6 ms·

Nothing makes me want to sign up for your newsletter less than having it interrupt what I'm reading.

Ntrails 8y ago
I particularly hate every idiot who decided that scrolling up meant I was done and wanted your garbage top bar to obscure half the screen (including, no doubt, the stuff I was trying to read).
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  Pffft, what are the odds that scrolling up will leave the text you were trying to read at the top of the screen?
  - Ntrails 8y ago
    I WILL CUT YOU In all seriousness, it's partly that I have dumb habits. I highlight text as I read it (and that causes all sorts of idiot pop ups to share the quote on social media etc) and micro scroll up and down even when not actually trying to actively change the field of view. I can't even justify why I do it. But I do. It's just how I read longform text on computers. On the plus side "reader view" can be a lifesaver
    - w0land 8y ago
      You're (and me) are not alone at this habit. Nice to know I'm not alone :-)
    - yarosv 8y ago
      I do it all the time too. Hate when something happens. I've seen sites that also start loading next article if I click on the right side of the text column...
    - Sabinus 8y ago
      Good to know I'm not the only one with spastic Web browsing habits.
    - jancsika 8y ago
      I WILL JUSTIFY IT... I use the top of the browser's viewport as a transient "bookmark." That is, I read for awhile and then scroll until what I have read scrolls out of view. Now the line of text at the top of the viewport is the first line of what I have left to read. Scrolling in most browsers is quantized to a value much greater than the line height of the text I'm reading. This means I must occasionally scroll past the part I've read and then retreat to reveal half a line or so of what I already read. Unfortunately, all the algos that trigger new shit on a change of scroll direction disrupt my own manual adjustment algorithm. Even on a news site, a directional change in scrolling triggers some douchebag horizontal menubar that animates itself into view and obscures the next line of text I want to read. I have to scroll back down to make the douchebag menu disappear. When it disappears it reveals... a line of text which I already read! So now my bookmarking technique is ruined because the disappearing douchebag menu is guaranteed to reveal at least a line and a half of text I already read. I don't like this behavior because it disrupts my completely rational and reasonable behavior as a user of the browser. I am the one in charge, and if a web page tries to challenge me on that I swear to god I will copy the damn text and paste it into a contentEditable about:blank. Then they can only sit there and dream about all the places I'm scrolling.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      > I can't even justify why I do it. You're helping your eyes stay on point when reading, just like some people reading a physical book/printout will use their finger or a pen for that purpose. It's perfectly normal. Your habits are not dumb. What those sites are doing with floating headers and bullshit on-select popups that's dumb.
  - hollerith 8y ago
    Pretty good because I'm in the habit of scrolling down approximately a windowful (using the Page Down key) then when that scrolls a little too far (because I have low vision and consequently have the text size set unusually large, which many web sites don't handle correctly) using the up arrow key to find my place again.
- pshc 8y ago
  It’s also distracting even if doesn’t obscure what I am looking at. Sudden unexpected movement in my peripheral vision! It’s one of the worst web design trends. The iOS Safari bar is done right, at least.
- scaryclam 8y ago
  This is something I habitually add to my browser bookmark toolbar: https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/ https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/
folkrav 8y ago
The thing is, they keep doing it cause it works. Go figure...
- popoversalad 8y ago
  Do you have any citations for that? I see people either signing up because they don't realize they have a choice because the button to say "No" is intentionally smaller and obscured, but then they mark the newsletters as spam, or simply throw them out. I also see lots of people adding fake addresses like "screw@you.com" just to get past them. Has anyone verified that they actually do some real amount of good for the business putting them up beyond the simple metric of "we got tons of signups for our newsletter after doing it!"?
- mikekchar 8y ago
  Where I work, the marketing department is always putting horrible newsletter popups on the web page, etc. I used to say, "That's going to detract from people signing up, not encourage it!". But they've got the data and they've shown it to me. As you say, it works. I wondered why for a while, because as soon as I see those shenanigans, I'm gone. But then I realised: I'm not the target market for the websites we have at work (a full service travel tour company). Most of our clients are booking travel for a group of 30 people from their company 6 months or a year in advance. They are coming to our website because they want the damn newsletter. Took me a long time to understand that.

