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I think I've just seen the dumbest attempt of a website to be helpful and bring targeted content to their users. I went to gocomics.com to check out this week's Foxtrot, since I heard that it was WoW-themed. I saw today's strip, clicked "previous day", and was greeted by a page that asked me for my gender and year of birth in the spirit of providing me with better recommendations of comics I might enjoy.
And I blinked. And I left the page and tried again, only to be presented with the same form once more.
Now, I'm certainly not the most cautious person when it comes leaving traces of personal information around online. But, come on. I can buy asking the age/gender combination of someone who actually has an account on the site for tracking demographics. But of a random visitor? That's just a little excessive, in my opinion. Besides, when it comes to comics, wouldn't it be ultimately better to categorize the comics themselves and make suggestions based on tracking what your users are reading and those categories, rather than going "hmm... all women must LOVE this!".
*shakes her head* If nothing else, why is this (seemingly) mandatory?
Bizarre.
Edit: changed the icon, because it's just so ... perfect.
And I blinked. And I left the page and tried again, only to be presented with the same form once more.
Now, I'm certainly not the most cautious person when it comes leaving traces of personal information around online. But, come on. I can buy asking the age/gender combination of someone who actually has an account on the site for tracking demographics. But of a random visitor? That's just a little excessive, in my opinion. Besides, when it comes to comics, wouldn't it be ultimately better to categorize the comics themselves and make suggestions based on tracking what your users are reading and those categories, rather than going "hmm... all women must LOVE this!".
*shakes her head* If nothing else, why is this (seemingly) mandatory?
Bizarre.
Edit: changed the icon, because it's just so ... perfect.