4 ms·

“Design choice was made by accounting and legal. Therefore, won’t fix” (2020)

60 points by sergiomattei 4y ago

rurban 4y ago
(2020)
educaysean 4y ago
Is the implication that allowing custom css styling means more hidden ads?
- A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
  I am always afraid to ask, but what hidden ads ( I didn't delve in to CSS much )?
  - Brian_K_White 4y ago
    maybe they meant ability for the user to hide ads
- bunbun69 4y ago
  No In that case they would've banned adblockers 8 years ago
toomim 4y ago
It's sad when computer companies put accountants and lawyers in positions of authority over the computer people.
dudeinjapan 4y ago
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. - Hannah Arendt
nextaccountic 4y ago
What is the legal issue? And what does it have to do with accounting??
- justrealist 4y ago
  Making it too easy to violate TOS, maybe.
- slater 4y ago
  Maybe someone has a patent on this, and accounting said "we're not gonna pay" and legal said "we don't want to get sued"?
  - meitham 4y ago
    In one of the comments it mentions that the author style sheets allow users to hide ads and make it easy to kill sponsored results!
- patmcc 4y ago
  Legal - "If users can render ads invisible we can't claim they're seeing them, and we can't charge people for them." Accounting - "We want to charge for ads, that's where all the money comes from." Legal - "Yah we can take this feature out, accessibility laws are a joke." Devs - "whelp, ok"
- cjhopman 4y ago
  There is none. The comment is from some random gmail account, it doesn't mean anything.
ofirg 4y ago
"Cannot simultaneously fix and keep job" In the cyberpunk dystopia we are moving towards, job fixes you!
- meitham 4y ago
  I thought the whole point of these “open source” Google projects is to give an autonomy to the developers in makings decisions, so I’m quite astonished that the devs cannot make the simplest of the decisions to comply with web standards without fear of losing their jobs!
nightpool 4y ago
This is.... just a random internet comment made by a commenter on the chrome bugtracker with no evidence supporting it? What the Chrome team actually said was: "We've removed support for user stylesheets from Chrome. The feature had many problems. It was used by a very small percentage of our users, was not very user-friendly (e.g. you need a high level of technical ability to use it) and was slowing down our ability to make improvements in other parts of the product. Chrome extensions allow you to inject CSS stylesheets into pages, so it would be possible for someone to create a Chrome extension that replicates this functionality in a more user-friendly way" You can agree with this logic or disagree with it, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Accounting or Legal in any way shape or form. Why are people acting like the linked comment has anything to do with reality?
- meitham 4y ago
  Because the comment has been published two years ago in a bug tracker controlled by the Chromium devs and yet to be removed, so it almost reads as if the chromium devs agree with it and happy it didn’t come from their own accounts!
  - lamontcg 4y ago
    Nobody on the dev team is reading those messages for their own mental health, people are just shouting into /dev/null and that closed issue is lost in the noise of a hundred thousand other closed issues and never gets looked at. Personally I prefer to lock old closed issues almost immediately to cut this off, but leaving them open so that people can shout into the void is another possible choice.
  - nightpool 4y ago
    what
    - nightpool 4y ago
      did you read any of the comments in that thread? they're almost all critical and insulting towards the Chromium dev team, and not a single one of them has been removed (Although one comment seemingly from a dev was deleted, probably by the person who made the comment). The Chromium devs don't often remove any comments. The fact that they haven't decided to remove this one is absolutely not evidence of anything
reaperhulk 4y ago
This is an account linked to a gmail address with no other comments on the tracker. Is there any evidence this is/was a Google employee and not just a random troll in the issue tracker?
foota 4y ago
Seems like there's a means to accomplish the same thing, and the title here is editorialized. (and makes it sound like it's a statement from Chromium, which it doesn't seem to be.)
mkl95 4y ago
Every engineer who has worked at some SaaS has experienced some form of this (and it's no silver lining). This particular comment does not look legit though.
readthenotes1 4y ago
Impossible to read in dark mode! Perhaps some styling went awry?
cjhopman 4y ago
I don't understand how so many people can discuss this as though it's not some random gmail account that made the comment.

