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Web page annoyances that I don't inflict on you

(rachelbythebay.com)
569 points todsacerdoti | 4 comments | 05 Jan 25 01:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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wruza ◴[05 Jan 25 06:51 UTC] No.42600212[source]▶
I don't keep a "dick bar" that sticks to the top of the page to remind you which site you're on. Your browser is already doing that for you.

A variation of this is my worst offender, the flapping bar. Not only it takes space, it flaps every time I adjust my overscroll by pulling back, and it covers the text I was trying to adjust. The hysteresis to hide it back is usually too big and that makes you potentially overscroll again.

Special place in hell for those who hide the flap on scroll-up but show it again when the scroll inertia ends, without even pulling back.

Can’t say here what I think about people who do the above, but you can imagine.

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hombre_fatal ◴[05 Jan 25 10:38 UTC] No.42600925[source]▶
Funnily enough for years I would say the general consensus on HN was that it was a thoughtful alternative to having to scroll back to the top, esp back when it was a relatively new gimmick on mobile.

I remember arguing about it on HN back when I was in uni.

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dredmorbius ◴[05 Jan 25 11:43 UTC] No.42601155[source]▶
Most mobile browsers lack a "home" key equivalent (or bury it in a not-always-visible on-screen soft-keyboard). That's among the very few arguments in favour of a "Top" navigation affordance.

I still hate such things, especially when using a desktop browser.

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oneeyedpigeon ◴[05 Jan 25 12:07 UTC] No.42601258[source]▶
I think some, if not most, mobile browsers - even apps - used to implement it via a space near the top of the window/screen. That seems to have gone away, though.
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dredmorbius ◴[05 Jan 25 12:50 UTC] No.42601435[source]▶
Worse: "pull to refresh" means that often when you try to scroll to the top of a page ... it reloads instead.

The number of times this has happened whilst I've been editing a post on some rando site, losing my content ...

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snackbroken ◴[05 Jan 25 23:40 UTC] No.42606042[source]▶
In Firefox you can disable this behavior under Settings -> Customize -> Gestures. If your browser does not have an equivalent setting, get a better browser.
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dredmorbius ◴[06 Jan 25 00:48 UTC] No.42606428[source]▶
My main driver is EinkBro (on an e-ink tablet), which similarly doesn't seem to be brain-damaged in this regard.

<https://github.com/plateaukao/einkbro>

I do have Firefox (Fennic Fox F-Droid) installed on that tablet. The reading experience is so vastly inferior despite numerous capabilities of Firefox (most especially browser extensions) that it's not even funny. Mostly because scrolling on e-ink is a disaster.[1]

Chrome/Chromium of course is an absolute disaster.

EinkBro has incorporated ad-blocking, JS toggle, and cookie rejection, which meet most of my basic extension needs. The fact that it offers a paginated navigation (touch regions to scroll by a full screen) works far better with e-ink display characteristics.

I'll note that on desktop I also usually scroll by screen, though that's usually by tapping the spacebar.

--------------------------------

Notes:

1. The thought does occur that Firefox/Android might benefit by an extension (or set of same) which address e-ink display characteristics. Off the top of my head those would be:

- Paginated navigation. The ability to readily scroll by a full page, rather than touch-and-drag scrolling.

- High-contrast / greyscale optimisation. Tweaking page colours such that reading on e-ink is optimised. Generally that would be pure black/white for foreground/background, and a limited greyscale pallette for other elements. Halftone dithering of photographic images would also be generally preferable.

- An ability to absolutely freeze any animations and/or video unless specifically selected.

- Perhaps: an ability to automatically render pages in reader mode, with the above settings enabled.

- Other odds'n'sods, such as rejecting any autoplay (video, audio), though existing Firefox extensions probably address that.

I suspect that much of that is reasonably doable.

There is an "E-ink Viewable" extension which seems to detect and correct for dark-mode themes (exceedingly unreadable on tablets, somewhat ironically), though it omits other capabilities: <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/e-ink-viewabl...>.

"Edge Touch Pager" addresses navigation: <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/edge-touch-pa...>.

And there's a Reddit submission for improving e-ink experiences w/ Firefox generally, which touches on most of the items I'd mentioned above: <https://old.reddit.com/r/eink/comments/lkc0ea/tip_to_make_we...>.

Future me may find this useful....

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1. lidavidm ◴[06 Jan 25 06:27 UTC] No.42608224[source]▶
Which tablet do you use? I've been considering a Boox but the licensing issues and apparent outdated Android give me pause...
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2. dredmorbius ◴[06 Jan 25 12:49 UTC] No.42610134[source]▶
Max Lumi, which is now a couple of cycles old. It's the 13.3" tablet.

Looks as if its current rev is the Note Max, Android 13, and a resolution of 300 dpi (the Max Lumi is 220 dpi, which is already damned good). That's pretty much laser-printer resolution (most are effectively ~300 -- 600 dpi). I wish they'd up the onboard storage (Note Max remains at 128 GB, same as the previous device, mine is 64 GB which is uncomfortably tight).

The Android rev is still a couple of versions old (current is 16, released December 2024), though I find that relatively unimportant. I've mostly de-googled my device, install few apps, and most of those through F-Droid, Aurora Store where that doesn't suffice.

If the Max is too spendy / large for you, the smaller devices are more reasonably priced. I went big display as I read quite a few scanned articles and the size/resolution matter. A 10" or 8" display is good for general reading / fiction, especially for e-book native formats (e.g., ePub). If you read scans, larger is IMO better.

I'm aware and not happy with the GPL situation, but alternatives really don't move me.

Onyx's own bookreader software is actually pretty good and sufficient for my purposes, though you can install any third-party reader through your Android app repo you prefer.

My main uses are e-book reading (duh!), podcasts (it's quite good at this, AntennaPod is my preferred app), Termux (Linux userland on Android). For Web browsing, EinkBro and Fennic Fox (as mentioned up-thread). The note-taking (handwritten) native app is also quite good and I use that far more than I'd anticipated.

If you're looking for games, heavy web apps, video, etc., you won't be happy. If you're looking for a device that gets you away from that, I strongly recommend their line.

I've commented on the Max Lumi and experience (positives and negatives) quite a few times here on HN:

<https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...>

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3. lidavidm ◴[06 Jan 25 23:27 UTC] No.42617334[source]▶
Thanks! Frankly so long as I can get a browser and install some reader apps (Kobo, Manga-one, etc.) that would fit my needs fine, and as long as they support older versions of Android for enough years (or I can avoid upgrading the app version) then things should be fine. The 10.3" Boox is 80k JPY which is a bit pricey, though, but I'll consider it vs the Kobo device next time I upgrade e-readers.
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4. dredmorbius ◴[07 Jan 25 01:05 UTC] No.42618070{3}[source]▶
FWIW, I also hear good things about Kobo, though I don't have direct experience.

Those are based on Alpine Linux rather than Android, AFAIU, and if you're into Linux are apparently more readily customised and hacked.

(The fact that BOOX is Android is a misfeature for me, though it does make many more apps available. As noted, I use few of those and could replace much of their functionality with shell or Linux-native GUI tools. I suspect battery management would suffer however.)