Google has a Clippy?



  • I was on "The New" Google Maps when this popped up in the lower right-hand corner:



    [IMG]https://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1470398_10151798355988193_752547446_n.jpg[/IMG]



    Is it just me, or does this just scream, Clippy.



    At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if it popped up randomly and said, "It looks like you're planning a road trip! Would you like help?"



    On a secondary note: why the hell do I have to specify line breaks with HTML here? Why don't they appear as they do in the editor, and why doesn't the BB code for a line break work?



  • @woodywood245 said:

    On a secondary note: why the hell do I have to specify line breaks with HTML here? Why don't they appear as they do in the editor, and why doesn't the BB code for a line break work?

    Welcome to TDWTF forum. Community server is, as usual, TRWTF here.

    And you have not seen the more creative abuses of it's features yet.

    The sad fact is that each and every forum server out there is a WTF in one way or another.



  • @woodywood245 said:

    On a secondary note: why the hell do I have to specify line breaks with HTML here?
     

    Don't use Chrome.



  • Actually - not every forum is pants... Check out Jeff Attwood's "Discourse"



  •  So.

    Yeah.

    Every forum is pants.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @DumbByAssociation said:

    Actually - not every forum is pants... Check out Jeff Attwood's "Discourse"
     

    <font size="10">=(</font>

    @Discourse said:

     Conversations, not pages

    First line. Buzzword. Sad.

    @Discourse said:

    Why break conversations into awkward and arbitrary pages, where you have to constantly find the Next Page button?

    To break information up in to small, digestible chunks. To prevent overloading a browser's rendering engine or memory handling when viewing large conversations. To allow for easy direct access to specific parts of the conversation. To allow users to customize the pagesize to their own reading/bandwidth/device size preference. 

    And once you've found the "Next Page" button once, you never have to find it again. It's in your muscle memory. FFS, if I'm reading a long thread, I click the Next button once, and part the cursor. Scroll with the mousewheel or keyboard, and BAM cursor is where the Next button will be.

    Use all the scare words you want, this was not a broken system.

     @Discourse said:

    We've replaced all that with the power of just-in-time loading. Want to read more? Just keep scrolling down.

    Fuck you, Discourse. So now I have no idea how long the conversation actually is. I have no way of directly jumping to an arbitrary point in the conversation. If it's a 1000 reply thread, I can't read page 1, page 2-- hop to page 50 to get an idea of the conversation flow, then jump straight to page 100 to see the latest posts. If I refresh the browser or navigate away accidentally, I lose my spot and have to start infinite-scrolling again. I can never use the scroll bar as a gague as to how far into a conversation I am.  This is assuming you don't fuck up scrolling like nearly ever infinite-scroll application I've ever used.

    I also can't just hit CTRL-END to jump to the end of a page.

    You know what else provided "just in time" access to more posts? A FUCKING NEXT BUTTON!

     @Discourse said:

    Discourse is a simple, flat forum, where replies flow down the page in a line.

    Replies are attached to the bottom and top of each post, so you can optionally expand the context of the conversation – without breaking your flow.

    They can't even figure out if it's a flat list or a tree.

     @Discourse said:

    Just paste it in on a single line and we'll do all the hard work to automatically make it awesome.

    Links to Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon, GitHub, Twitter, Flickr and dozens of other popular web sites will automatically expand to provide additional context and information.


    1) Never ever use the word "awesome". You sound like a sweater-wearing 50 year old bingo mom trying to be hip and kewl with her nieces.

    2)  If I post a link, it's so there's a small and simple piece of text people can click on if they desire. What I don't want is for it to become a 200px high image laden monstrosity that problem instantly fires off at least 2-3 more AJAX calls. Populating a page with untrusted 3rd party content. What could possibly go wrong with that? I mean, I certainly wouldn't do something like post a link to wikipedia/InnocuousPage-- wait for the post to be approved/vetted by mods-- and then go and change the Wikipedia page to be an ad-- which now pollutes your forum with spam. Sorry, not forum "simple flat tree-branching conversation delivery system".

    @Discourse said:

    new replies will appear automatically without refreshing the page

    See my earlier comment about fucking up scrolling. Nothing I love more than the page I'm reading randomly shifting all around because some piece of JS shit has injected content into the flow. I'm sure there's a half-assed attempt to maintain the scroll position-- an attempt that will instantly fail as soon as something's posted that's more than one line, or has-a-very-long-unbroken-word, or a large image, or my browser's zoom setting is anything other than 100%

    @Discourse said:

    Want to share an image? Just copy and paste it in. Or drag and drop it in! 

    ...

    Search that actually works

     ...

    We have built in robust import and export tools, both for the site owner and for individual users.

