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I'm privacy conscious but would not consider looking at such detailed information. For me it's delete all site state on exit. Do people actually look at this st

I'm privacy conscious but would not consider looking at such detailed information. For me it's delete all site state on exit. Do people actually look at this stuff?

RedComet 5y ago
I do.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  What's one interesting thing you've seen that isn't better displayed in Dev Tools?
james-skemp 5y ago
Developer bias, but being able to delete individual cookies is invaluable. Non-developer hat: PlayStation Network store also had a bug where you'd be logged in, but unable to buy anything. Instead of deleting all data you could delete one cookie and it would temporarily resolve the issue.
- ratata 5y ago
  Just fyi, you can delete individual cookies in the developer tools.
  - bigwavedave 5y ago
    > Just fyi, you can delete individual cookies in the developer tools. While I very much agree with the point you're making, I can count on one hand (with fingers to spare) the number of family members I have who know what the developer tools even are, and that's because I showed them when troubleshooting an issue they were having. They aren't going to learn or remember how to access the dev tools to manage cookies, but they do know what it means to delete individual cookies and the current process to do so, and if they forget the exact steps they could certainly figure it out in settings/preferences. What they're not going to do is think "well, I can't find the thing I used to use to deal with cookies, I'd better go muck around in the developer tools." I'd imagine a very large percentage of non-technical people who have heard about cookies fall into the same category as my relatives, but that's my own bias talking and YMMV of course.
    - BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
      If they're a non-developer, the ability to clear all of the cookies (or data) for a given site should be adequate to cover their needs (and if they're a developer, obviously they'll just use Developer Tools > Application for individual cookie manipulation). If a non-developer is in a situation where they need to delete a single cookie by name but deleting _all_ of that site's cookies would be ruinous for some reason, then something's horribly wrong.
      - nett18 5y ago
        Read the parent answer, it explains when deleting individual cookies is useful (even for non-devs)
        BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
        Not really? Cookie names/values are usually inscrutable to anyone who hasn't worked on the site in question, and the idea that a non-developer would need to selectively delete individual cookies to work around a bug in a site is just silly (those users are much better served by simply clearing all of that site's cookies and logging in again). (And when the need truly does arise, there's a perfectly-good tool for that which is no harder to find than the sub-menu being deprecated.)
    - shock-value 5y ago
      I have never known anyone to need to delete an individual cookie vs all for a site. Certainly I've never needed that. Only time I have (probably ever) deleted an individual cookie was for testing during development, and in those cases I already use the dev tools to do so.
      - ipaddr 5y ago
        You have never lived
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Which Does Not Exist On Mobile. (90% or more of most sites' organic web traffic is mobile.)
- burnished 5y ago
  I don't really interact with cookies at all. What are your uses cases? What is the value? If you're so enthused with it I'm wondering if I should be, basically.
- bushbaba 5y ago
  I always just used incognito windows for these kinds of issues.
- drewg123 5y ago
  We have a bug like that in our internal systems at work. If I can't delete an individual cookie, I'll switch to firefox for work stuff. (I currently use chrome for work stuff b/c we have some helpful extensions which are chrome only)
- dangrossman 5y ago
  I've run into that bug (I think) on lots of sites, including two of my credit card issuers. They set so many cookies, and new ones on every visit, with long expirations, until the cookie header is so large that either the browser or server is cutting it off and you can't pick up the cookies to log in any more. I go wipe out some cookies to fix that too.
yellow_lead 5y ago
I've looked at it before - to delete a specific cookie, or see what a website has stored. Deleting specific cookies can sometimes fix broken websites.
- BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
  What's the intersection of "users who want to delete a specific cookie" and "users who cannot open Developer Tools"? For the average user, deleting all of a site's cookies seems like all the granularity you need (and will be a more effective troubleshooting tactic anyway).
  - shock-value 5y ago
    Effectively zero. Ridiculous that anyone would think this an issue even worth discussing.
  - tsian2 5y ago
    I don't think many non-developers use the dev tools for tasks, while people merely interested in technology (gamers and such) will get a gentle introduction to how cookies work from looking through the cookies in the normal interface. Those people might go on to become developers eventually.
sixothree 5y ago
Absolutely. I delete specific cookies regularly.
- BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
  Through this UI? What's wrong with using Developer Tools for this?
rapnie 5y ago
I use FF, uBlock and Privacy Badger. Of those - while uBlock is most powerful - I value Privacy Badger the most. It shows me 'number of cookies' in the toolbar icon on every page, and in the dropdown I can quickly toggle any 'suspicious' domains to be blocked. Only much less often do I take the time to do more intricate stuff using uBlock Origin.
simfoo 5y ago
Not just on exit - cookie autodelete is awesome. 10s after I switch site all past cookies are gone
onkoe 5y ago
It's useful in specific cases and certainly nice to have in the main UI. I understand their reasoning for moving them, but I still disagree
danparsonson 5y ago
Anecdata point - I had trouble logging into a site recently and was able to solve the problem by clearing cookies just for that site, thus preserving my other stored logins.

