Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

User avatar
Disposable Ninja
Posts: 462
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 8:50 pm

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Disposable Ninja » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:14 pm

Thad wrote:I thought Youtube had switched to showing videos through HTML5 by default?


There's a separate add-on that does that, and it mostly works, though on more than a couple occasions I would only get a black screen with just audio playing. Also, the add-on only works on videos playing on youtube itself -- embedded videos still use Flash.
For the White Witch!

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:53 am

The only time Steam manages to truly piss me right the fuck off is when its overzealous security features fuck me sideways.

Now, I'm used to it demanding an email code and denying me login access when I try to log in to a third-party portal (nothing dodgy - just a regular site like backpack.tf) once a month or so, even though I'm at the same IP and the same computer and the same browser because... I guess Steam just gets confused easily. That's not a huge deal; it's just mildly annoying.

But when I go and get the code, and submit it, and it's valid and then... Steam locks me out of all trading for seven days ANYWAY because I'm supposedly logging in from a new device (which is the reason I was asked to provide a verification code IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE and I DID EXACTLY THAT), even though, again, I'm not, and there's no effective recourse through Steam customer service (there is also no option to disable the extra security features without your ability to trade being entirely revoked), then I want to strangle Gabe and bang my head on my desk. Today is the third time this has ever happened and Arghsrohdthpiohuiot8972845789fuckyouGaben!

(I know it's not Gabe's fault - I just don't have the name of the schmuck who programmed this shitpile security)
Image

User avatar
zaratustra
Posts: 1665
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:45 pm

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby zaratustra » Thu Mar 26, 2015 5:44 am

Pretty sure it's like that to make it harder for two different people to use the same account.

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Thad » Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:44 am

Sure, but like any form of DRM, it's making life inconvenient for customers while not actually preventing any of these games from showing up on torrent sites.

(I think they finally updated Steam so I can download a game in the living room while playing a different game in my office. That's progress, right?)

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:51 am

I can play my games just fine - it's only trading I get locked out of.

It's just stupid because if you're going to arbitrarily (remember, my browser, IP, and computer are all unchanged) lock me out of trading, then just fucking do it. Don't give me the fucking dog-and-pony show where I validate everything manually then you fuck me anyway.
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Thad » Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:53 am

Well, that's something, anyway.

Trading, like, those cards and things they give you? Or did I miss the whole explanation?

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Thu Mar 26, 2015 11:56 am

TF2 items mainly. I expect that if you were locked out of your games there'd be a hell of a lot more howling about it on Steam forums and elsewhere.

It's also goofy because there's no way I can "pre-validate" or anticipate it happening.

(also I edited a bit in above, but nothing to do with the first sentence)
Image

User avatar
beatbandito
Posts: 4300
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby beatbandito » Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:12 pm

If you do have anything of value it's worth making sure there hasn't been any attempted log ins from other devices.

I don't know if it impacted trading, since I don't do much, but I have had issues with reverifying on the main computer I've used steam on since the orange box for as little as logging on to the steam site on my phone.
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Thad » Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:15 pm

Yeah, it's freakin' bizarre what will trigger a re-authentication. Sometimes nothing at all, as far as I can tell. I JUST VALIDATED THIS MACHINE TEN MINUTES AGO, GOD DAMMIT!

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:40 pm

I know no one's going for my "Hoard" of "Loot" I think the most expensive thing I have is a Bill's Hat and a couple of keys that I keep around just in case I ever want a fuckton of metal for ~something~

To be honest there are basically no TF2 items I care much about anymore - I have the cosmetics I want and while it's not impossible that they introduce some new stuff that I might want, the natural accumulation rate of metal provides me with more than enough to trade for the occasional new hat every six months or whatever. I don't do crates or trading up or unusuals or stranges or anything like that; all I want are decent games of TF2 (these are much harder to find than specific cosmetics, lol).
Image

User avatar
IGNORE ME
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3679
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:40 pm

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby IGNORE ME » Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:02 pm

Steam items are worth actual money now, so Valve is probably very interested in not getting into a position where they have to reimburse somebody to the tune of thousands of dollars due to a perceived lack of asset security. They're pretty much a digital bank.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:09 pm

I'm not sure that's the best comparison, given that my own bank's security works a hell of a lot better and if I have a problem I can call customer service an have it sorted out, whereas the latter is notoriously impossible with Steam.
Image

User avatar
Lyrai
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 5:34 pm

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Lyrai » Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:03 pm

Thad wrote:Well, that's something, anyway.

