One foundation question: What are the most common difficulties you face on the web.

[lorraine walsh]

The time has evolved and new technologies with smarter integration solutions have arrived. In this time still what are the most common difficulties you face on the web.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The web being overrun by JavaScript which causes...basically everything that's wrong (technically) with the web. I'd argue Flash, Silverlight and other APIs that were boxed were better for the web because they're universally consistent.

It just feels like web design is regressing, not progressing. The internet used to be academic in nature. Now it's marketing (JavaScript the instrument).

 

[Xpect]

Scripts on Websites
Autoplaying Videos on Websites
Ads with sound
Layerads
Adblock warnings that pop because I simply don't allow scripts

The traps you get sent to from some websites when surfing via mobile device (Anandtech did that so often that I don't go there anymore)
These traps just give you popup after popup so you can't get off that website while it's cintinously loading new ads.

 

[Vayra86]

Most common difficulty is one that has never changed and actually gets progressively worse, and that is advertising. Screen filling banner popups, sound, autoplaying video commercials... please die horribly. There's a reason Adblocking is popular, and this battle between user and advertiser is starting to become pretty dirty, up to Adblockers themselves selling out and whitelisting 'good' ads - highly dubious - and websites blocking adblock-users.

 

[Frick]

People.

 

[P4-630]

 

[the54thvoid]

Technical or philosophical question? Undoubtedly the worse part of the web is it's necessarily uncensored nature where mistruths, half truths or down right lies are allowed to propagate. The web has eroded much reason and replaced it with subjectivity that defies factual evidence. When the truth hurts, the web is a very easy source to validate comforting, often socially irresponsible ideologies.

 

[Vayra86]

View attachment 92011

Fail of the year IMO

49 cents to read clickbait, NOTY

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Technical or philosophical question? Undoubtedly the worse part of the web is it's necessarily uncensored nature where mistruths, half truths or down right lies are allowed to propagate. The web has eroded much reason and replaced it with subjectivity that defies factual evidence. When the truth hurts, the web is a very easy source to validate comforting, often socially irresponsible ideologies.

Everyone now has a friend who abuses Google for their intellect , I also think this is the biggest issue.

 

[Steevo]

The Dunning Kruger effect, and its effect on flat earth idiots, feminazis, white knights, and other mentally ill or socially deficient individuals, SJW's, Tumblr, Trump rants that go either way, BLM, actual Nazis, WBC, Islam, and anyone who continues the propagation of old myths as a basis of reality in our modern day.

 

[Totally]

Ads.


I feel that it's rapidly approaching the point where a HEDT is need to simply surf the web. I know a little extreme but it is very true there are some sites I've visited on my work laptop that have brought it to it's knees because because of the sheer number of ads and scripts running on the page.

 

[R00kie]

Double/triple-posting.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I think the further we get from the start of the World Wide Web ,the more detached the memory becomes of what it was like to have pages fill with countless flashing pop up ads. It's to the point now where if you were alive and using the Internet at that time(early 90's)your "old" now. Even the most painful memories and experiences fade with time. I'm sure that many programmers of today we're probably born in the 90s never mind using the Internet in the 90s, so they have no experience with a popup filled, flashing nightmare browsing experience.

But that's really not much of a comment on the technical side but instead more of the reason why a programmer or website could possibly find itself back to the www's old tricks

 

[IceScreamer]

Trying to find a result to a problem for hours and finally finding a thread with the same question only to see the last message was a decade ago, or worse, when the OP writes: "I fixed it." without an explanation.

 

[MrGenius]

Spam emails. I've learned recently not to click the unsubscribe links. All it does is confirm you're a live recipient. It doesn't take you off their mailing list, and probably just puts you on a bunch more of them. They used to work. Not anymore apparently. I dunno. All I do know is it's really bad these days. I remember a time when I used to get FAR fewer. Nowadays I get the same number of them in a single day that I used to get in a month or more.

 

[Sasqui]

Cross-site scripting / cookies. It's the wild west but it shouldn't be. That used to be a complete no-no.

I got in some "hot" water with the GF when some ad suggestions popped up on another site she was looking at, after I had been on eBay (and logged out). ...I was looking at nude posters for sale, just happened to come across them

Most browsers I've got are set to clear data on exit, but that leads to inconveniences.

 

[StrayKAT]

"Hell is other people" - Sartre


Wait, you mean technologies. I don't have many gripes.. I suppose I just put up with a lot, even knowing it sucks. My biggest problem is lack of competitive services. Google's world domination is about complete.