60 points by sergiomattei 4y ago

rurban 4y ago

(2020)

educaysean 4y ago

Is the implication that allowing custom css styling means more hidden ads?

A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
I am always afraid to ask, but what hidden ads ( I didn't delve in to CSS much )?
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
  maybe they meant ability for the user to hide ads
bunbun69 4y ago
No In that case they would've banned adblockers 8 years ago

toomim 4y ago

It's sad when computer companies put accountants and lawyers in positions of authority over the computer people.

dudeinjapan 4y ago

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. - Hannah Arendt

nextaccountic 4y ago

What is the legal issue? And what does it have to do with accounting??

justrealist 4y ago
Making it too easy to violate TOS, maybe.
slater 4y ago
Maybe someone has a patent on this, and accounting said "we're not gonna pay" and legal said "we don't want to get sued"?
- meitham 4y ago
  In one of the comments it mentions that the author style sheets allow users to hide ads and make it easy to kill sponsored results!
patmcc 4y ago
Legal - "If users can render ads invisible we can't claim they're seeing them, and we can't charge people for them." Accounting - "We want to charge for ads, that's where all the money comes from." Legal - "Yah we can take this feature out, accessibility laws are a joke." Devs - "whelp, ok"
cjhopman 4y ago
There is none. The comment is from some random gmail account, it doesn't mean anything.

ofirg 4y ago

"Cannot simultaneously fix and keep job" In the cyberpunk dystopia we are moving towards, job fixes you!

meitham 4y ago
I thought the whole point of these “open source” Google projects is to give an autonomy to the developers in makings decisions, so I’m quite astonished that the devs cannot make the simplest of the decisions to comply with web standards without fear of losing their jobs!

nightpool 4y ago

This is.... just a random internet comment made by a commenter on the chrome bugtracker with no evidence supporting it? What the Chrome team actually said was: "We've removed support for user stylesheets from Chrome. The feature had many problems. It was used by a very small percentage of our users, was not very user-friendly (e.g. you need a high level of technical ability to use it) and was slowing down our ability to make improvements in other parts of the product. Chrome extensions allow you to inject CSS stylesheets into pages, so it would be possible for someone to create a Chrome extension that replicates this functionality in a more user-friendly way" You can agree with this logic or disagree with it, but it had absolutely nothing to do with Accounting or Legal in any way shape or form. Why are people acting like the linked comment has anything to do with reality?

meitham 4y ago
Because the comment has been published two years ago in a bug tracker controlled by the Chromium devs and yet to be removed, so it almost reads as if the chromium devs agree with it and happy it didn’t come from their own accounts!
- lamontcg 4y ago
  Nobody on the dev team is reading those messages for their own mental health, people are just shouting into /dev/null and that closed issue is lost in the noise of a hundred thousand other closed issues and never gets looked at. Personally I prefer to lock old closed issues almost immediately to cut this off, but leaving them open so that people can shout into the void is another possible choice.
- nightpool 4y ago
  what
  - nightpool 4y ago
    did you read any of the comments in that thread? they're almost all critical and insulting towards the Chromium dev team, and not a single one of them has been removed (Although one comment seemingly from a dev was deleted, probably by the person who made the comment). The Chromium devs don't often remove any comments. The fact that they haven't decided to remove this one is absolutely not evidence of anything

reaperhulk 4y ago

This is an account linked to a gmail address with no other comments on the tracker. Is there any evidence this is/was a Google employee and not just a random troll in the issue tracker?

foota 4y ago

Seems like there's a means to accomplish the same thing, and the title here is editorialized. (and makes it sound like it's a statement from Chromium, which it doesn't seem to be.)

mkl95 4y ago

Every engineer who has worked at some SaaS has experienced some form of this (and it's no silver lining). This particular comment does not look legit though.

readthenotes1 4y ago

Impossible to read in dark mode! Perhaps some styling went awry?

cjhopman 4y ago

I don't understand how so many people can discuss this as though it's not some random gmail account that made the comment.