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I agree, most sites are very aggressive with popups and modals, that having a small pleasant avatar peak out at you is a nice change.
by hwatkins 5y ago
I agree, most sites are very aggressive with popups and modals, that having a small pleasant avatar peak out at you is a nice change.
- gwern 5y agoNo, it's still bad. For example, it hijacks the space bar. You're spacing/pgdwning like normal when it pops out, then it hijacks the space to open up a nag modal. It was terrible when it was Clippy, it's terrible when it's a Bob the Builder avatar. Comeau's website never sparks joy in me because I'm always wondering what the next bullshit will be (was this the one which for a while was doing sparkles after the mouse?).
- marginalia_nu 5y agoI seriously wonder if a person exists that likes being bothered when they're trying to read something? If that's not the case, and in fact nobody likes this, why anyone would think that this was a good idea?
- ulimn 5y agoI personally don't find this particular popup bothering. I can continue to read the page without interruption. I also understand that they want me to subscribe or whatever so I know when their next article is up.
- udbhavs 5y agoCan you give examples of sites that do spark joy for you? Whenever I encounter hate for certain design decisions online I like to know the alternative I should strive to follow instead.
- Retr0id 5y agoHN
- roryokane 5y agoThe person who complained, Gwern, has their own site at https://www.gwern.net/ https://www.gwern.net/. It’s another article-focused site, so the designs should be mostly comparable. However, Gwern’s articles are much longer, so their design choices might reflect that.
- ulimn 5y agoFor me Page Down does not trigger the click on the "Sure" button of the small popup. That would be a really weird thing. Space does, because the element is focused automatically (which is kinda bad imo).
- Aardwolf 5y agoHeh, I didn't like it, I never like when something pops up and animates on a website after a timer while you're reading, I never like when something overlays any part left or right of the text you're trying to read, and I never like when you have to close something to continue distraction free. This thing is exactly an aggressive modal popup.
- strken 5y agoWhen it showed up, I gasped and jerked my hands away from the keyboard. It felt like a jump scare.
- allenu 5y agoIt honestly scared me too when I saw it pop out of the side of the screen. I've viewed this blog before and had the same reaction. It's cute, but I'm sure you and I aren't alone.