 

[Cybrnook2002]

That pornhub always wants to open ads in a new window.....

 

[Ebo]

Ads in general, I just hate that shit.

 

[Frick]

Buy seriously it's Google and how it's essentially impossible to find what I'm looking for. Google generally assumes I don't know what I want to search for so they helpfully either omit large parts of the search (even if in advanced search, which I think just is disabled because it doesn't make a lick of difference) or equally helpfully adds several words. And I live pretty close to a town with a similar name to the town closest to where I grew up so of course when I search for stuff in the town close to where I grew up they assume I mean the town I currently live close to. Not to mention that if they somehow manage to find stuff that has the exact phrase I searched for it is because a poor sod posted about it on Toms hardware and it turns out he meant something completely different because of course he did because Toms Hardware is a joke.

Back in the Altavista days and early Google days I loved searching for stuff, but now it's an excercise in futility.

 

[neatfeatguy]

The whole idea of social media is lost on me. I know there are those of us out there that don't use it, but it's becoming fewer and fewer as time goes on.

People ask me if I've seen things posted on facebook or snapchat or whatever else is out there and they get visibly upset when they find out I don't bother with any of those crappy social media sites..... It's almost as if I made a tiny nuke go off in their head because they can't comprehend the fact that I don't want to be on those sites and that I don't care enough about people I don't know to give a rip what they do in their daily lives.

My wife spends a good bit of time on Facebook and it's damn annoying. I even tell her that. It irritates the hell out of me when we wake up on a weekend morning and the first thing she does is grab her fricking phone to look on facebook and see what everyone else is up to and worry about how everyone else's life (according to a social media site) is so much better then ours. Why so many people would subject their personal information to be out there so freely for the whole world to see is beyond me.

 

[Frick]

The whole idea of social media is lost on me. I know there are those of us out there that don't use it, but it's becoming fewer and fewer as time goes on.

Facebook is good for buy/sell/trade and knowing what is happening in your area (as in music events and so on, I also follow an old folkpunk band from the 90's that sometimes play at very tiny venues and I swear one day I will atend one of those venues). Instagram is nice if you only have family and actual friends on it. And Tripod, because I love Tripod.

 

[MrGenius]

The whole idea of social media is lost on me. I know there are those of us out there that don't use it, but it's becoming fewer and fewer as time goes on.

People ask me if I've seen things posted on facebook or snapchat or whatever else is out there and they get visibly upset when they find out I don't bother with any of those crappy social media sites..... It's almost as if I made a tiny nuke go off in their head because they can't comprehend the fact that I don't want to be on those sites and that I don't care enough about people I don't know to give a rip what they do in their daily lives.

My wife spends a good bit of time on Facebook and it's damn annoying. I even tell her that. It irritates the hell out of me when we wake up on a weekend morning and the first thing she does is grab her fricking phone to look on facebook and see what everyone else is up to and worry about how everyone else's life (according to a social media site) is so much better then ours. Why so many people would subject their personal information to be out there so freely for the whole world to see is beyond me.

My sentiments EXACTLY. We're a dying breed.

 

[StrayKAT]

Social media doesn't bother me because I don't participate. I had a FB account in 07 or 08, but quickly canceled. I wouldn't say it's a tech problem though. I just don't get it. I'm also not into narcissistic broadcasting..which seems like the biggest feature. I don't know if it's generational. Maybe somewhat (I'm "Gen X"... it seems this stuff is for younger people).

 

[Vayra86]

Spam emails. I've learned recently not to click the unsubscribe links. All it does is confirm you're a live recipient. It doesn't take you off their mailing list, and probably just puts you on a bunch more of them. They used to work. Not anymore apparently. I dunno. All I do know is it's really bad these days. I remember a time when I used to get FAR fewer. Nowadays I get the same number of them in a single day that I used to get in a month or more.

The next time you unsub from a mailing list, screenshot it with a date/time. Archive any email that still comes in after that, make sure you collect five or six of them... Send this info as a complaint to your country's telecom watchdog organization (for lack of a better term lol) and watch them burn.

Here in the Netherlands if you have a substantial complaint like this, companies can get serious fines for doing this. Make sure you put the company in question in the complaints' CC and watch those emails vanish. Similarly with unsolicited phone calls or (lead) acquisition: the law is pretty up to date on all these underhand tactics.

Did this once, got a written and formal apology from the company, it was epic.