Firefox start page: non-grumpy cat


  • 🚽 Regular

    So opening Firefox this morning showed me this underneath the web search input:

    Cat videos are a universal form of communication. Learn more about what the Web can give us with [Mozilla Webmaker and our global Maker Party](https://welcome.webmaker.org/?ref=makerparty2014_snippet&utm_source=firefox&utm_medium=snippet&utm_campaign=snippettest_textC_icon1&sample_rate=0.1&snippet_name=4490).

    The absurdity of it captured my interest, so I decided to following that link, which lead me to a small email-address harvesting form:

    The reason those two inputs have red borders is that I tried to submit the form without filling in an email address. But it seems that not only the email address is required, but... well, why don't I just quote?
    <input id="opt_in" name="opt_in" value="1" required="" type="checkbox">
    (Emphasys obviously mine)

    Just before my curiosity faded, I clicked the discrete link at the bottom. It took me to https://welcome.webmaker.org/for/learners/ :

    At this point I just gave up.


  • BINNED

    Funnily enough, I'm poking around a Debian box today, and it has Iceweasel installed by default. I thought it was an Iceweasel thing when I saw it, but ok, now I can see all of Mozilla stuff went bananas.

    So... Good Linux email client anyone?



  • MAKE! its hip and cool and now and with it and retrofuturegasm!

    LETS GET IN ON THIS 3D PRINTING LARK! what? 3d printing requires hardware? SCREW THAT! LETS PRETEND THAT WEBSITES ARE 3D PRINTING STEAL ALL THEIR LINGO EVEN IF IT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE IN ANY CONTEXT, AND MAKE PEOPLE DO POINTLESS THINGS BADLY!

    YEAH!

    MAKE!

    all it needs is a Morgue Nipple Shavingfoam plot twist where it turns out the dog(e) is actually a 3d printed death laser robot ALL ALONG!

    except that plot twist might actually make a modicum of sense, so there would have to be like a turkey sandwich intermediate step somewhere or something. maybe the laser was actually made of a turkey sandwich all along? something like that.

    MAKE!



  • Yes, I actually made that one on the Remix link and then took a screenshot of it.


  • did you MAKE it?

    MAKE!



  • It's the "new and improved user experience" by Mozilla. You should be thankful! Normal browsers are so boring without they random links to confusing websites. Like, where are you even supposed to start browsing?

    Though IE does rival firefox by setting msn.com as the default homepage.


  • BINNED

    It's in a "tab", but it's still there! Also, the default speed dial has facebooks, and ebays, and... maybe something with cute kittens? Don't know, not intending to reset it all to default to check.

    Is this a thing now?

    "OMG, SOMEONE DOWNLOADED OUR BROWSER TO LOOK AT THE INTERNETS! AND THEY WON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO! QUICK, THROW SHIT AT THEM TO CLICK BEFORE THEIR ADHD KICKS IN!"



  • I don't get what's so weird about the HTML you quoted. "opt-in" is pretty descriptive of what the checkbox is.



  • required opt-in isn't very opt at all, is it?



  • It's required to submit the form. The opt-out is just to NOT submit the form at all. I don't get the confusion.

    EDIT: wait, what do you people think "required" means in web forms? That there's an assassin in your house and if you don't hit submit he'll pull the trigger and kill your dog fluffy? No. It's a fucking validation rule.


  • 🚽 Regular

    While I agree with you in principle, will you at least concede that it is stupid to put a required field below the Submit button and wording and styling its label as if it were optional?


  • :belt_onion:

    @blakeyrat said:

    It's required to submit the form. The opt-out is just to NOT submit the form at all. I don't get the confusion.

    Sure, but what if you want to "learn more about webmaker" without accepting a lifetime of spamhell? I suppose WE would just go google webmaker (or edit the field attribute to not be required and hope they don't check server side), but the suckers it's targeted to will have no choice! Muahahahahaha


  • I survived the hour long Uno hand

    @darkmatter said:

    but the suckers it's targeted to will have no choice!

