

Darkpatterns.org: naming and shaming black hat, anti-usability design patterns. - harrybr
http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2010/08/16/darkpatterns-org-naming-and-shaming-sites-that-use-black-hat-anti-usability-design-patterns/

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DrJokepu
Here's one "dark pattern": Writing about a site and hiding the clickable link
deep within the text of the post, in a way that the text of the link doesn't
indicate that it actually takes you to the site, in the middle of a jungle of
other links that take you to various other articles on the same blog.

~~~
chime
I wouldn't call it dark pattern but rather an anti-pattern or just a plain-old
mistake/oversight. Dark pattern implies the website gains something by
misleading the user. In this case, the guy actually loses hits/viewer to the
main website he is talking about. So it is more of a usability oversight than
usability insidiousness.

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chime
I'm not generally in favor of new laws but this should be illegal:
<http://darkpatterns.org/silent-credit-card-roll-over/>

~~~
hyyypr
This exact same thing happened to me while subscribing with _www.1and1.fr_ for
a 1 year free domain name + 100mb disk space. At the end of the year, they
started charging me, but I never noticed because the credit card I used when I
subscribed was expired.

A few months later I got a letter from a bailiff (not sure of the translation:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huissier_de_justice>) saying that I owed like
100$ to 1and1, then I got another letter, and another, I never replied and the
story stopped here.

~~~
Silhouette
For what it's worth, pretty much all major credit card companies impose
conditions on merchants who want to have delayed or recurring payments, which
form the financial basis for this sort of dubious behaviour.

As a result, if someone is trying to pull a fast one like this, you probably
don't need heavyweight legal action to defend yourself. The payment authority
on your card will have expired when your card did and chances are that the
merchant is required by their card processing service to get a new authority
for any further payments. If they didn't, and they didn't contact you
immediately but let the "debt" run up for a few months, that's basically their
problem, and neither the credit card services nor the courts are likely to
give them much sympathy. Whoever they sent after you is probably well aware of
this, and gave up as soon as they realised the situation, particularly if
they're only receiving a percentage of any money recovered as their fee.

I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, if you trust any legal comments
you read on an Internet forum without independent verification then you're a
fool, etc. :-)

~~~
hyyypr
Thanks for the reply, but this story in long over. This happened like 3 years
ago, so I think they pretty much gave up by now.

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tomwalker
Link: <http://darkpatterns.org>

Nice site :)

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wallflower
Lump of coal for Ryan Air's purchase ticketing online:

<http://gyazo.com/5355d61b3c732af6424d6c2da6f951f3.png>

~~~
arethuza
Yeah - just booked tickets through that site and was pretty shocked by that
one.

They really make you work to avoid buying extra crap.

------
ern
I think all of us have encountered examples like this.

I consider myself a fairly savvy user, but a few years ago, I was caught by
geni.com's invite policy (it _was_ endorsed by Time Magazine, so I trusted it
more than I should have).

I entered the email addresses of a few family members, expecting them to be
invited to join the family tree. Instead they were automatically opted in to a
deluge of daily email updates about family activities/events. It made me
fairly unpopular for a while at family gatherings, especially with older
family members, who couldn't find the "unsubscribe" link. I think some of them
still have to manually delete messages every day.

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sbov
Regarding: <http://darkpatterns.org/hidden-costs/>

Its extremely rare to see an online store that includes all taxes & fees in
its line item prices. Such as hotel/air tax, sales tax, or shipping costs.

And when I don't see them in the checkout, I get suspicious. Shipping is never
free, please let me know what I'm paying for it rather than lumping it into 1
price.

~~~
henrikschroder
...in the US. In a bunch of other countries it's illegal for businesses to
display prices without all applicable taxes.

~~~
sbov
What about fees only certain customers have to pay?

An example of this in the US is that companies don't know if you're going to
pay their sales tax until they know what state you're in. Would they have to
collect all required information before they display any products,
(potentially being perceived as <http://darkpatterns.org/forced-information-
disclosure/>) or display multiple prices?

~~~
henrikschroder
In Sweden, the only real difference is between companies and persons, and the
former don't pay VAT, but the latter group should. EU didn't complicate
matters, you still pay VAT based on the country you buy from, not where you
are located.

So if you make a print catalog and send it to companies, you can print prices
without VAT. If you make the same and send to people, you have to include VAT.
Same if you have a store, you have to include VAT in all prices.

Webshops usually have a simple global toggle somewhere on the site where you
can choose to display prices with or without VAT.

In the US case, you could simply use GeoIP to guess the default and display
all prices according to that state, and somewhere on the site have a "We think
you are in <state>. Change?" and a dropdown.

It's really not rocket science, and the end result is _very_ nice for
consumers since the total you see is always the actual total, not a bullshit
number that gets magically larger at the last step.

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InfinityX0
A "dark pattern" I know about is websites that make it extremely difficult to
quit the service. Having to sift through a site design like a maze to find the
"quit" button is definitely something that is manipulative and harmful to end
users, since we are generally lazy, easily distracted individuals.

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chanux
In getsatidfaction.com you can not delete your profile.

More on my blog [http://chanux.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/how-not-to-get-
satisf...](http://chanux.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/how-not-to-get-
satisfaction/)

------
theycallmemorty
LOL @ calling it Privacy 'Zuckering'

~~~
Silhouette
Zuckerpunch, _n_. A quick opening move that tricks you into compromising your
privacy before you realise what's really happening. See also "Facebook,
joining".

------
storborg
I was hoping to be inspired, but I don't actually see any new or useful
information on this site. All of these entries just come across as whiny
complaints about things that are very obvious and in the company's best
interest.

Example: "Disguised Ads" Site designers want ads to look like content?? God
forbid! Stop the presses!

