Ask HN: Why is today's Internet experience so user hostile?
You hit the nail on the head -- repeatedly.
Shit. I just bought my gf a Roku as a stocking stuffer. We were setting it up and it made her put in her email and phone number to verify. I was appalled; I was like <i>don&#x27;t put in your email! I&#x27;ll return it!</i> But she wanted be able to watch YouTube on her TV since Apple <i>removed it without warning from her AppleTV device</i>. My own Roku from a couple years ago works great with no idea who I am, let alone my phone number.<p>Someone said users tolerate it. I think this has a lot to do with corporations getting out ahead of the law, doing diligence on their own just in case one government or another comes knocking. Yeah, in the case of a streaming device they probably gain a bit of extra intel to sell if they have a phone number to tie to your viewing habits. But it&#x27;s not just that. Google just asked me on one of my fake accounts to tell them &quot;Charlie&#x27;s&quot; birthday, just in case so they don&#x27;t serve me any illegal material. This is to pre-comply with whatever data the government of any country they serve might want.<p>Now, the problem with Amazon&#x27;s hostility toward customers of its marketplace is of a whole other order. That&#x27;s truly a situation where it&#x27;s cheaper for them to sell rotten garbage to everyone and take returns than it is to make a transparent marketplace, and that&#x27;s down to the laws of physics. They just make more money being a shipping company than they do a retailer, and the arbitrage between Chinese factory sellers and American consumers is ridiculous. You could design countless better systems, but none of them will ship lead-coated childrens toys as quickly or for as much profit.<p>This here&#x27;s the last of the free internet that isn&#x27;t dumbed down for consumers. This and the retro BBS subculture, and gopher and IRC and other things of that ilk. We&#x27;re much reduced.<p>Personally in my own code &#x2F; administration and training for the company I work for, I really try to make sure that the user experience comes first and there is no daylight between what the customer expected and what they get. This, however, is a minority view.