4 ms·

TIL the word phubbing! P.S. It's missing the [pdf] tag.

avalys 5y ago
It's interesting how much better the experience is reading a PDF online than an article on a "modern" website. The PDF loads quickly - nearly instantaneously. Nevertheless it also has a loading bar which accurately reflects loading progress. It is ready to be viewed immediately after loading. Once loaded, the layout is fixed - it doesn't shift and jump around as content continues to load for seconds after the first content is displayed. Scrolling is immediate, fast and responsive. It has no advertisements, no banners, no interstitials and no cookie warnings. Usually very little extraneous content of any kind. So I've never understood the desire for a "PDF Warning". If anything, we should have a tag on links to (for example) The Verge that somehow communicates "this page has 100 kB of content and 16 MB of Javascript ads, trackers, cookie warning popups, and other garbage. It will take 15 seconds to load and will reflow the layout 6 times while doing so. Once loaded, it will try to autoplay a useless video that takes 5 minutes to provide 15 seconds of explanation. Autoplay will start by showing you an unskippable 30-second toilet paper ad. If you try to stop the autoplaying ad because you don't want to watch the useless autoplaying video, your tap will open the toilet paper company's website instead." If anything, HN should prefer PDFs and tag links to such sites with a warning.
- nick__m 5y ago
  I have nothing against PDFs when I am at my desk but I dislike them on my tablet as I have to manually delete them from the Download folder. For autoplaying toilet paper ad, I believe you that they exists inabundance but I don't see them as I use uBlock Origin in Firefox for Android...
- leephillips 5y ago
  Amen to everything you said. Far too many submissions to HN turn out to be these kinds of abusive sites. PDF FTW!
- e12e 5y ago
  Doesn't read very well on a phone - but would be great as a simple html page...
- rhn_mk1 5y ago
  > So I've never understood the desire for a "PDF Warning". What you're describing is the influence of scripting, and, to some extent, custom stylesheets. Some of us take the Web to the stone age by disabling either, for the purpose of calm reading - I think Reader Mode is also that. Yes, the content being reflowed by the creator is worse than fixed content, but fixed content is worse than content reflowed exclusively by the reader. Considering that, I really have no desire to read PDFs which need to be panned and zoomed every which way in order to read them comfortably.
anm89 5y ago
This researcher just made it up. You could make up your own words if you wanted
dang 5y ago
[pdf] added above. Thanks!

It's interesting how much better the experience is reading a PDF online than an article on a "modern" website. The PDF loads quickly - nearly instantaneously. Nevertheless it also has a loading bar which accurately reflects loading progress. It is ready to be viewed immediately after loading. Once loaded, the layout is fixed - it doesn't shift and jump around as content continues to load for seconds after the first content is displayed. Scrolling is immediate, fast and responsive. It has no advertisements, no banners, no interstitials and no cookie warnings. Usually very little extraneous content of any kind. So I've never understood the desire for a "PDF Warning". If anything, we should have a tag on links to (for example) The Verge that somehow communicates "this page has 100 kB of content and 16 MB of Javascript ads, trackers, cookie warning popups, and other garbage. It will take 15 seconds to load and will reflow the layout 6 times while doing so. Once loaded, it will try to autoplay a useless video that takes 5 minutes to provide 15 seconds of explanation. Autoplay will start by showing you an unskippable 30-second toilet paper ad. If you try to stop the autoplaying ad because you don't want to watch the useless autoplaying video, your tap will open the toilet paper company's website instead." If anything, HN should prefer PDFs and tag links to such sites with a warning.

nick__m 5y ago
I have nothing against PDFs when I am at my desk but I dislike them on my tablet as I have to manually delete them from the Download folder. For autoplaying toilet paper ad, I believe you that they exists inabundance but I don't see them as I use uBlock Origin in Firefox for Android...
leephillips 5y ago
Amen to everything you said. Far too many submissions to HN turn out to be these kinds of abusive sites. PDF FTW!
e12e 5y ago
Doesn't read very well on a phone - but would be great as a simple html page...
rhn_mk1 5y ago
> So I've never understood the desire for a "PDF Warning". What you're describing is the influence of scripting, and, to some extent, custom stylesheets. Some of us take the Web to the stone age by disabling either, for the purpose of calm reading - I think Reader Mode is also that. Yes, the content being reflowed by the creator is worse than fixed content, but fixed content is worse than content reflowed exclusively by the reader. Considering that, I really have no desire to read PDFs which need to be panned and zoomed every which way in order to read them comfortably.

anm89 5y ago

This researcher just made it up. You could make up your own words if you wanted

dang 5y ago

[pdf] added above. Thanks!