I particularly hate every idiot who decided that scrolling up meant I was done and wanted your garbage top bar to obscure half the screen (including, no doubt, the stuff I was trying to read).

thaumasiotes 8y ago
Pffft, what are the odds that scrolling up will leave the text you were trying to read at the top of the screen?
- Ntrails 8y ago
  I WILL CUT YOU In all seriousness, it's partly that I have dumb habits. I highlight text as I read it (and that causes all sorts of idiot pop ups to share the quote on social media etc) and micro scroll up and down even when not actually trying to actively change the field of view. I can't even justify why I do it. But I do. It's just how I read longform text on computers. On the plus side "reader view" can be a lifesaver
  - w0land 8y ago
    You're (and me) are not alone at this habit. Nice to know I'm not alone :-)
  - yarosv 8y ago
    I do it all the time too. Hate when something happens. I've seen sites that also start loading next article if I click on the right side of the text column...
  - Sabinus 8y ago
    Good to know I'm not the only one with spastic Web browsing habits.
  - jancsika 8y ago
    I WILL JUSTIFY IT... I use the top of the browser's viewport as a transient "bookmark." That is, I read for awhile and then scroll until what I have read scrolls out of view. Now the line of text at the top of the viewport is the first line of what I have left to read. Scrolling in most browsers is quantized to a value much greater than the line height of the text I'm reading. This means I must occasionally scroll past the part I've read and then retreat to reveal half a line or so of what I already read. Unfortunately, all the algos that trigger new shit on a change of scroll direction disrupt my own manual adjustment algorithm. Even on a news site, a directional change in scrolling triggers some douchebag horizontal menubar that animates itself into view and obscures the next line of text I want to read. I have to scroll back down to make the douchebag menu disappear. When it disappears it reveals... a line of text which I already read! So now my bookmarking technique is ruined because the disappearing douchebag menu is guaranteed to reveal at least a line and a half of text I already read. I don't like this behavior because it disrupts my completely rational and reasonable behavior as a user of the browser. I am the one in charge, and if a web page tries to challenge me on that I swear to god I will copy the damn text and paste it into a contentEditable about:blank. Then they can only sit there and dream about all the places I'm scrolling.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    > I can't even justify why I do it. You're helping your eyes stay on point when reading, just like some people reading a physical book/printout will use their finger or a pen for that purpose. It's perfectly normal. Your habits are not dumb. What those sites are doing with floating headers and bullshit on-select popups that's dumb.
- hollerith 8y ago
  Pretty good because I'm in the habit of scrolling down approximately a windowful (using the Page Down key) then when that scrolls a little too far (because I have low vision and consequently have the text size set unusually large, which many web sites don't handle correctly) using the up arrow key to find my place again.
pshc 8y ago
It’s also distracting even if doesn’t obscure what I am looking at. Sudden unexpected movement in my peripheral vision! It’s one of the worst web design trends. The iOS Safari bar is done right, at least.
scaryclam 8y ago
This is something I habitually add to my browser bookmark toolbar: https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/ https://alisdair.mcdiarmid.org/kill-sticky-headers/

folkrav 8y ago

The thing is, they keep doing it cause it works. Go figure...

popoversalad 8y ago
Do you have any citations for that? I see people either signing up because they don't realize they have a choice because the button to say "No" is intentionally smaller and obscured, but then they mark the newsletters as spam, or simply throw them out. I also see lots of people adding fake addresses like "screw@you.com" just to get past them. Has anyone verified that they actually do some real amount of good for the business putting them up beyond the simple metric of "we got tons of signups for our newsletter after doing it!"?
mikekchar 8y ago
Where I work, the marketing department is always putting horrible newsletter popups on the web page, etc. I used to say, "That's going to detract from people signing up, not encourage it!". But they've got the data and they've shown it to me. As you say, it works. I wondered why for a while, because as soon as I see those shenanigans, I'm gone. But then I realised: I'm not the target market for the websites we have at work (a full service travel tour company). Most of our clients are booking travel for a group of 30 people from their company 6 months or a year in advance. They are coming to our website because they want the damn newsletter. Took me a long time to understand that.