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Aside from the accessibility issues pointed out by another comment, this was mostly an annoyance upon our users that the higher-ups decided converted well. FWIW

Aside from the accessibility issues pointed out by another comment, this was mostly an annoyance upon our users that the higher-ups decided converted well. FWIW we did try to argue against it but profits dictate behavior in a large corporation. :-/ Either way, it doesn't exist any more and if you were ever bothered by it (I apologize), there are no over-arching effects that you have to worry about.

Nasrudith 8y ago
I doubt it leads to actual profits but the morons at the top think it will for some reason.
- user5994461 8y ago
  Most of the dark patterns lead to more profits, or sign ups, or something measurable. That's why they are everywhere, they really have a purpose.
  - Nasrudith 8y ago
    I believe the key word is 'something measurable'. People remember their obtrusive ads more so they think mission accomplished even though they now try to avoid them as 'the guys with the obnoxious advertisements'. It might be ultimately detrimental to the company but their bosses think it is a good thing and they get rewarded for it. Metricitisis is a major management disease of our times and neither corporate, nor government nor nonprofits are safe from missing the point completely in the quest for meeting irrelevant metrics so they can say they are a good manager.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      Also, the question is, who did the measuring? I worked once for a small company that had a social media marketing side (separate from what I did for them, but we sat in the same open space). From what I've observed, the social media marketing business mostly boiled down to our people writing reports which shown nicely growing metrics to customers who then happily paid. The metrics might or might not have been correlated with any real-world increase in profits, and really neither side understood any of that. But it looked believable, so customers paid. I suspect a lot of that is happening in adtech these days - people with no understanding of statistics bullshitting each other with pretty charts.

Nasrudith 8y ago

I doubt it leads to actual profits but the morons at the top think it will for some reason.

user5994461 8y ago
Most of the dark patterns lead to more profits, or sign ups, or something measurable. That's why they are everywhere, they really have a purpose.
- Nasrudith 8y ago
  I believe the key word is 'something measurable'. People remember their obtrusive ads more so they think mission accomplished even though they now try to avoid them as 'the guys with the obnoxious advertisements'. It might be ultimately detrimental to the company but their bosses think it is a good thing and they get rewarded for it. Metricitisis is a major management disease of our times and neither corporate, nor government nor nonprofits are safe from missing the point completely in the quest for meeting irrelevant metrics so they can say they are a good manager.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    Also, the question is, who did the measuring? I worked once for a small company that had a social media marketing side (separate from what I did for them, but we sat in the same open space). From what I've observed, the social media marketing business mostly boiled down to our people writing reports which shown nicely growing metrics to customers who then happily paid. The metrics might or might not have been correlated with any real-world increase in profits, and really neither side understood any of that. But it looked believable, so customers paid. I suspect a lot of that is happening in adtech these days - people with no understanding of statistics bullshitting each other with pretty charts.