Just make a web browser standard for all of this this. I hate repeating myself.
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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Not sure I'd prefer the easy internet of the past though. I hope no one forgets websites used to store your password in plain text and just sent it to you if you forgot. Oh and password length? Any 4 characters will do! Buying online? Yeah just need those super secure 3 digits on the card please. There's a lot of unneeded fluff today like the promos and cookie disclaimers could have been handled at protocol level. But what is there for security is generally good change, even if it makes the process more complex.
Ah yes, the "Private, simple or secure" web dilemma that will push everyone to embracing AI agents that will amplify the issues with the first three options.
I don't know how this happens, but it seems like so many damned websites are broken when it comes time for me to actually use them. This is becoming an almost daily issue. So not only do we have to navigate terrible UI/UX applications, we also have to deal with frequent outages and novel bugs.
Wish I was kidding.
Friday: I had to log into an HR website to update my contact info, my login information didn't work. The reset password link never sent me an email. Left a message with HR and still haven't heard back. Later that day: Wanted to redeem some credit card points, button takes me to a 3rd party side, 3rd party site redirects to a message that says "we're undergoing maintenance at this time please check back later".
Saturday: Tried to make an online appointment with my primary healthcare provider. The form would not accept my phone number, for some reason, it would not pass validation. Eventually got through, selected a time slot from the list of available spots, went to submit and got a message along the lines of "your provider is not available during this time, please try again." Later that day: Went to go read the news on one of the sites I have a paid subscription for. It hasn't asked me to login for awhile, but on Saturday it did. No biggie, tried to sign in, but it kept giving me an error message about not having permission to view the site.
Sunday: Got a recall notice for my car last week. Went in to schedule the fix with the closest dealership. Went through a multi-page webform that took approximately 10 minutes to complete and then hit the submit button. Nothing happened. Clicked it again, thinking maybe it didn't register. Nothing. Tried once more, nothing. A few minutes later, my phone rang, it was an automated call from the dealership asking me to hold for the next available representative. Moments later, another incoming call from the dealership, I switch over, same automated call asking me to hold. Then it happened again, another incoming call from the dealership. I ended up waiting on hold for quite some time (20ish minutes???) with no response before I finally just ended all the calls because I have shit to do.
Today (Monday): Tried to sign up for some insurance. Selected a bunch of options using the "compare" feature and then clicked the button. Nothing happened, so I waited. After maybe a minute, a pop-up appeared to let me know I was signed out due to inactivity. I tried signing back in, and this time it asked me for a code that it claimed to have texted to my phone number. Still haven't gotten that text.
I wish I could say this is unusual, but it seems like a near constant now. What is up with this?
It sounds familiar. "Wait let me quickly do this online and we can eat." Half an hour later: "OK I will finish this after dinner."
"New password must differ from your current active password"
We can thank GDPR for the cookie warnings.
Promos are legit enshittification.
Passkeys beat 2FA apps & enable passwordless.
Shipping & card info can be 1-time fill. A decent password manager with form filler takes the pain out of much of this. Federated identities also reduce some pain.
Yeah, I'm absolutely going to throw my laptop out of the window someday.
I work in web dev and it kills me every time to set up this stupid UX.
Honestly, this biggest problem is these damn pop ups actually work for conversions. If people would stop filling the pop up forms on the sites they would fade to obscurity but for every annoyed dev who closes the pop up asking for an email, there is 10 normies who give up their email or create an account or complete a purchase.
Static email sign up forms in the header or footer of a site are lucky to see a 1% conversion. The average pop up conversion rate in 2024 was 11%.. The highest preforming pop ups in this analysis had a 43% conversion rate, that is INSANE for web conversions. And those stupid gamification spin the wheel pop ups that I personally hate the most, have a 13% conversion.
Imo it's bearable with the ublock and 'I still don't care about cookies' extensions (Firefox) now. I kinda get the anti-bot measures on pages... bots are a pain for every page owner.
This hurts a lot
Missing step of CAPTCHA asking you to click on motorcycle images, only for you to fail at least twice
Lifehack: Use the audio prompt and just put in ANY similar number of random words you hear. It fuzzes AI training data at same time. Works every time.
Me just trying to fucking pay a utility bill:
"Honey, could you come in here and tell me if this looks like the edge of crosswalk just visible behind that car? I have one chance left and can't mess this up!"
Oh my. This was my yesterday trying to sign up on Meetup.
First it was click crosswalks. Then stairs. Then motorcycles. Then the sign up failed. 5 minutes of my life so I can RSVP some stupid ass event.
What a shit experience.
Or writing the exact characters in the obfuscated image only to be told it's not what you seen.
What's literally traumatizing are the scumbag sites that wait a little bit before showing you an email popup.
Like, I'll be reading something and then BLAM! I'm immediately taken out of my focus and have to, for the 1 billionth time (and counting!), refuse to give them an email address.
Fuck everyone who encourages this bullshit. Fuck everyone who actually gives them emails. It's likely an extremely low percentage of users, but that's all that it takes to ruin things for the rest of us.
Scumbag sites like that are actively contributing to lowering everyone's standards and making us get used to a 'new normal.'
it’s likely an extremely low percentage of users
its not, its actually a pretty high percentage, the conversion rate of pop up email form to static forms in the footer or header are like night and day. Static email sign up forms are lucky to see a 1% conversion. The average pop up conversion rate for emails pop up with incentive (like a discount code) in 2024 was 7%.
If people stopped filling out the pop up forms they would go away, but people still continue to bite so they live on.
I mean, these "scumbag sites" include everything from the NYT to X, The Everything App.
Sharing screencaps from mastodon is acceptable, but only because it combats screencaps from twitter.
That's what this community is for
My first error was existing