10 ms·

> The problem is that this "engagement" will mostly be just annoyed customers mis-clicking or trying whatever it takes to dismiss the ad and not actually intend

by taneq 6y ago

> The problem is that this "engagement" will mostly be just annoyed customers mis-clicking or trying whatever it takes to dismiss the ad and not actually intending to purchase the advertised product "Amazing! The smaller we make the 'X' button, the more people love them!"

reaperducer 6y ago
Or make the X button almost the same color as the background. TuneIn does this.
- taneq 6y ago
  I think this is also the psychology behind those pop-up like/share button bars at the bottom of web pages, that on mobile just so happen to sit exactly where your navigation bar hides, and if you tap one pixel too high you hit the share button instead of pulling up the navigation bar.
- summitsummit 6y ago
  The best method I've found to increase positive engagement is actually to just have a fake 'x' such that clicking it just triggers the ad. I've noticed this more frequently on the web nowadays, and based on the click through rates, the target demographic is absolutely _obsessed_ over this feature.
  - nuker 6y ago
    > have a fake 'x' such that clicking it just triggers the ad. I always, always thought this is what X buttons do, so I was simply closing the tab :))
  - dvtrn 6y ago
    Don't get me started on dialog boxes that put the "cancel" button on the wrong side. Much like toilet paper, there is one way to display it, all other methods are heresy worthy of nothing less than immediate exterminatus. (partially kidding, but only partially.)
    - tomc1985 6y ago
      But there isn't only one way to order it. Some OS' (I forgot which) had convention dictate that the positive confirmation button was in the rightmost corner, with other lesser buttons to the left. In this order, "Cancel" appears first, but further from the corner.
      - taneq 6y ago
        As long as you're consistent. Apps which lay their buttons out contrary to the conventions of their platform are evil. Apps which randomize the positions of their buttons are unspeakably worse.
    - hinkley 6y ago
      If you have cats, the 'proper way' to hang the TP is the opposite way of what you absolutists think is the One True Way. I'm starting to suspect that the loudest voices are cats who have either learned to type or to pay for lobbyists, trying to push your feline agenda on the rest of us.
      - LordDragonfang 6y ago
        Have had two generations of cats in our house, and always the toilet paper the proper way. Never had an issue. On the other hand, we have to keep the toilet seat down or they'll try to drink toilet water.
        TeMPOraL 6y ago
        Cats are the devil, and I have reasons to believe they've recently entered into an alliance with the human infant community. I begun suspecting that one day when my wife was preparing dinner. Soon after she took the meat from the fridge to work on it, our baby started crying and making noise for absolutely no reason. My wife immediately dropped everything and went to investigate, and the cat used this opportunity to attempt to steal our dinner meat. Ever since, I've been noticing many more cases where the baby and the cat are either simultaneously attempting to do things they're not allowed to, or the baby starts distracting us while the cat goes out to carry out some mischief. It's all coordinated too well to be happenstance.
  - systemBuilder 6y ago
    I've seen a lot of clickbait pages where the next button shows up and 10 seconds later at the end of the page load there's reflow and then an ad is placed where the next button used to be! So you end up clicking through an add on every page unless you wait for a long and random amount of time!
  - taneq 6y ago
    That's the evilest thing I can imagine!
- at-fates-hands 6y ago
  There are a ton of dark patterns in web design about this. - same color background - in the wrong corner (users expect the "X" in the upper right hand corner). I've seen the "X" in the wrong corner and some other icon in the right hand corner. People reflexive will click in the upper right hand corner and open the ad by mistake - I've seen where you have to click on text instead of the "X", clicking on the "X" just opens the ad - Also very small, 1-2 pixel "X" so literally one pixel off and you've opened the ad - I don't remember what company did this, but they would pop the ad and after three seconds, it would reload, all but a few pixels higher so when you're in the process of closing the window, it would reload and then you'd open the ad by mistake because the "X" is in the wrong place now. I've seen a lot more devious stuff but the sad thing is, I have decent vision. How do these dark patterns affect people who have impaired vision or other issues with their vision? How infuriating it is it for them to deal with this BS? I can't imagine.
  - mikeyjk 6y ago
    An overlay that covers the whole area opening an add onClick. After some time the overlay is added again (incredibly annoying for video players you might want to pause)
    - efreak 6y ago
      If your ad blocker can't deal with these, set z-index on the main content with a userstyle, so it stays on top. Then you might also want to use a css style to just make everything else invisible: ``` *:not(.videoContainer){ background-color: black!important; color: black!important; } img { display:none!important; } ```
  - netsharc 6y ago
    The god damned cookie consent popups do this. The "Decline" buttons are small and grey, the "Accept all and save" are big and green. They'd show empty checkboxes/iOS-style sliders at the off position that show that you won't be getting non-essential cookies, of course when you click "Accept all" these settings get overridden.
- tomc1985 6y ago
  The fact that they include an X button at all seems like a concession that I'm not sure how long will last
  - alienfilesystem 6y ago
    For the moment, running a Pi-hole in the cloud and pointing your mobile devices to it works. As you say, how long? When the adholes start doing ads as part of the content, this may break, but I'm sure the Cold War between the adholes and the blockers will heat up. There is always a way. God bless all the creative programmers who help to keep this crap at bay.
- hinkley 6y ago
  Just this week I had an ad popup with no button. Before I gave up and left the site I tried clicking where the button was supposed to be. Sure enough it worked. Of course now I'm part of the problem, because some asshole has a graph that shows that (a suspiciously small fraction of) users are able to opt-out so there's no legal liability for having the ads that way.
- m-p-3 6y ago
  I got rid of TuneIn once they stripped the recording from the Pro version I paid for. Good riddance.
fomine3 6y ago
We like slider control to set precise value because we click many time to set correct value, isn't it?