I'm privacy conscious but would not consider looking at such detailed information. For me it's delete all site state on exit. Do people actually look at this stuff?

RedComet 5y ago

I do.

alisonkisk 5y ago
What's one interesting thing you've seen that isn't better displayed in Dev Tools?

james-skemp 5y ago

Developer bias, but being able to delete individual cookies is invaluable. Non-developer hat: PlayStation Network store also had a bug where you'd be logged in, but unable to buy anything. Instead of deleting all data you could delete one cookie and it would temporarily resolve the issue.

ratata 5y ago
Just fyi, you can delete individual cookies in the developer tools.
- bigwavedave 5y ago
  > Just fyi, you can delete individual cookies in the developer tools. While I very much agree with the point you're making, I can count on one hand (with fingers to spare) the number of family members I have who know what the developer tools even are, and that's because I showed them when troubleshooting an issue they were having. They aren't going to learn or remember how to access the dev tools to manage cookies, but they do know what it means to delete individual cookies and the current process to do so, and if they forget the exact steps they could certainly figure it out in settings/preferences. What they're not going to do is think "well, I can't find the thing I used to use to deal with cookies, I'd better go muck around in the developer tools." I'd imagine a very large percentage of non-technical people who have heard about cookies fall into the same category as my relatives, but that's my own bias talking and YMMV of course.
  - BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
    If they're a non-developer, the ability to clear all of the cookies (or data) for a given site should be adequate to cover their needs (and if they're a developer, obviously they'll just use Developer Tools > Application for individual cookie manipulation). If a non-developer is in a situation where they need to delete a single cookie by name but deleting _all_ of that site's cookies would be ruinous for some reason, then something's horribly wrong.
    - nett18 5y ago
      Read the parent answer, it explains when deleting individual cookies is useful (even for non-devs)
      - BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
        Not really? Cookie names/values are usually inscrutable to anyone who hasn't worked on the site in question, and the idea that a non-developer would need to selectively delete individual cookies to work around a bug in a site is just silly (those users are much better served by simply clearing all of that site's cookies and logging in again). (And when the need truly does arise, there's a perfectly-good tool for that which is no harder to find than the sub-menu being deprecated.)
  - shock-value 5y ago
    I have never known anyone to need to delete an individual cookie vs all for a site. Certainly I've never needed that. Only time I have (probably ever) deleted an individual cookie was for testing during development, and in those cases I already use the dev tools to do so.
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      You have never lived
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Which Does Not Exist On Mobile. (90% or more of most sites' organic web traffic is mobile.)
burnished 5y ago
I don't really interact with cookies at all. What are your uses cases? What is the value? If you're so enthused with it I'm wondering if I should be, basically.
bushbaba 5y ago
I always just used incognito windows for these kinds of issues.
drewg123 5y ago
We have a bug like that in our internal systems at work. If I can't delete an individual cookie, I'll switch to firefox for work stuff. (I currently use chrome for work stuff b/c we have some helpful extensions which are chrome only)
dangrossman 5y ago
I've run into that bug (I think) on lots of sites, including two of my credit card issuers. They set so many cookies, and new ones on every visit, with long expirations, until the cookie header is so large that either the browser or server is cutting it off and you can't pick up the cookies to log in any more. I go wipe out some cookies to fix that too.

yellow_lead 5y ago

I've looked at it before - to delete a specific cookie, or see what a website has stored. Deleting specific cookies can sometimes fix broken websites.

BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
What's the intersection of "users who want to delete a specific cookie" and "users who cannot open Developer Tools"? For the average user, deleting all of a site's cookies seems like all the granularity you need (and will be a more effective troubleshooting tactic anyway).
- shock-value 5y ago
  Effectively zero. Ridiculous that anyone would think this an issue even worth discussing.
- tsian2 5y ago
  I don't think many non-developers use the dev tools for tasks, while people merely interested in technology (gamers and such) will get a gentle introduction to how cookies work from looking through the cookies in the normal interface. Those people might go on to become developers eventually.

sixothree 5y ago

Absolutely. I delete specific cookies regularly.

BHSPitMonkey 5y ago
Through this UI? What's wrong with using Developer Tools for this?

rapnie 5y ago

I use FF, uBlock and Privacy Badger. Of those - while uBlock is most powerful - I value Privacy Badger the most. It shows me 'number of cookies' in the toolbar icon on every page, and in the dropdown I can quickly toggle any 'suspicious' domains to be blocked. Only much less often do I take the time to do more intricate stuff using uBlock Origin.

simfoo 5y ago

Not just on exit - cookie autodelete is awesome. 10s after I switch site all past cookies are gone

onkoe 5y ago

It's useful in specific cases and certainly nice to have in the main UI. I understand their reasoning for moving them, but I still disagree

danparsonson 5y ago

Anecdata point - I had trouble logging into a site recently and was able to solve the problem by clearing cookies just for that site, thus preserving my other stored logins.