11 ms·

Is it just me, or is there some kind of asteroid game shooting bullets at my cursor while I try to read this [1]? I hate to sound mean, but it's a bit distracti

Is it just me, or is there some kind of asteroid game shooting bullets at my cursor while I try to read this [1]? I hate to sound mean, but it's a bit distracting. I guess it's my fault for having JavaScript enabled. [1]: https://flak.tedunangst.com/script.js https://flak.tedunangst.com/script.js

nomel 1y ago
And, if it hits, your cursor disappears! I wish there was some explosion.
bigstrat2003 1y ago
No, it's the website's fault for doing stupid cutesy stuff that makes the page harder to read. Don't victim-blame yourself here.
- stavros 1y ago
  I really don't understand this "everything must be 100% serious all the time". Why is it stupid?
  - Gualdrapo 1y ago
    The HN hivemind decries the lack of humanity and personality of the internet of nowadays but at the same time wants every website to be 100% text, no JS, no CSS because allegedly nobody needs CSS and, if you dare to do something remotely "fancy" with the layout, you have to build it with <table>s.
    - jackyard86 1y ago
      This is not about "lack of humanity", but about violating fundamental UX rules such as hiding your cursor at random times. It's offensive. You don't have to sacrifice usability while expressing personality.
      - extraisland 1y ago
        I barely noticed it. The complaints I've read about it are making a mountain out of a molehill.
  - apodik 1y ago
    I generally think stuff like that make the web much more interesting. In this case it was distracting though.
  - forbiddenlake 1y ago
    I didn't read the article because all the moving bits were too distracting. Something also turned my cursor invisible, which is rude. Not sure anyone lost anything here, or anyone cares.
- q3k 1y ago
  god forbid people have fun on the internet
- nomel 1y ago
  You should ask for a refund!
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
lilyball 1y ago
It's extremely distracting. I'm not normally one to have issues that require reduced motion, but the asteroids are almost distracting enough on their own, and the fact that it causes my cursor to vanish is a real accessibility issue. I didn't actually realize just how much I use my mouse cursor when reading stuff until now, partly as a fidget, partly as a controllable visual anchor as my eyes scan the page.
- joemi 1y ago
  I actually can't read things on that site at all. I move my mouse around while reading, not necessarily near the words I'm currently reading, so when my mouse disappears it's haltingly distracting. In addition to that, the way the "game" visually interferes with the text that I'm trying to read makes it incredibly hard to focus on reading. These two things combine to make this site literally unreadable for me. I don't get why people keep posting and upvoting articles from this user-hostile site.
tptacek 1y ago
Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Because way more people have opinions about e.g. asteroid game scripts on web pages than have opinions on RCUs, these subthreads spread like kudzu.
- ummonk 1y ago
  The described behavior sounds like significantly worse than tangential annoyance, and isn’t really a common occurrence even on modern user-hostile websites.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
binarycrusader 1y ago
I found it exceedingly difficult to read, so I ended up applying these ublock filter rules so I could read it: flak.tedunangst.com##.bl.shooter flak.tedunangst.com##.br.shooter flak.tedunangst.com##div.bullet
- jackyard86 1y ago
  It still hides your cursor though.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
Jtsummers 1y ago
He used to have a loading screen that did nothing if you have JS enabled in your browser, but no loading screen (which, again, did nothing) if you had JS disabled. I'm pretty sure it's meant to deliberately annoy, though this one is less annoying than the loading screen was.
ccapitalK 1y ago
It's sites like this that make me extremely grateful for firefox's reader mode.
snvzz 1y ago
clean mirror: https://archive.is/wMECM https://archive.is/wMECM

nomel 1y ago

And, if it hits, your cursor disappears! I wish there was some explosion.

bigstrat2003 1y ago

No, it's the website's fault for doing stupid cutesy stuff that makes the page harder to read. Don't victim-blame yourself here.

stavros 1y ago
I really don't understand this "everything must be 100% serious all the time". Why is it stupid?
- Gualdrapo 1y ago
  The HN hivemind decries the lack of humanity and personality of the internet of nowadays but at the same time wants every website to be 100% text, no JS, no CSS because allegedly nobody needs CSS and, if you dare to do something remotely "fancy" with the layout, you have to build it with <table>s.
  - jackyard86 1y ago
    This is not about "lack of humanity", but about violating fundamental UX rules such as hiding your cursor at random times. It's offensive. You don't have to sacrifice usability while expressing personality.
    - extraisland 1y ago
      I barely noticed it. The complaints I've read about it are making a mountain out of a molehill.
- apodik 1y ago
  I generally think stuff like that make the web much more interesting. In this case it was distracting though.
- forbiddenlake 1y ago
  I didn't read the article because all the moving bits were too distracting. Something also turned my cursor invisible, which is rude. Not sure anyone lost anything here, or anyone cares.
q3k 1y ago
god forbid people have fun on the internet
nomel 1y ago
You should ask for a refund!

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

lilyball 1y ago

It's extremely distracting. I'm not normally one to have issues that require reduced motion, but the asteroids are almost distracting enough on their own, and the fact that it causes my cursor to vanish is a real accessibility issue. I didn't actually realize just how much I use my mouse cursor when reading stuff until now, partly as a fidget, partly as a controllable visual anchor as my eyes scan the page.

joemi 1y ago
I actually can't read things on that site at all. I move my mouse around while reading, not necessarily near the words I'm currently reading, so when my mouse disappears it's haltingly distracting. In addition to that, the way the "game" visually interferes with the text that I'm trying to read makes it incredibly hard to focus on reading. These two things combine to make this site literally unreadable for me. I don't get why people keep posting and upvoting articles from this user-hostile site.

tptacek 1y ago

Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Because way more people have opinions about e.g. asteroid game scripts on web pages than have opinions on RCUs, these subthreads spread like kudzu.

ummonk 1y ago
The described behavior sounds like significantly worse than tangential annoyance, and isn’t really a common occurrence even on modern user-hostile websites.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

binarycrusader 1y ago

I found it exceedingly difficult to read, so I ended up applying these ublock filter rules so I could read it: flak.tedunangst.com##.bl.shooter flak.tedunangst.com##.br.shooter flak.tedunangst.com##div.bullet

jackyard86 1y ago
It still hides your cursor though.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

Jtsummers 1y ago

He used to have a loading screen that did nothing if you have JS enabled in your browser, but no loading screen (which, again, did nothing) if you had JS disabled. I'm pretty sure it's meant to deliberately annoy, though this one is less annoying than the loading screen was.

ccapitalK 1y ago

It's sites like this that make me extremely grateful for firefox's reader mode.

snvzz 1y ago

clean mirror: https://archive.is/wMECM https://archive.is/wMECM