How not to make a registrationwall

cuddlefish

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/MfDvq.png[/IMG]
What's wrong with this picture?

Okay, it's a little annoying having the box covering the content (instead of straight-up redirection), but it looks OK.

Wait. They didn't just put a big floating DIV over the page content, riiiight?
Riiight?

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/s9QdQ.png[/IMG]

Oops.

Live at [url]http://daveosborne.com/dave/articles/circular-saw.php[/url].

also: sorry for the odd formatting!

dr_spock

Just delete the DIV in Chrome's DOM inspector :P (or a DIV hiding rule in firefox w/ adblock plus)

vyznev

I think it's an intelligence test.

(BTW, for some reason the box is invisible by default and only shown if JS is enabled, even though there seems to be no obvious reason to do it that way. I'm now wondering if the failure to be obnoxious to NoScript users is deliberate or just an accident. On one hand, they don't seem that thoughtful; on the other, surely no-one could do that by mistake...)

blakeyrat

Is the registration required, or are they just pushing it heavily? Maybe there's a close box that's not rendering.

Comic Sans all over!

DaveK1

@dr spock said:

Just delete the DIV in Chrome's DOM inspector :P (or a DIV hiding rule in firefox w/ adblock plus)

Umm, or disable Javascript:

that's how it looks to me

*boggle*

blakeyrat

Wait, I just actually looked at the page... is this something people actually need instructions for? Instructions that sum to "use a guide, idiot." Didn't you take middle school shop?

@vyznev said:

on the other, surely no-one could do that by mistake...

You're asking that question about a site done in all Comic Sans?

cuddlefish

@Site said:

Membership (about the cost of a cup of coffee a week) is $9.99 a month or $49.95 a year. For your convenience this fee is automatically charged at the start of either time period you specify. You can easily cancel your membership at any time, yet still have full access to Dave's Shop Talk for the entire time period you pay for.

That's right. For just $49.95 a year, we'll execute [code]document.getElementById("pink").style.display = "none";[/code]

AnonymousCoward

This is why i love my "nuke anything" plug-in in firefox.

Their logo might not properly communicate what they're going for either.

b_redeker

@cuddlefish said:

@Site said:
Membership (about the cost of a cup of coffee a week) is $9.99 a month or $49.95 a year. For your convenience this fee is automatically charged at the start of either time period you specify. You can easily cancel your membership at any time, yet still have full access to Dave's Shop Talk for the entire time period you pay for.
That's right. For just $49.95 a year, we'll execute document.getElementById("pink").style.display = "none";

Hrm, sounds great. Do you have a mobile site too that my blackberry can use?

Oh wait, my blackberry shows the div after the full page. Never mind.

PSWorx

That looks very much like the expertsexchange school of payblocking to me.

DaveK1

@PSWorx said:

That looks very much like the expertsexchange school of payblocking to me.

Reminded me of that too.. the "subscribe-or-scroll-down" model.

piskvorr

@DaveK said:

@PSWorx said:
That looks very much like the expertsexchange school of payblocking to me.
Reminded me of that too.. the "subscribe-or-scroll-down" model.

Well, that Sex Change site was originally showing uncloaked pages to Googlebot and a paywall to everyone else, which - surprise surprise - got them kicked off the search results altogether. They then chose to bury their results in gibberish, which is technically not cloaking (and G indexes them again), but about the same level of usefulness to an end-user (and I'm assuming that's their business model: "it looks a bit less crappy when you pay").

vyznev

@cuddlefish said:

@Site said:
Membership (about the cost of a cup of coffee a week) is $9.99 a month or $49.95 a year. For your convenience this fee is automatically charged at the start of either time period you specify. You can easily cancel your membership at any time, yet still have full access to Dave's Shop Talk for the entire time period you pay for.

That's right. For just $49.95 a year, we'll execute document.getElementById("pink").style.display = "none";

Actually, for $49.95 a year they don't execute document.getElementById("pink").style.visibility = "visible";

PSWorx

@piskvorr said:

And I'm assuming that's their business model: "it looks a very very slight bit less crappy when you pay".

FTFY.

lolwtf

@vyznev said:

I think it's an intelligence test.
(BTW, for some reason the box is invisible by default and only shown if JS is enabled, even though there seems to be no obvious reason to do it that way. I'm now wondering if the failure to be obnoxious to NoScript users is deliberate or just an accident. On one hand, they don't seem that thoughtful; on the other, surely no-one could do that by mistake...)

Today's websites can't manage to make submit buttons and links function or images display without Javascript, and you expect someone to get this right?

Dr_Frankenstein

COMIC SANS! *shakes fist*

piskvorr

@PSWorx said:

@piskvorr said:
And I'm assuming that's their business model: "it looks a very very slight bit less crappy when you pay".

FTFY.

Thank you for the correction. Never had the urge to find out whether it's actually the case. :D

DaveK1

@piskvorr said:

@DaveK said:
@PSWorx said:
That looks very much like the expertsexchange school of payblocking to me.
Reminded me of that too.. the "subscribe-or-scroll-down" model.

Well, that Sex Change site was originally showing uncloaked pages to Googlebot and a paywall to everyone else, which - surprise surprise - got them kicked off the search results altogether.

But it did have the benefit that you could see them uncloaked in google's cached view, which is after all built from what googlebot finds...