The persistent cookie icon is so intrusive that I assumed it was a software bug. If it’s a deliberate design choice to allow a user to view and change his cookie setting later on, it’s an absolutely terrible choice. The proper way to do that is to make it a selection in “Preferences”.
It’s like the talking toaster in Red Dwarf that keeps trying to guilt people into making toast, because otherwise why does it exist, and it won’t shut up about it.
Same for me. It’s too clunky and intrusive especially partially obstructing the Reply button. I am visiting here less frequently.
Both of you should consider the workaround of installing an ad blocker like Adblock Plus or uBlock Origin, which is a good idea anyway aside from the fact that it hides the cookie icon.
I’m reading the site in the Discourse app and I don’t think it’s possible to run an ad blocker in it.
Or is it?
This app?
It’s not a web browser, so does this issue even apply? We’re talking about a web site being run on a web browser, not the forum going through some other platform.
I am seeing the stupid cookie icon in the Discourse app, and as someone said, it’s right next to the back button, making it hard to select the button and not the cookie icon.
Unfortunately, I think you’ll have to take it up with the app folks. Web browser solutions only work for web browsers. By using Discourse’s app, you put yourself completely at their mercy, and you give up the customizability you’d get from a web browser. I guess that’s the tradeoff.
I think the Discourse app runs on top of Safari on my iPhone, so it might be possible to run an ad blocker in Safari?
What I did was install the “Ghostery” app on my iPhone, which blocks ads on Safari web sites. It’s free. I don’t know if it will apply to the Discourse app, but it can’t hurt to try it.
I’m glad you posted this – to opt out of information sharing, that information-sharing toggle has to be set the OPPOSITE way of the cookie toggles. Gotta be an intentional design. Totally slipped by me, but I fixed that tout de suite.
Where is this mystery toggle? I turned off Adblock so I could look at the cookie options, and all I see below the “essential cookies”, which is green and switched to the right, is three other toggles that are all switched to the left and grey. Those three toggles relate to targeted advertising, “remember the choices you’ve made”, and performance monitoring. That’s all there is.
Thanks – I was wondering if there was something out there for Safari. Sometimes, using Safari’s Reader mode is OK to check out an ad-laden website (esp if it’s otherwise text-intensive). But other times, some kind of a proper ad block would be better
Not for all site users, apparently. No idea why it would be different or how the differences are pushed to users.
Actually, I hadn’t looked at the cookie thing on my phone, only on laptop. Hang on …
… nope, the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” toggle is still there in Safari. If you don’t see that toggle … hmmm. Does Discourse consider your info fair game?
Also, checking my notebook … are you the poster that keeps an old Windows system up and running? Maybe what you see in the toggles has something to do with running Win 7 (forget your specific setup).
This is what I see. I don’t know how it could have anything to do with Windows 7. Because of Win 7, I have to run the Chromium-based Supermium browser to access the SDMB after the ridiculous browser restrictions Discourse forced on us. Supermium has some quirks, but I don’t see how that could have anything to do with it either.
That’s fascinating. I have all of that, plus one more at the bottom
By switching the toggle to the right and clicking save, you are indicating that you do not want us to sell your personal information or share your personal information for online targeted advertising activities. Please note if you use different computers or browsers, you must indicate your choices again on each computer or browser used to access our services.
I wonder if there’s some geo-locating type filtering going on. I’m in Canada, where the PIPEDA law applies, which may have more stringent proactive consent requirements than in the US. So maybe the “selling your personal information” defaults to “no” and no other choice appears? I’m just guessing – I have no idea.
I have that option and it’s disabled and set to “do not sell”. I couldn’t turn it on if I wanted to. The option for targeted advertising cookies is also permanently turned off.
Evidently it honors the Edge setting to send “Do Not Track” requests. Both Chrome and Edge have this setting. Although there’s no legal requirement that websites honor it, it doesn’t hurt to turn it on, and it will help with some sites where you forget to deny permission explicitly.
It’s not browser dependent. I just tried it with Chrome, and I get exactly the same options I posted above (but this time will all the options enabled). There is no “do not sell” option visible anywhere.
I bet that’s location awareness that you’re Canadian.
Of course for the unfortunates south of you, not only is there a “sell my soul for your profit” option, but it defaults to “yes”, and is designed confusingly to maximize the chance that people who want “no” choose what amounts to “yes” anyway.