Dark patterns

My favorite “dark pattern” is when you close a tab with items in your cart and a burner email associated, then a couple days later they email a promo code.

Countdown timers and ‘Only 4 left’ are often scams, but they should note a few sites like eBay get a pass since for simply giving true facts about the auction.

I agree that all of these are dark patterns that have been folded into most websites.

We should not implement these patterns, or allow them to be implemented unchallenged.

One I had to face was, they put a tiny dot over the close button on a dialog box, so when you try to close it, you're actually clicking the dot. You really have to notice the dot to avoid it and actually click the close button.

I uninstalled the app, and left a review, but knowing the company, I don't think they'll ever fix it.

Some things can be mitigated by avoiding CSS and JavaScripts in web pages. My idea of a "computer payment file" can also mitigate some of them (such as hidden costs, especially hidden recurring costs). Forced continuity and some kind of hidden costs probably should be made illegal, though (although there are the details to be considered; the laws should not be made excessive). Someone who uses such a deception could also be given a bad reputation, independently from laws, but it would be necessary to avoid a monopoly, too. Other things could also be done, such as client software on computers to be designed better, and making that you should not require specific types of computers (or, in some cases, any computer, or any internet connection) for many important things.

If you want to see dark patterns in action in the US, visit any fitness, diet, weight-loss, vitamin and supplement website.

CEOs, CMOs and marketers prioritize the “abandoned cart”. It’s just business.

I appreciate the dark pattern enumeration here - but, as an American, I find it strange that the Australian Government needs to get involved with this PSA.

Open question: if a bartender greets you with a compliment and a wink, and then proceeds to sell you a cocktail, is it a dark pattern?

to me, dark patterns were not the means, but the goals: the cognitive patterns that are established and reinforced after all the methods have been successfully applied.

[hop]

when all those little spikes compound while you ingest global and national news and those backpacking friends from Russia, Ukraine and Cambodia come home ^^, for example ...

[hop]

and we thought Machiavelli et al wrote so we could understand, when they really just established patterns that could be matched with little effort

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