Forbes Slideshow



  • Check out this piece of awesome at:

    http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/24/cx_hc_0327worst_customer_service_slide.html

    WTFs that I noticed:

    1.  It exists.  Why do we need an HTML-based slideshow?  I could understand doing something like this in Flash so you could make it all needlessly snazzy looking, but all this "slideshow" does is essentially click the "next" link for you.

    2.  The default speed of the slideshow is only 6 seconds per slide, but some of the slides have a full paragraph of text underneath.  I've been told that I am a slow reader, so this may only be a problem for me, but it's annoying none the less

    3.  You can click the "stop" link to make the WTF-ery cease, but as soon as you click the "next" or "previous" link, the slideshow starts up again.

    So, they took something that should have been simple and familiar, and turned it into something useless and frustrating.



  • I'm not a native speaker, but the speed is by far too fast anyway.



  • 2.  The default speed of the slideshow is only 6 seconds per slide, but some of the slides have a full paragraph of text underneath.  I've been told that I am a slow reader, so this may only be a problem for me, but it's annoying none the less

    I am a pretty fast reader and that is still way too fast. 



  • The real WTF is that this "feature" is on an article about the miserable state of customer service today.



  • @UncleMidriff said:

    Check out this piece of awesome at:

    <snip everything>

    I agree with everything you say.  This is pure awfull.

    But let me look at this from the PHB perspective.  By suckering a visitor into one (unfortunate) click, I can get a good 20 page views out of the deal.  Each one with 3 ad impressions on it.  Granted, my click through might be low.  But now I just gotta package it and sell it in the right terms.



  • @marvin_rabbit said:

    @UncleMidriff said:
    Check out this piece of awesome at:

    <snip everything="">

    I agree with everything you say.  This is pure awfull.

    But let me look at this from the PHB perspective.  By suckering a visitor into one (unfortunate) click, I can get a good 20 page views out of the deal.  Each one with 3 ad impressions on it.  Granted, my click through might be low.  But now I just gotta package it and sell it in the right terms.

    Hmm.  And now if I can get a few 'shills' to publish links to the pages, I'll start raking it in!  (J/K Midriff.)
    </snip>



  • Did you not happen to notice the button marked SLOWER at the top?  So their web dev decided 6 seconds was a good default... you can quite easily change it to whatever delay you'd like.  Nothing to see here...



  • @rswafford said:

    Did you not happen to notice the button marked SLOWER at the top?  So their web dev decided 6 seconds was a good default... you can quite easily change it to whatever delay you'd like.  Nothing to see here...


    The delay that I'd like is for it to f***ing stop completely; I'll click the damn "next" button when, get this, I'm ready to move on to the next "slide," just like I'm used to doing with just about every other similar webpage in the universe. 



  • @UncleMidriff said:

    @rswafford said:
    Did you not happen to notice the button marked SLOWER at the top?  So their web dev decided 6 seconds was a good default... you can quite easily change it to whatever delay you'd like.  Nothing to see here...


    The delay that I'd like is for it to f***ing stop completely; I'll click the damn "next" button when, get this, I'm ready to move on to the next "slide," just like I'm used to doing with just about every other similar webpage in the universe. 

    So.. click the stop button? What's the problem?



  • @Casiotone said:

    @UncleMidriff said:
    @rswafford said:
    Did you not happen to notice the button marked SLOWER at the top?  So their web dev decided 6 seconds was a good default... you can quite easily change it to whatever delay you'd like.  Nothing to see here...


    The delay that I'd like is for it to f***ing stop completely; I'll click the damn "next" button when, get this, I'm ready to move on to the next "slide," just like I'm used to doing with just about every other similar webpage in the universe. 

    So.. click the stop button? What's the problem?


    The problem with that is that the slideshow starts back up again when you click "next" or "previous," so you have to click "stop" on every page.



  • Come on, it's simple. Just edit the query string to say thisSpeed=-1. Problem solved!

     



  • While it is admittedly horribly implemented, the idea of an HTML slideshow is good on the grand scheme of things - you don't need proprietary technologies to display it, which is great in my book.  Even if Flash is free, it's still not something you necessarily want on your computer, even if you're a crazy-obsessive Free Software dude.



  • I don't mind the HTML slideshow. it works. But i can barely make it past glancing at the picture before the thing changes. And hitting stop after hitting next every time is a pain in the ass.


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