    WONTFIX WORKSASINTENDED



  • @darkmatter said:

    Sure, but what if you want to "learn more about webmaker" without accepting a lifetime of spamhell?

    Look, you have two choices. You can "learn more" and hit the opt-in. Or you can close the window and leave the page.

    Pick one.

    Move on with your life.



  • @Zecc said:

    While I agree with you in principle, will you at least concede that it is stupid to put a required field below the Submit button and wording and styling its label as if it were optional?

    I don't see anything in the styling or wording that indicates those fields are optional. Of course the "styling" thing is tricky, since there's no non-optional fields to compare to...



  • @blakeyrat said:

    I don't see anything in the styling or wording that indicates those fields are optional.

    It's a checkbox. It has 2 settable states1, "checked" and "not checked". The user may "check" the checkbox, or "not check" the checkbox.
    A checkbox is the epitome of "optional".

    1 : It may, behind the scenes, also have FILE_NOT_FOUND.


  • 🚽 Regular

    It can be argued that in this case — as in many other cases — the checkbox stands for "I confirm that I have read and understood this". And that's fine.

    The problem is the checkbox is located after the submit button and its text is way smaller than in the rest of the form. Two hints that it is unimportant. The text itself says absolutely nothing of it being a required field. It looks just like any other checkbox you can set (or not!) for subscribing to a newsletter.


  • :belt_onion:

    I imagine it's a legal thing to have the checkbox to initiate spam.
    If they just auto-spammed you for submitting at all without a checkbox that you have to actively mark, it probably breaks some EU internet law.

    It is still stupid. For a better UI, the checkbox should be above the submit button, and the submit button should be disabled until the checkbox is checked.

    --edit: I see I basically said what Zecc said, but with different wording.



  • They're trying to be cute, like Google is with Chrome, but they're failing, horrible. I stopped using Firefox years ago, and have zero intention of using it any time soon.



  • @tufty said:

    1

    What on earth is that thing? And most importantly, why does it only work with some letters but not others?

    a b c
    i s
    bs asdf

    Oh I see... it's html tags. Well most of them.
    ol ul li
    h1 small hr


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @PJH is experimenting with CSS and link styles.



  • Apparently so, I just saw it change size twice. I didn't know CSS was also updated live here!


  • ♿ (Parody)

    There are apparently some hooks for admins to make from within the app. See here for details:

    http://what.thedailywtf.com/t/discourse-having-trouble-with-topic-ids-again/2015/67


  • BINNED

    Wheeeeeeeee!

    😄 😉 😛

    This could get fun.




  • 🚽 Regular

    Going back to the original topic: the animated cat has now been replaced with a pug.

    Is this going to be a daily thing?


  • 🚽 Regular

    Looks like it's random after all. Here's a third:

    They also have one for signing up for their newsletter, but that one's just boring:


  • BINNED

    @Zecc said:

    They also have one for signing up for their newsletter, but that one's just boring:

    What, no animated pigeons crapping @ symbols? Dissapoint.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Zecc said:

    So opening Firefox this morning showed me this underneath the web search input:

    Cat videos are a universal form of communication. Learn more about what the Web can give us with Mozilla Webmaker and our global Maker Party

    The absurdity of it captured my interest, so I decided to following that link, which lead me to a small email-address harvesting form:

    It appears that someone's either noticed, a reader here, or serendipitously got round to fixing it. Sorta:

    So, email now (obviously) required, suggestively implied option to be spammed still not an option.

    And, doing the obvious - fake email and checking anyway:

    Changing @c.d to @c.com passed whatever checks they do and proceeded to whatever the destination page is. No idea WTF that checkbox is for, and a cursory examination of the source doesn't provide many clues.


    And guess what - enter whatever email address you like and spam other people - they don't do double opt-in!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
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