     

    Fine, those are good points. Not enough to balance out infinite scrolling bullshit. If it means never having to deal with infinite scrolling, I'll live with having to use Imgur to post unfunny screenshots of Gmail and Firefox's latest UI failures.



  • @Bulb said:

    @woodywood245 said:
    On a secondary note: why the hell do I have to specify line breaks with HTML here? Why don't they appear as they do in the editor, and why doesn't the BB code for a line break work?

    Welcome to TDWTF forum. Community server is, as usual, TRWTF here.

    And you have not seen the more creative abuses of it's features yet.

    The sad fact is that each and every forum server out there is a WTF in one way or another.

    You rang?

     



  • Discourse is shittier than most forums, yeah.

    I prefer CS.

     

    Now what about the comment system Disqus? As an occasional user of it, I think it's pretty good.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @dhromed said:

    Now what about the comment system Disqus?
     

    Wash your mouth out with the twice-digested shit of a titmouse.

    1) 100% javascript driven. They apparently have not heard of HTML.

    2) Requires 3rd party account. The usual privacy concerns-- tracking you across sites, collecting marketing data, etc.

    3) In the cloud-- so when Disqus decides it isn't profitable enough and fucks off, there goes the entire forum.

    4) Fuck Disqus with a leaky car battery


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Lorne Kates said:

    @dhromed said:

    Now what about the comment system Disqus?
     

    Wash your mouth out with the twice-digested shit of a titmouse.

    1) 100% javascript driven. They apparently have not heard of HTML.

    2) Requires 3rd party account. The usual privacy concerns-- tracking you across sites, collecting marketing data, etc.

    3) In the cloud-- so when Disqus decides it isn't profitable enough and fucks off, there goes the entire forum.

    4) Fuck Disqus with a leaky car battery

    1. Blogspot is fucked up, so if you're using IE10+, you'll get "the web page is forcing you into compatibility mode" which DOES have the virtue of loading far faster than the tarpit that is Disqus. (BTW you can fix that on a per-page basis by hitting F12 and changing the browser mode. Except that MS kind of nerfed the F12 UI in IE11.)


  • I'd like to see this become a disqus based forum as an April Fools joke.



  • @DumbByAssociation said:

    @Bulb said:
    The sad fact is that each and every forum server out there is a WTF in one way or another.

    Actually - not every forum is pants... Check out Jeff Attwood's "Discourse"

    I see I have to correct myself. I should have added:

    Jeff's valiant effort notwithstanding.


  • DIscourse is awesome! Haters gonna hate. Either way, it's better than all the other shit out there.

    EDIT: Clippy was, and Pegman is, fucking awesome :D


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Lorne-Kates 2) If I post a link, it's so there's a small and simple piece of text people can click on if they desire. What I don't want is for it to become a 200px high image laden monstrosity that problem instantly fires off at least 2-3 more AJAX calls. Populating a page with untrusted 3rd party content. What could possibly go wrong with that? I mean, I certainly wouldn't do something like post a link to wikipedia/InnocuousPage-- wait for the post to be approved/vetted by mods-- and then go and change the Wikipedia page to be an ad-- which now pollutes your forum with spam. Sorry, not forum "simple flat tree-branching conversation delivery system".

    Say, here's the original critique I had of OneBoxing. Still relevant.

    While I'm at it:

    @Discourse said:

    Want to share an image? Just copy and paste it in. Or drag and drop it in!
    Search that actually works
    We have built in robust import and export tools, both for the site owner and for individual users.

    lolnope


  • area_can

    @Lorne-Kates I kind of want the Discourse team to piss off /g/ or something just so that people learn about how these sort of features can be abused for malicious purposes. I don't really hate the devs, but I think that when you're designing software to be used by large communities like that, you really have to consider the value and risks associated with every design decision because someone, somewhere will use that feature to annoy others.


  • area_can

    This post is deleted!

  • Notification Spam Recipient

    @Lorne-Kates said in Google has a Clippy?:

    browser's zoom setting is anything other than 100%

    Whoa, :hanzo:'d @blakeyrat on that one?



  • @Aeolun said in Google has a Clippy?:

    DIscourse is awesome!

    Ah, the grass is always greener when you don't have your face curbstomped into it.



  • Google has many clippies!

    0_1467203306554_upload-cad4f119-345e-4991-a213-018822f79c4f

    Thanks to @anotherusername's bookmarklet (I had to add one to load jquery too)


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @fbmac said in Google has a Clippy?:

    Google has many clippies!

    0_1467203306554_upload-cad4f119-345e-4991-a213-018822f79c4f

    Thanks to @anotherusername's bookmarklet (I had to add one to load jquery too)

    Clippyfever!


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