4 ms·

Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. "Predatory death-trap pricing" captures the spirit of the thing with rather more clarity.

by harry8 5y ago

Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. "Predatory death-trap pricing" captures the spirit of the thing with rather more clarity. It is wholly intentional after all.

gwd 5y ago
> Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. Or craft clothing for goths? But the "dark" comes from its association with evil: "Defense against the Dark Arts", "The Dark Lord", "Turn to the Dark Side of the Force". It's a clear implication that the people are "selling their souls to the devil": knowingly doing something "a little bit evil" to achieve their aims.
OrderlyTiamat 5y ago
> Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. I can see your point- if I'd never seen the term before I might have a similar reaction. But it's quite a common term now I think.
- harry8 5y ago
  Not it is not. It is common industry jargon for people who work with websites. Nobody else knows what it is. If you had to pick a term to sound as inoffensive as possible for fraudulent, deceptive conduct while still sort of capturing the thing without being abjectly false you could do no better than something that sounds like a colourscheme. "Mr Politician what do you think about $big_co using dark patterns?" "Mr Politician what do you think about $big_co engaging in predatory death-trap pricing schemes to defraud consumers?" What is being asked in one of those questions is clear to everybody. The other is jargon and excludes the majority of the population from understanding the intended meaning. And note, you don't have to agree that it is "predatory death-trap pricing" at all. That is simply in the above sentence an accusation. Words have meanings. That the accusation be understood clearly by as many people as possible is important.
  - OrderlyTiamat 5y ago
    I appreciate your point that as many people need to know the meaning accusations and that meaning is important, and I agree. However regarding your other claims- I dont work on websites, I know the term "dark pattern". so your assertion that "nobody else knows what it is" is false. You might then argue that I'm still in tech, but that's just another goalpost that I can reach anyway: if you google for the term you'll find vox articles, explainer sites, even newyorktimes articles using this term. So yes, it's a common place term and your assertion to the contrary does not hold any water.
timje1 5y ago
We had a similar situation to Troy's where several thousand pounds was charged in a matter of days as a result of our misconfiguration of caching in our azure app services (before that month we typically had around £800 a month costs). We emailed Azure / Microsoft and they were happy to refund us. I don't think this is their intended business model.

by harry8 5y ago

Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. "Predatory death-trap pricing" captures the spirit of the thing with rather more clarity. It is wholly intentional after all.

gwd 5y ago

> Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. Or craft clothing for goths? But the "dark" comes from its association with evil: "Defense against the Dark Arts", "The Dark Lord", "Turn to the Dark Side of the Force". It's a clear implication that the people are "selling their souls to the devil": knowingly doing something "a little bit evil" to achieve their aims.

OrderlyTiamat 5y ago

> Dark patterns - this sounds like a colour scheme you don't care for. I can see your point- if I'd never seen the term before I might have a similar reaction. But it's quite a common term now I think.

harry8 5y ago
Not it is not. It is common industry jargon for people who work with websites. Nobody else knows what it is. If you had to pick a term to sound as inoffensive as possible for fraudulent, deceptive conduct while still sort of capturing the thing without being abjectly false you could do no better than something that sounds like a colourscheme. "Mr Politician what do you think about $big_co using dark patterns?" "Mr Politician what do you think about $big_co engaging in predatory death-trap pricing schemes to defraud consumers?" What is being asked in one of those questions is clear to everybody. The other is jargon and excludes the majority of the population from understanding the intended meaning. And note, you don't have to agree that it is "predatory death-trap pricing" at all. That is simply in the above sentence an accusation. Words have meanings. That the accusation be understood clearly by as many people as possible is important.
- OrderlyTiamat 5y ago
  I appreciate your point that as many people need to know the meaning accusations and that meaning is important, and I agree. However regarding your other claims- I dont work on websites, I know the term "dark pattern". so your assertion that "nobody else knows what it is" is false. You might then argue that I'm still in tech, but that's just another goalpost that I can reach anyway: if you google for the term you'll find vox articles, explainer sites, even newyorktimes articles using this term. So yes, it's a common place term and your assertion to the contrary does not hold any water.

timje1 5y ago

We had a similar situation to Troy's where several thousand pounds was charged in a matter of days as a result of our misconfiguration of caching in our azure app services (before that month we typically had around £800 a month costs). We emailed Azure / Microsoft and they were happy to refund us. I don't think this is their intended business model.