5 ms·

> I don't keep a "dick bar" that sticks to the top of the page to remind you which site you're on. I use an extension called "Bar Breaker" that hides these whe

> I don't keep a "dick bar" that sticks to the top of the page to remind you which site you're on. I use an extension called "Bar Breaker" that hides these when you scroll away from the top/bottom of the page.[0] More people should know about it. [0] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bar-breaker/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bar-breaker/

xp84 2y ago
Nice. This may be my pet peeve on the modern internet. Nearly EVERY site has a dick bar, and the reason I care is it breaks scrolling with spacebar, which is THE most comfortable way to read long content, it scrolls you a screen at a time. But a dickbar obscures the first 1 to…10? lines of the content, so you have to scroll back up. The only thing worse than the dickbar is the dickbar that appears and disappears depending on last direction scrolled, so that each move of the scrolling mechanism changes the viewport size. A pox on them all.
- nayuki 2y ago
  > Nearly EVERY site has a dick bar, and the reason I care is that when reading on my laptop screen, it takes up valuable vertical space on a small display that is in landscape mode. I want to use my screen's real estate to read the freaking content, not look at your stupid branding bar. And I don't need any on-page assistance to jump back to the top of the page and/or find the navigation. I have a "Home" key on my keyboard and use it frequently.
  - oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
    TBF, many people don't have that Home key. I agree with you, though - there should be a better solution. At the very least, just have an optional "Top of page" toolbar button in your browser.
    - P-Nuts 2y ago
      Ctrl+↑
      - oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
        That's one option. On macOS, it's fn + Left. On Android, I'm not sure there's anything.
        Y_Y 2y ago
        On Android I think the typical interaction if to "fling" the page downward which will rapidly scroll until you crash into the top. Seems adequate for all but the longest pages.
        wruza 2y ago
        Wasn’t it cmd-up on mac?
    - carlosjobim 2y ago
      On iPhone: Touch the top bar On MacOS: Click the top part of the scroll bar
- robertoandred 2y ago
  Note to web devs: use scroll-padding to fix this: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-padding https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-padd...
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    No. Just kill the fucking dickbar.
  - cwillu 2y ago
    NAK; stop doing stupid shit and then you don't need browser support to fix the things you break on a case-by-case basis.
- resonious 2y ago
  Dick bar often breaks hash links as well. You click a link that scrolls you to a section, but you can't see the first few lines of it.
- Doctor_Fegg 2y ago
  IIRC (as a fellow spacebar aficionado) position:fixed breaks spacebar scrolling but position:sticky generally doesn’t.
- philsnow 2y ago
  I often scroll with the space bar instead of more modern contrivances like arrow keys, scroll wheels, trackpoints, or trackpads. Sites with these header bars always seem to scroll the entire viewport y size instead of (y - bar_height), so after I hit space I have to up-arrow some number of times to see the next line of text that should be visible but is hidden under the bar.
imoreno 2y ago
It's annoying that every time "they" come up with a new antipattern, "we" have to add yet another extension to the list of mandatory things for each browser. And it also promotes browser monopoly because extensions get ported slowly to non-mainstream browsers. It would be better to have a single extension like uBlock origin to handle the browser compatibility, and then release the countermeasures through that. In fact, ublock already has "Annoyances" lists for things like cookie banners, but I don't think it includes the dick bar unfortunately. Incidentally, these bars are always on sites where the navbar takes 10% vertical space, cookie banner (full width of course) takes another 30% at the bottom, their text is overspaced and oversized, the left/right margins are huge so the text is like 50% of the width... Don't these people ever look at their own site? With many of these, I'm so confused how anyone could look at it and say it's good to go.
- wilkystyle 2y ago
  It's not a silver bullet, but I do the following with uBlock Origin: 1. JS disabled by default, only enabled on sites I choose 2. Filter to fix sites that mess with scrolling: ##html:style(scroll-behavior: auto !important;) 3. Filters for dick bars and other floating elements: ##*:matches-css(position:fixed) ##*:matches-css(position:sticky)
  - kikokikokiko 2y ago
    To me, what gets rid of those annoying sticky bars that cover half the screen, is this rule: ##[class*="part of the name of the annoying class, generally sticky something"] this rule is amazing to deal with those randomly generated class names
- teddyh 2y ago
  The president was very insistent that we show popup ads at six different points in time, until he got home and got six popup ads, and said, “You know what? Maybe just two popups.” — Joel Spolsky, What is the Work of Dogs in this Country? (2001): <https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/05/05/what-is-the-work-of-dogs-in-this-country/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/05/05/what-is-the-work-o...>
kerkeslager 2y ago
I am usually the first old man to yell at any cloud, and I was overjoyed when someone invented the word "enshittening" for me to describe how the internet has gotten, but it surprised me a bit that people found that one annoying. I can see the problem of it sticking the top of the page with a logo (which is basically an ad and I hate those), but they usually have a menu there, so I always thought of them a bit like the toolbar at the top of an application window in a native desktop application. FWIW when I've built those, I've always de-emphasized the branding and focused on making the menus obvious and accessible. I'm happy to learn something new about other people's preferences, though. If people prefer scrolling to the top, so be it! EDIT: It occurs to me that this could be a preference setting. A few of the websites that have let me have my way, I've started generating CSS from a Django template and adding configuration options to let users set variables like colors--with really positive feedback from disabled users. At a fundamental level, I think the solution to accessibility is often configurability, because people with different disabilities often need different, mutually incompatible accommodations.
- kalensh 2y ago
  Another thing to check for with sticky headers is how it behaves when the page is zoomed. Often, the header increased in size proportionately, which can shrink down the effective reading area quite a bit. Add in the frequent sticky chat button at the bottom, and users may be left with not a lot of screen to read text in. There can be a logic to keeping the header at the top like a menu bar, and I applaud you if you take an approach that focuses on value to the user. Though I'd still say most sites that use this approach, don't have a strong need for it, nor do they consider smaller viewports except for portrait mobile. Configuration is great, though it quickly runs into discoverability issues. However it is the only way to solve some things - like you pointed out with colors. I know people who rely on high contrast colors and others that reduce contrast as much as they effectively can.
- st-keller 2y ago
  This is exactly what CSS was designed for: allowing you to define your personal style preferences in your browser, applying them across all websites. The term ‘cascading’ reflects this purpose. Unfortunately, the web today has strayed far from its original vision. Yet, we continue to rely on the foundational technologies that were created for that very vision.
aembleton 2y ago
I just toggle reader mode. Gets rid of this and everything else annoying. For sites where that doesn't work, I zap the bar in uBO.
- niutech 2y ago
  Brave has an excellent Speedreader mode.

