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Google Calendar’s Enforced Birthdays Show the Ugly Side of Algorithms

5 points by riaface 12y ago

hias 12y ago
You can hide the calendar by clicking on the square symbol next to it.
- jack-r-abbit 12y ago
  Right. After skimming the article I went to my Calendar to see what had changed. Nothing. That calendar was still there and turned off like it always has been. Not sure what everyone is talking about.
  - geovizer 12y ago
    I have the same problem and the same irritation as the author of the article: I can't turn off birthdays in Google Calendar using the GUI. The checkbox that should allow me to do so is greyed out. Perhaps Google are doing a staged rollout of this "feature", or perhaps you have escaped the clammy grip of Google+?
    - jack-r-abbit 12y ago
      The check box in the Calendar Settings page is grayed out for me too as it seems. But I just toggle it off in my actual calendar view so none of the dates show up. Sure it still is in the list of calendars but it is not like it really effects anything just being in the list.
      - kngspook 12y ago
        0. Software is supposed to be designed to serve me; it's not my job to find workarounds for shitty design. This is a shitty design, and therefore people are criticizing it. 1. It's annoying because I already have all the birthdays I want on my iCloud calendar; it's creating a pile of duplicate events. 2. It's annoying in 3rd party apps when you hit a show/hide all calendars button, but you never want to see the Birthdays calendar. 3. Some 3rd party apps don't let you show/hide calendars in general, and this isn't a writable calendar, so it's doubly annoying. (Yes, this is shitty design too.)
        jack-r-abbit 12y ago
        The toggles aren't "work arounds." They are the UI of Calendar. But interesting that two of your bullet points in a comment about Google's shitty design are actually about the shitty design of some 3rd party apps, not Google. None of the 3rd party apps I use for Calendar have those issues. I don't think it is a big deal. You do. Both are opinions. We disagree.
robotvert 12y ago
The given solution at the end of the article to simply remove the disabled attribute didn't work on its own here because there's no event fired afterwards to persist the change. I had to manually edit the HTML and add the onclick handler: Note: - change the id you pass to the onclick function to match yours if it differs. - the "KNa" function might also be different. Check out the other checkboxes' HTML to figure it out. BEFORE: <input type="checkbox" id="cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" checked="" disabled="" class="al-ctrl al-nameref-showinlist"> AFTER: <input type="checkbox" id="cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" checked="" class="al-ctrl al-nameref-showinlist" onclick=KNa(('I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ'),(true));"> And then uncheck the box. Done.
- igetspam 12y ago
  Alternatively, you could enable the unsubscribe link by changing the   in the <td class="rightlink"> tag to this: <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="al-ctrl al-desc-self" onclick="LNa(('cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ'));"><nobr>Unsubscribe</nobr></a> That gets it out of your account completely.
Oletros 12y ago
Slow news day for Techcrunch?

5 points by riaface 12y ago

hias 12y ago

You can hide the calendar by clicking on the square symbol next to it.

jack-r-abbit 12y ago
Right. After skimming the article I went to my Calendar to see what had changed. Nothing. That calendar was still there and turned off like it always has been. Not sure what everyone is talking about.
- geovizer 12y ago
  I have the same problem and the same irritation as the author of the article: I can't turn off birthdays in Google Calendar using the GUI. The checkbox that should allow me to do so is greyed out. Perhaps Google are doing a staged rollout of this "feature", or perhaps you have escaped the clammy grip of Google+?
  - jack-r-abbit 12y ago
    The check box in the Calendar Settings page is grayed out for me too as it seems. But I just toggle it off in my actual calendar view so none of the dates show up. Sure it still is in the list of calendars but it is not like it really effects anything just being in the list.
    - kngspook 12y ago
      0. Software is supposed to be designed to serve me; it's not my job to find workarounds for shitty design. This is a shitty design, and therefore people are criticizing it. 1. It's annoying because I already have all the birthdays I want on my iCloud calendar; it's creating a pile of duplicate events. 2. It's annoying in 3rd party apps when you hit a show/hide all calendars button, but you never want to see the Birthdays calendar. 3. Some 3rd party apps don't let you show/hide calendars in general, and this isn't a writable calendar, so it's doubly annoying. (Yes, this is shitty design too.)
      - jack-r-abbit 12y ago
        The toggles aren't "work arounds." They are the UI of Calendar. But interesting that two of your bullet points in a comment about Google's shitty design are actually about the shitty design of some 3rd party apps, not Google. None of the 3rd party apps I use for Calendar have those issues. I don't think it is a big deal. You do. Both are opinions. We disagree.

robotvert 12y ago

The given solution at the end of the article to simply remove the disabled attribute didn't work on its own here because there's no event fired afterwards to persist the change. I had to manually edit the HTML and add the onclick handler: Note: - change the id you pass to the onclick function to match yours if it differs. - the "KNa" function might also be different. Check out the other checkboxes' HTML to figure it out. BEFORE: <input type="checkbox" id="cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" checked="" disabled="" class="al-ctrl al-nameref-showinlist"> AFTER: <input type="checkbox" id="cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" checked="" class="al-ctrl al-nameref-showinlist" onclick=KNa(('I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ'),(true));"> And then uncheck the box. Done.

igetspam 12y ago
Alternatively, you could enable the unsubscribe link by changing the   in the <td class="rightlink"> tag to this: <a href="javascript:void(0)" class="al-ctrl al-desc-self" onclick="LNa(('cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ'));"><nobr>Unsubscribe</nobr></a> That gets it out of your account completely.

Oletros 12y ago

Slow news day for Techcrunch?