PC so all you have to do is wait until it says "skip ads" not have to endure them.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #3 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:11:07 pm »
All those and I'll add Cookies
It is simpler than it looks.

Kim

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    • Fediverse
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #4 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:16:10 pm »
Facebook?  Or advertising in general, really.

The rot set in when they started letting in people who didn't know how to configure PPP/SLIP.   ;D

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #5 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:19:33 pm »
I vote for YouTube adverts.  As a point of principle, I won't buy a product for which I am forced to watch an ad.

My ad blocker stops them. AdBlock Plus on Firefox.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #6 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:23:35 pm »
There's also the youtube-dl or play-Youtube-videos-with-VLC approach.

Feanor

  • It's mostly downhill from here.
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #7 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:31:27 pm »
All local newspaper websites.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #8 on: 24 November, 2021, 05:58:32 pm »
"Social" media sites/companies.
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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #9 on: 24 November, 2021, 06:02:42 pm »
Know it alls , whose only source of information is what the search engine throws up.

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #10 on: 24 November, 2021, 06:04:43 pm »
Misinformation and erosion of privacy.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #11 on: 24 November, 2021, 06:25:20 pm »
People asking stupid questions in forums?
I was expecting the first follow-up to be "rogerzilla", so that was quite kind  ;D
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Mr Larrington

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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #12 on: 24 November, 2021, 06:33:10 pm »
Shitverts, especially those that are allegedly “tailored to ur intrest's”.  No, my use of the word “field” in a Farcebok post does not mean I want to buy a fucking tractor >:(
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rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #13 on: 24 November, 2021, 06:36:18 pm »
Amazon's search results have to be in the top 5.

Search for something specific with a brand and model name, and it bombards you with results for off-brand Chinese shite instead.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #14 on: 24 November, 2021, 07:21:36 pm »
All local newspaper websites.

This. In spades.
Sorry to all concerned, but I never bother clicking your link these days. Probably best to write a synopsis.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Kim

  • Timelord
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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #15 on: 24 November, 2021, 07:32:05 pm »
All local newspaper websites.

This. In spades.
Sorry to all concerned, but I never bother clicking your link these days. Probably best to write a synopsis.

Is why I keep gravitating back to the BBC.  They may be biased, sloppy and keep re-designing their site for a fondleslab audience, but at least there aren't any shitverts.

ian

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #16 on: 24 November, 2021, 07:47:59 pm »
To be fair to adverts, without them we'd have to pay for stuff or sell our souls. OK, you get to sell your soul and get adverts, but you'll feel better in your post-partum consumer bliss. Generally, the rule holds that you get what you don't pay for.

I vote for video explanations for things that don't need video explanations though, remember back in the day when bandwidth was limited and people wrote things and saved the video for smut, which is rightful.

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #17 on: 24 November, 2021, 08:46:58 pm »
I vote for YouTube adverts.  As a point of principle, I won't buy a product for which I am forced to watch an ad.

My ad blocker stops them. AdBlock Plus on Firefox.

I use U Block Origin which seem to block all adverts, including on Youtube.

I Don't Care About Cookies to stop the cookie popups.

CookieMaster to allow cookies site by site.

Turning off Javascript also seems to block a lot of adverts, use No Script to allow the ones you want to run.

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #18 on: 24 November, 2021, 08:50:12 pm »
I pay for Youtube Premium, because I'm a weirdo.

To be fair to adverts, without them we'd have to pay for stuff or sell our souls. OK, you get to sell your soul and get adverts, but you'll feel better in your post-partum consumer bliss. Generally, the rule holds that you get what you don't pay for.

What gets me is the local newspaper sites have all decided to have an advert between every paragraph. And a sidebar full of ads. And random paragraphs that look like the article but are also ads. And popovers and autoplays. And scrolljacking and interstitials.

Presumably they've all done the experimentation and found that making their articles literally unreadable is the option that brings in the most revenue. It's almost as if it's all bots and fraud, because no one can read the bloody things.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #19 on: 24 November, 2021, 08:51:58 pm »
^This
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #20 on: 24 November, 2021, 08:53:22 pm »
Grey text.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #21 on: 24 November, 2021, 08:57:28 pm »
It's the autoplays that annoy me most on local news sites. If I want a video, I'll watch a video. I'm on your local newspaper site because I want to read the news, not watch it. And then the site is trying to download so much video that it crashes.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #22 on: 24 November, 2021, 08:58:24 pm »
People asking stupid questions in forums?
I was expecting the first follow-up to be "rogerzilla", so that was quite kind  ;D
Nah, he's only second after that C3PO chap.  :P
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #23 on: 24 November, 2021, 09:06:17 pm »
And endless scroll.

ian

Re: What's the single worst thing about the Internet?
« Reply #24 on: 24 November, 2021, 09:10:34 pm »
I pay for Youtube Premium, because I'm a weirdo.

To be fair to adverts, without them we'd have to pay for stuff or sell our souls. OK, you get to sell your soul and get adverts, but you'll feel better in your post-partum consumer bliss. Generally, the rule holds that you get what you don't pay for.

What gets me is the local newspaper sites have all decided to have an advert between every paragraph. And a sidebar full of ads. And random paragraphs that look like the article but are also ads. And popovers and autoplays. And scrolljacking and interstitials.

Presumably they've all done the experimentation and found that making their articles literally unreadable is the option that brings in the most revenue. It's almost as if it's all bots and fraud, because no one can read the bloody things.

I find these pages usually cause Safari to burp up 'a this page is using bigly resources', which briefly annoyed me, then I realised it's probably doing me a favour.