Trading, like, those cards and things they give you? Or did I miss the whole explanation?


I sold my stock of TF2 items for $1100.

Not in a garbage back of amazon giftcards, mind you. Actual, real dollars, in my bank account, right this instant.

I'm on the very low end of "Account worth"

TF2/Dota2 trading is srs bsnz

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Thad » Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:09 pm

Well, then I can certainly see the importance of protecting an account against unauthorized access. But Mongrel's right -- there are much more efficient and friendly ways of doing that. It's already got two-factor authentication; while I grant that's not 100% secure, nothing is.

Security should be balanced with convenience. Maybe make the wait period opt-out, with heavy disclaimers that they're not liable if you opt out? (Presumably there would still be a wait period for choosing to opt out, or there would be no point in having one at all. But a one-time wait period makes more sense than every time you access from a new computer, or a computer that Steam decides is new for reasons that are totally unclear.)

User avatar
Lyrai
Posts: 617
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 5:34 pm

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Lyrai » Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:31 pm

Oh, I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying the value of Steam Accounts has reached the levels of absurdity that such insane practices are put into motion and people go "This is shit but it's hopefully a stopgap until they get th e real solution out" and not mass riots in the street and angry mobs on Bellvue.

User avatar
IGNORE ME
Woah Dangsaurus
Posts: 3679
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:40 pm

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby IGNORE ME » Thu Mar 26, 2015 8:17 pm

Keep in mind that Valve is a gaggle of nerds holed up in a single office in Washington who only ever wanted to make Half-Life 3 and play around with flat corporate structures. They're not an FDIC-backed financial institution. This shit went bananas on them.

Saying that Valve doesn't know what it's doing here isn't a criticism, it's a good reason to be patient.

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:59 am

I love that even supposedly reputable utility sites are going full-on reprehensible in some cases.

I went to grab the latest copy of Filezilla, and got it straight from the actual site, filezilla-project.org - only it still forces a Sourceforge download. Now sourceforge always makes my skin crawl nowadays - they getting to be SUPER sketchy and I already avoid them at all costs if I can, but there were no other options provided. Anyway, even after opt-outing of the usual crap (search provider changes, add-ons, etc.) though a manual installation, it still installed fucking bundled software (some weather widget which was harmless and easy to remove, but really, fuck off) without warning, consent, or notification.

I went back to the original Filezilla site, thinking "Oh I bet I was just stupid - I bet there's a hidden spot after all where you can just download the utility without it going through Sourceforge's bullshit. It's probably buried on a dev page or something." but nope, the only way to get FZ outside of something like oldversion.com is the forced redirect to Sourceforge.
Image

User avatar
Mongrel
Posts: 21290
Joined: Mon Jan 20, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: There's winners and there's losers // And I'm south of that line

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Mongrel » Wed Apr 15, 2015 1:59 am

I finally had some guy disputing an ebay shipment for non-receipt. It's like $4, so I'll probably just give it to him and not care, but what made me laugh is the way PayPal send you an email that's almost celebratory, like "Congratulations on your first paypal dispute!" lololol
Image

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Thad » Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:29 am

I knew a guy once who worked at a trophy store.

When he was the first guy who got in trouble under some new rule they'd just instituted, he made himself a trophy.

They wrote him up for that. The writeup added "And when you were told you would be written up, you said that you would make yourself a trophy for that, too."

User avatar
Thad
Posts: 13165
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:05 am
Location: 1611 Uranus Avenue
Contact:

Re: Unforgivable Sins of UI Design

Postby Thad » Wed May 13, 2015 1:16 am

I know I've complained at length about Ctrl-Q/Cmd-Q as a keystroke for quitting a program, but it bears repeating; my laptop has a really narrow Tab key and I've quit out of Firefox while trying to switch tabs TWICE tonight.

Apple fanboys like to gloat about how much more sense Ctrl-Q makes as a keystroke than the inexplicable Alt-F4. Except it doesn't. It's an easier mnemonic, and a legitimately stupid fucking keystroke. (And, I suspect, the reason OSX is infected with constant obnoxious "Are you sure you want to quit?" popups.) Alt-F4 is totally opaque and seemingly arbitrary, but you're not going to fucking hit it by accident.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 21 guests