7 ms·
Kind of off topic, but anyone finds the "Subscribe to the newsletter" jarring? You're in the middle of a read and suddenly you get this annoying interruption.
by juancn 16d ago
Kind of off topic, but anyone finds the "Subscribe to the newsletter" jarring?
You're in the middle of a read and suddenly you get this annoying interruption. It makes me feel like the article is no longer worth it.
You're there, trying to build all the mental scaffolding to properly understand, and then "Subscribe!"
Just put it at the end, please!
If you put it in the middle it cheapens the content, yeah, you may get more "engagement", but it's probably shallow.
Heck even in reader mode:
...his confrontation between Snow and Leavis – two dramatically different thinkers, representing traditions long in tension – gets at something more fundamental than
the worn phrase that survived it: our deepest and conflicting temperaments towards life.
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According to the English novelist Anthony Powell, C P Snow was affable, and rather humourless, the sort of man who gladly recognised a joke in conversation...
- nelsonfigueroa 16d agoMaybe I've been desensitized by all the "Subscribe now" pop ups that take over your entire browser, but seeing the subscription box inline with the rest of the text didn't bother me too much.
- juancn 16d agoI kinda am for shorter, shallower content that I'll likely skim over, but this article is a properly written essay and the contrast is just jarring.
- bluGill 16d agoI have long had the policy that I close the window as soon as those pop up. I'm hoping that enough people join me that eventually somebody finds data that a significant (minority) of people just close them and so they are not worth it.
- jaggederest 16d agoI have a similar policy - tab closed on 2nd nag, so if there's an inline subscribe box and the overlay pops up, I'm out. Fighting the good behavioral fight, but I don't expect us to win, it's just about saving myself the brainpower. Same for dark patterns - they're clearly unserious, so I'll take my business elsewhere.
- BeetleB 16d agoSame here. If it's really interesting I'll try Reader Mode. Otherwise I close the tab. I'm not going to waste my time figuring out where to click to get rid of it.
- satvikpendem 16d agoThey wouldn't do it if it didn't work. People have been complaining about these sorts of popups for nigh two decades now and it still continues to happen.
- JoshTriplett 16d agoAnd cigarette companies wouldn't have manipulated the levels of nicotine in their cigarettes if it didn't work.
- satvikpendem 16d agoCorrect, however one is a physically addictive substance incomparable to being mildly inconvenienced by a popup.
- culi 16d agoThere are plenty of dark patterns rampant throughout the digital world that are comparable to physical addiction schemes. In fact WCAG 3.0 might address them head on as an accessibility issue
- satvikpendem 16d agoSure, not this issue though.