Manipulated on the Internet
This morning I experienced many ways in which we are manipulated on the Internet, both by people and by the software they produce.
I followed a link from Twitter just now, to an article on what "mystery" means in Christianity. I read the article and wanted to share it because I thought it was worth reading, but when I wanted to share it, the article disappeared and was replaced by the message:
Your Browser Is
No Longer Supported
To view this website and enjoy a better online experience, update your browser for free.
Now I know what happened there.
My computer is quite old, and I use an older version of the Firefox browser because the newer versions are bloatware that need too much memory and cause me to drink too much coffee, because I have an urge to go and make coffee while web pages are loading and everything is busy swapping to disk as the computer tries to make space for all the excess baggage.
I also use an add-on for Firefox called "No Script", which, among other things, stops web sites from automatically playing videos (news sites are especially guilty of this) and wasting bandwidth, and slowing things down still further.
But in this case I was able to read the article and then wanted to see if there was a link button to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook in order to share it. To do that, I had to allow the site to run scripts, so I told NoScript to allow the site. And as soon nas the script ran, it read the version number of my browser and decided not to let me read the article any more. So the software people and the webmasters conspire to say that as a member of the consumer society you haven't fulfilled your consumption quota and you must update, update, update. It's planned obsolescence to force you to consume. But the new brwoser is FREE! they say. We aren't forcing you to buy anything. But I have to buy a new computer to run the bloatware browser.
And I think I'll be able to read the article again if I close my browser and let it run with NoScript, which will hide the version number from the evil gremlin/daemon put there by the webmaster to censor it.
Another example of this manipulation is the popular books site GoodReads. If you are a member of GoodReads, or have read or written a book review there, be aware of this:
Bots are what’s going at Goodreads. Since Goodreads is also used by non-account holders, it is a desirable internet space for advertisers. What happens is that a company or individual will pay for hundreds of positive reviews of their product, so that when a potential buyer sees the reviews, all they see are positive reviews and 5-star ratings. In the case of Goodreads, the product is books. These reviews can be written by a bot or a person with multiple fake accounts.
Read all about it here: Top Reviewers or Bot Reviewers: the Goodreads Bot Problem.
Oh, in if you'd like to read the article on the Christian meaning of mystery, or alternatively that your browser is no longer supported, then go here.
But as for me, I am hearily sick of messages like
Another thing I like about NoScript, you see, is that when it is running a little box pops up saying "This site wants to set a cookie" and gives various options, and the one I click most often is "Allow for session", and it's done. Whereas if you run the script it will come up with "We value your privacy" followed by all sorts of hoops to jump through about their privacy policies and cookies. I know much of that is requred by things like EU bureaucratic regulations, buty it's still a pain.
Of course some sites really don't like my browser, which is why I've had to give up my WordPress blogs, and may soon have to give up GoodReads (the book description pages are already unreadable and unclickable), quite apart from the scandal of the bot reviews and manipulation mentioned above. But there is hope. There is a new site, The StoryGraph, which lets you import all your stuff from GoodReads, and best of all, it isn't owned by Amazon.
For trusted sites I use the Maxthon browser, which doesn't run NoScript, but I made the mist6ake of upgrading that, and the new version is also bloatware, and encourages me to drink too much coffee while waiting for web pages to load.
Galloping entropy strikews again.
I followed a link from Twitter just now, to an article on what "mystery" means in Christianity. I read the article and wanted to share it because I thought it was worth reading, but when I wanted to share it, the article disappeared and was replaced by the message:
Your Browser Is
No Longer Supported
To view this website and enjoy a better online experience, update your browser for free.
Now I know what happened there.
My computer is quite old, and I use an older version of the Firefox browser because the newer versions are bloatware that need too much memory and cause me to drink too much coffee, because I have an urge to go and make coffee while web pages are loading and everything is busy swapping to disk as the computer tries to make space for all the excess baggage.
I also use an add-on for Firefox called "No Script", which, among other things, stops web sites from automatically playing videos (news sites are especially guilty of this) and wasting bandwidth, and slowing things down still further.
But in this case I was able to read the article and then wanted to see if there was a link button to social media sites like Twitter and Facebook in order to share it. To do that, I had to allow the site to run scripts, so I told NoScript to allow the site. And as soon nas the script ran, it read the version number of my browser and decided not to let me read the article any more. So the software people and the webmasters conspire to say that as a member of the consumer society you haven't fulfilled your consumption quota and you must update, update, update. It's planned obsolescence to force you to consume. But the new brwoser is FREE! they say. We aren't forcing you to buy anything. But I have to buy a new computer to run the bloatware browser.
And I think I'll be able to read the article again if I close my browser and let it run with NoScript, which will hide the version number from the evil gremlin/daemon put there by the webmaster to censor it.
Another example of this manipulation is the popular books site GoodReads. If you are a member of GoodReads, or have read or written a book review there, be aware of this:
Bots are what’s going at Goodreads. Since Goodreads is also used by non-account holders, it is a desirable internet space for advertisers. What happens is that a company or individual will pay for hundreds of positive reviews of their product, so that when a potential buyer sees the reviews, all they see are positive reviews and 5-star ratings. In the case of Goodreads, the product is books. These reviews can be written by a bot or a person with multiple fake accounts.
Read all about it here: Top Reviewers or Bot Reviewers: the Goodreads Bot Problem.
Oh, in if you'd like to read the article on the Christian meaning of mystery, or alternatively that your browser is no longer supported, then go here.
But as for me, I am hearily sick of messages like
- We value your privacy.
- Your browser is no longer supported.
Another thing I like about NoScript, you see, is that when it is running a little box pops up saying "This site wants to set a cookie" and gives various options, and the one I click most often is "Allow for session", and it's done. Whereas if you run the script it will come up with "We value your privacy" followed by all sorts of hoops to jump through about their privacy policies and cookies. I know much of that is requred by things like EU bureaucratic regulations, buty it's still a pain.
Of course some sites really don't like my browser, which is why I've had to give up my WordPress blogs, and may soon have to give up GoodReads (the book description pages are already unreadable and unclickable), quite apart from the scandal of the bot reviews and manipulation mentioned above. But there is hope. There is a new site, The StoryGraph, which lets you import all your stuff from GoodReads, and best of all, it isn't owned by Amazon.
For trusted sites I use the Maxthon browser, which doesn't run NoScript, but I made the mist6ake of upgrading that, and the new version is also bloatware, and encourages me to drink too much coffee while waiting for web pages to load.
Galloping entropy strikews again.