by taneq 6y ago

reaperducer 6y ago

Or make the X button almost the same color as the background. TuneIn does this.

taneq 6y ago
I think this is also the psychology behind those pop-up like/share button bars at the bottom of web pages, that on mobile just so happen to sit exactly where your navigation bar hides, and if you tap one pixel too high you hit the share button instead of pulling up the navigation bar.
summitsummit 6y ago
The best method I've found to increase positive engagement is actually to just have a fake 'x' such that clicking it just triggers the ad. I've noticed this more frequently on the web nowadays, and based on the click through rates, the target demographic is absolutely _obsessed_ over this feature.
- nuker 6y ago
  > have a fake 'x' such that clicking it just triggers the ad. I always, always thought this is what X buttons do, so I was simply closing the tab :))
- dvtrn 6y ago
  Don't get me started on dialog boxes that put the "cancel" button on the wrong side. Much like toilet paper, there is one way to display it, all other methods are heresy worthy of nothing less than immediate exterminatus. (partially kidding, but only partially.)
  - tomc1985 6y ago
    But there isn't only one way to order it. Some OS' (I forgot which) had convention dictate that the positive confirmation button was in the rightmost corner, with other lesser buttons to the left. In this order, "Cancel" appears first, but further from the corner.
    - taneq 6y ago
      As long as you're consistent. Apps which lay their buttons out contrary to the conventions of their platform are evil. Apps which randomize the positions of their buttons are unspeakably worse.
  - hinkley 6y ago
    If you have cats, the 'proper way' to hang the TP is the opposite way of what you absolutists think is the One True Way. I'm starting to suspect that the loudest voices are cats who have either learned to type or to pay for lobbyists, trying to push your feline agenda on the rest of us.
    - LordDragonfang 6y ago
      Have had two generations of cats in our house, and always the toilet paper the proper way. Never had an issue. On the other hand, we have to keep the toilet seat down or they'll try to drink toilet water.
      - TeMPOraL 6y ago
        Cats are the devil, and I have reasons to believe they've recently entered into an alliance with the human infant community. I begun suspecting that one day when my wife was preparing dinner. Soon after she took the meat from the fridge to work on it, our baby started crying and making noise for absolutely no reason. My wife immediately dropped everything and went to investigate, and the cat used this opportunity to attempt to steal our dinner meat. Ever since, I've been noticing many more cases where the baby and the cat are either simultaneously attempting to do things they're not allowed to, or the baby starts distracting us while the cat goes out to carry out some mischief. It's all coordinated too well to be happenstance.
- systemBuilder 6y ago
  I've seen a lot of clickbait pages where the next button shows up and 10 seconds later at the end of the page load there's reflow and then an ad is placed where the next button used to be! So you end up clicking through an add on every page unless you wait for a long and random amount of time!
- taneq 6y ago
  That's the evilest thing I can imagine!
at-fates-hands 6y ago
There are a ton of dark patterns in web design about this. - same color background - in the wrong corner (users expect the "X" in the upper right hand corner). I've seen the "X" in the wrong corner and some other icon in the right hand corner. People reflexive will click in the upper right hand corner and open the ad by mistake - I've seen where you have to click on text instead of the "X", clicking on the "X" just opens the ad - Also very small, 1-2 pixel "X" so literally one pixel off and you've opened the ad - I don't remember what company did this, but they would pop the ad and after three seconds, it would reload, all but a few pixels higher so when you're in the process of closing the window, it would reload and then you'd open the ad by mistake because the "X" is in the wrong place now. I've seen a lot more devious stuff but the sad thing is, I have decent vision. How do these dark patterns affect people who have impaired vision or other issues with their vision? How infuriating it is it for them to deal with this BS? I can't imagine.
- mikeyjk 6y ago
  An overlay that covers the whole area opening an add onClick. After some time the overlay is added again (incredibly annoying for video players you might want to pause)
  - efreak 6y ago
    If your ad blocker can't deal with these, set z-index on the main content with a userstyle, so it stays on top. Then you might also want to use a css style to just make everything else invisible: ``` *:not(.videoContainer){ background-color: black!important; color: black!important; } img { display:none!important; } ```
- netsharc 6y ago
  The god damned cookie consent popups do this. The "Decline" buttons are small and grey, the "Accept all and save" are big and green. They'd show empty checkboxes/iOS-style sliders at the off position that show that you won't be getting non-essential cookies, of course when you click "Accept all" these settings get overridden.
tomc1985 6y ago
The fact that they include an X button at all seems like a concession that I'm not sure how long will last
- alienfilesystem 6y ago
  For the moment, running a Pi-hole in the cloud and pointing your mobile devices to it works. As you say, how long? When the adholes start doing ads as part of the content, this may break, but I'm sure the Cold War between the adholes and the blockers will heat up. There is always a way. God bless all the creative programmers who help to keep this crap at bay.
hinkley 6y ago
Just this week I had an ad popup with no button. Before I gave up and left the site I tried clicking where the button was supposed to be. Sure enough it worked. Of course now I'm part of the problem, because some asshole has a graph that shows that (a suspiciously small fraction of) users are able to opt-out so there's no legal liability for having the ads that way.
m-p-3 6y ago
I got rid of TuneIn once they stripped the recording from the Pro version I paid for. Good riddance.

fomine3 6y ago

We like slider control to set precise value because we click many time to set correct value, isn't it?