Web1.5 for German Newspapers



  • So, we had Web1.0 with its largely content-static sites (atrocious animated GIFs nonwithstanding). This obviously had the small problem of having to refresh the page in order to see new content. That is, if there was indeed new content.

    And then there was the Web2.0 with its AJAX-enabled, on-the-fly updating content. Nice stuff, but is only really worthwhile if you're actually noticing the new content and not overlooking it because of a flood of other content. Traditional newspapers, with their diverse areas of interest (politics, culture, sports, economy,...) understandably have their problems with a "newest news on top" order of displaying stuff.

    Which leads us to a sort of hybrid. A Web1.5 if you will.

    Picture this: You're browsing www.sueddeutsche.de or maybe www.zeit.de and suddenly something hot and new comes in. But you can't simply put it on the page immediately! Due to the limited display (only 3 headlines per topic or somesuch) you can't simply replace anything. Just think of it: Someone might want to click on a link and it disappears before his very eyes!

    But you still want the reader to notice that something new has come in.

    At this point, some moronic webdesigner thought: "I know, I'll use modals! With an OK/Cancel-dialogue!" And thusly he promptly proceeded to blow his brains out. Oh, wait, he didn't. He actually implemented it.

    Which means that if you wait on those news sites long enough, you'll inevitably run into the modal dialogue of "The main page has been updated! Do you want to refresh: Yes/No?"

    The careful reader will notice that there's no mention as to what has actually been updated. And due to the multi-page nature of the landing page, you'll probably never know unless you've got an eidetic memory...

    This is what it looks like:
    http://i.imgur.com/QzzAyem.png



  • @Rhywden said:

    Just think of it: Someone might want to click on a link and it disappears before his very eyes!

    You mean like the list of topics at the bottom in Discourse?

    @Rhywden said:

    Which means that if you wait on those news sites long enough, you'll inevitably run into the modal dialogue of "The main page has been updated! Do you want to refresh: Yes/No?"

    Like Discourse?



  • OK, I totally had to delurk for this, because one like just isn't enough:

    This is annoying the b*****m out of me and I think it's one of the dumbest ideas ever. Seriously, this is of Jeff-like proportions. Somebody needs to be punished for this.

    Sueddeutsche.de is one of my main sources of news, and with this nag screen it becomes pretty much unusable. And it's been like this for weeks. Apparently only the summer interns at sueddeutsche.de ever take an actual look at the webpage or this would be long gone by now.

    Thank God there is Adblock to get rid of this stupidity.



  • @Arantor said:

    Like Discourse?

    I haven't yet run into a Discourse-modal. Where/when does that one appear?



  • @Rhywden said:

    I haven't yet run into a Discourse-modal. Where/when does that one appear?

    Leave your browser open on Discourse, wait for the inevitable update, wait for your browser to get a model dialogue.



  • @Arantor said:

    Leave your browser open on Discourse, wait for the inevitable update, wait for your browser to get a model dialogue.

    Strange, haven't had that one yet. For me, anyone's answers on a topic are appended automatically to the bottom.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    It's when they update the actual software.



  • @Rhywden said:

    Strange, haven't had that one yet. For me, anyone's answers on a topic are appended automatically to the bottom.

    I don't mean that. I mean the list of topics right at the bottom, which invariably seems to change just as I'm about to click on something.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Arantor said:

    I mean the list of topics right at the bottom, which invariably seems to change just as I'm about to click on something.

    I ignore that for that reason.



  • @Arantor said:

    I don't mean that. I mean the list of topics right at the bottom, which invariably seems to change just as I'm about to click on something.

    I understand that, but I thought we were talking about a modal dialogue?



  • @Rhywden said:

    I understand that, but I thought we were talking about a modal dialogue?

    I was referring to your original specific quote: "Just think of it: Someone might want to click on a link and it disappears before his very eyes!" Just like the topic list at the bottom of a topic does to me.

    I made two separate jabs at Discourse. But if you have to explain the joke, it wasn't funny, so I wasn't funny 😛



  • Well, with that update they also got rid of the comment system (which never really worked).

    They now have a sort-of trackback system which supposedly scans the social networks for comments for 24 hours. But I've yet to see any actual comments under this new system - just trackback-links.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Rhywden said:

    Picture this: You're browsing www.sueddeutsche.de or maybe www.zeit.de and suddenly something hot and new comes in. But you can't simply put it on the page immediately! Due to the limited display (only 3 headlines per topic or somesuch) you can't simply replace anything. Just think of it: Someone might want to click on a link and it disappears before his very eyes!

    Simple solution: use Discurse, and then you can move topics around out from under readers' noses!



  • This is on the same level of annoying as "Install my Android/iOS app" popups....


  • FoxDev

    iof i ever see one of those on your website ever you are at minimum going on the javascript blacklist and probably going on my "nope, never visiting there again"

    and while i'm thinking of it... why does no mobile browser give you the option to turn off js by default and load images on demand? because i don't want to download that 24MB image that's sized for a 4k screen onto my phone where it'll be 300 pixels wide at best. <glaring at one particular site in specific>



  • @accalia said:

    why does no mobile browser give you the option to turn off js by default and load images on demand?

    Because that would be smart.



  • @andreas said:

    This is annoying the b*****m out of me

    Bottom?



  • Belgium? But for you we can pretend I meant bottom - whatever floats your boat, man.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Rhywden said:

    I haven't yet run into a Discourse-modal. Where/when does that one appear?

    Currently, normally sometime between 0800-1000UTC on weekday mornings and occasionally on weekends/other times. It's basically after I've updated the site with the latest bugs from the discodevs.

    Leave a tab open spanning an update and it'll eventually appear. If you're active on the site it won't appear in the tabs you're using; instead you get a single full-page refresh instead of just a partial update as you move around which isn't as noticeable, especially if you're not looking for it.

    @Rhywden said:

    I understand that, but I thought we were talking about a modal dialogue?

    The one on here is tab-modal, not browser modal.



  • @andreas said:

    Belgium? But for you we can pretend I meant bottom - whatever floats your boat, man.

    I'm not a hoopy frood today



  • No, you're a mattress.


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