xp84 2y ago

Nice. This may be my pet peeve on the modern internet. Nearly EVERY site has a dick bar, and the reason I care is it breaks scrolling with spacebar, which is THE most comfortable way to read long content, it scrolls you a screen at a time. But a dickbar obscures the first 1 to…10? lines of the content, so you have to scroll back up. The only thing worse than the dickbar is the dickbar that appears and disappears depending on last direction scrolled, so that each move of the scrolling mechanism changes the viewport size. A pox on them all.

nayuki 2y ago
> Nearly EVERY site has a dick bar, and the reason I care is that when reading on my laptop screen, it takes up valuable vertical space on a small display that is in landscape mode. I want to use my screen's real estate to read the freaking content, not look at your stupid branding bar. And I don't need any on-page assistance to jump back to the top of the page and/or find the navigation. I have a "Home" key on my keyboard and use it frequently.
- oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
  TBF, many people don't have that Home key. I agree with you, though - there should be a better solution. At the very least, just have an optional "Top of page" toolbar button in your browser.
  - P-Nuts 2y ago
    Ctrl+↑
    - oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
      That's one option. On macOS, it's fn + Left. On Android, I'm not sure there's anything.
      - Y_Y 2y ago
        On Android I think the typical interaction if to "fling" the page downward which will rapidly scroll until you crash into the top. Seems adequate for all but the longest pages.
      - wruza 2y ago
        Wasn’t it cmd-up on mac?
  - carlosjobim 2y ago
    On iPhone: Touch the top bar On MacOS: Click the top part of the scroll bar
robertoandred 2y ago
Note to web devs: use scroll-padding to fix this: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-padding https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/scroll-padd...
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  No. Just kill the fucking dickbar.
- cwillu 2y ago
  NAK; stop doing stupid shit and then you don't need browser support to fix the things you break on a case-by-case basis.
resonious 2y ago
Dick bar often breaks hash links as well. You click a link that scrolls you to a section, but you can't see the first few lines of it.
Doctor_Fegg 2y ago
IIRC (as a fellow spacebar aficionado) position:fixed breaks spacebar scrolling but position:sticky generally doesn’t.
philsnow 2y ago
I often scroll with the space bar instead of more modern contrivances like arrow keys, scroll wheels, trackpoints, or trackpads. Sites with these header bars always seem to scroll the entire viewport y size instead of (y - bar_height), so after I hit space I have to up-arrow some number of times to see the next line of text that should be visible but is hidden under the bar.

imoreno 2y ago

It's annoying that every time "they" come up with a new antipattern, "we" have to add yet another extension to the list of mandatory things for each browser. And it also promotes browser monopoly because extensions get ported slowly to non-mainstream browsers. It would be better to have a single extension like uBlock origin to handle the browser compatibility, and then release the countermeasures through that. In fact, ublock already has "Annoyances" lists for things like cookie banners, but I don't think it includes the dick bar unfortunately. Incidentally, these bars are always on sites where the navbar takes 10% vertical space, cookie banner (full width of course) takes another 30% at the bottom, their text is overspaced and oversized, the left/right margins are huge so the text is like 50% of the width... Don't these people ever look at their own site? With many of these, I'm so confused how anyone could look at it and say it's good to go.

wilkystyle 2y ago
It's not a silver bullet, but I do the following with uBlock Origin: 1. JS disabled by default, only enabled on sites I choose 2. Filter to fix sites that mess with scrolling: ##html:style(scroll-behavior: auto !important;) 3. Filters for dick bars and other floating elements: ##*:matches-css(position:fixed) ##*:matches-css(position:sticky)
- kikokikokiko 2y ago
  To me, what gets rid of those annoying sticky bars that cover half the screen, is this rule: ##[class*="part of the name of the annoying class, generally sticky something"] this rule is amazing to deal with those randomly generated class names
teddyh 2y ago
The president was very insistent that we show popup ads at six different points in time, until he got home and got six popup ads, and said, “You know what? Maybe just two popups.” — Joel Spolsky, What is the Work of Dogs in this Country? (2001): <https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/05/05/what-is-the-work-of-dogs-in-this-country/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/05/05/what-is-the-work-o...>

kerkeslager 2y ago

I am usually the first old man to yell at any cloud, and I was overjoyed when someone invented the word "enshittening" for me to describe how the internet has gotten, but it surprised me a bit that people found that one annoying. I can see the problem of it sticking the top of the page with a logo (which is basically an ad and I hate those), but they usually have a menu there, so I always thought of them a bit like the toolbar at the top of an application window in a native desktop application. FWIW when I've built those, I've always de-emphasized the branding and focused on making the menus obvious and accessible. I'm happy to learn something new about other people's preferences, though. If people prefer scrolling to the top, so be it! EDIT: It occurs to me that this could be a preference setting. A few of the websites that have let me have my way, I've started generating CSS from a Django template and adding configuration options to let users set variables like colors--with really positive feedback from disabled users. At a fundamental level, I think the solution to accessibility is often configurability, because people with different disabilities often need different, mutually incompatible accommodations.

kalensh 2y ago
Another thing to check for with sticky headers is how it behaves when the page is zoomed. Often, the header increased in size proportionately, which can shrink down the effective reading area quite a bit. Add in the frequent sticky chat button at the bottom, and users may be left with not a lot of screen to read text in. There can be a logic to keeping the header at the top like a menu bar, and I applaud you if you take an approach that focuses on value to the user. Though I'd still say most sites that use this approach, don't have a strong need for it, nor do they consider smaller viewports except for portrait mobile. Configuration is great, though it quickly runs into discoverability issues. However it is the only way to solve some things - like you pointed out with colors. I know people who rely on high contrast colors and others that reduce contrast as much as they effectively can.
st-keller 2y ago
This is exactly what CSS was designed for: allowing you to define your personal style preferences in your browser, applying them across all websites. The term ‘cascading’ reflects this purpose. Unfortunately, the web today has strayed far from its original vision. Yet, we continue to rely on the foundational technologies that were created for that very vision.

aembleton 2y ago

I just toggle reader mode. Gets rid of this and everything else annoying. For sites where that doesn't work, I zap the bar in uBO.

niutech 2y ago
Brave has an excellent Speedreader mode.