Bonum Certa Men Certa

Quantcast: Not a Decent Way to Treat Site Visitors, Paying Members (Subscribers) Included

Phoronix "VALUES YOUR PRIVACY" (but not upstream)

Phoronix VALUES YOUR PRIVACY



Summary: Phoronix has a privacy problem and it prevents the site from broadening its reach or increasing its appeal to geeks

TECHRIGHTS supports Phoronix and this is why it cares. It doesn't ignore the above issue, which is longstanding. Michael Larabel explained to me that a 'parent' company had imposed that (more or less). So I've researched this a little, having seen negative comments in the forums (in response to the fund-raiser, which ends right about now). I didn't want to 'interfere' with this fund-raiser, so I withheld criticism for a while.



"...I've researched this a little, having seen negative comments in the forums (in response to the fund-raiser, which ends right about now)."Larabel is a hard-working man. Very hard-working. I can relate to his dedication. He now also needs to support 3 people (a baby was recently born). I totally get that. But having 'only' like a thousand trackers in every single page (notice that the above list is alphabetical), each tracker with its own unique surveillance policy (linked to from that list), is a little too much. Pages that should take just a second or so to load can take an order or magnitude longer to fully load. Most of what's happening isn't visible; it happens in the background, at many server sides and also at the user's end, owing to proprietary JavaScript code. I studied this to the extent possible. The 'gory' JavaScript dissection is beyond the scope of this post. There's locational tracking as well.

"As of several weeks ago, charts stopped showing up in benchmarks/articles unless JavaScript is enabled and that makes matters worse."Never mind the paywall; never mind the many ads that accompany each page, forums included. I can understand why some Phoronix supporters would stop blocking ads in that site. To me, personally, the spying is the main issue. It makes each page like somewhat of a 'malware'. Bloated also, but that's a technical matter... as bloat/clumsiness does not necessarily imply malice.

May we politely and kindly suggest that Larabel speaks to the patron about removing that malicious surveillance from all pages? Based on the forums, this is rather off-putting. Readers are generally very technical, so they know what's going on and some publicly complain. It reduces traffic, no doubt, and keeps some people off the site. Remove the spying and traffic will increase; Tux Machines would certainly link to it a lot more. It used to be a fast, lean site. That's just no longer the case with JavaScript enabled. As of several weeks ago, charts stopped showing up in benchmarks/articles unless JavaScript is enabled and that makes matters worse. It makes some links dreadful to click on and some pages impossible to read (without running proprietary programs).

Recent Techrights' Posts

Bruce Perens & Debian public domain trademark promise
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 28/04/2024: Shareholders Worry "AI" Hype Brings No Income, Money Down the Drain
Links for the day
Lawyer won't lie for Molly de Blanc & Chris Lamb (mollamby)
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 27, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, April 27, 2024
Links 27/04/2024: Spying Under Fire, Intel in Trouble Again
Links for the day
Lucas Kanashiro & Debian/Canonical/Ubuntu female GSoC intern relationship
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Pranav Jain & Debian, DebConf, unfair rent boy rumors
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 27/04/2024: Kaiser Gave Patients' Data to Microsoft, "Microsoft Lost ‘Dream Job’ Status"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/04/2024: Sunrise Photos and Slow Productivity
Links for the day
Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Gained Over 51 Billion Dollars in the Past Nine Months Alone, Now "Worth" as Much as All Our Physical Assets (Property and Equipment)
The makeup of a Ponzi scheme where the balance sheet has immaterial nonsense
Almost 2,700 New Posts Since Upgrading to Static Site 7 Months Ago, Still Getting More Productive Over Time
We've come a long way since last autumn
FSFE (Ja, Das Gulag Deutschland) Has Lost Its Tongue
Articles/month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 26, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, April 26, 2024
Overpaid lawyer & Debian miss WIPO deadline
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Brian Gupta & Debian: WIPO claim botched, suspended
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Microsoft's XBox is Dying (For Second Year in a Row Over 30% Drop in Hardware Sales)
they boast about fake numbers or very deliberately misleading numbers that represent two companies, not one
Ian Jackson & Debian reject mediation
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
[Meme] Granting a Million Monopolies in Europe (to Non-European Companies) at Europe's Expense
Financialization of the EPO
Salary Adjustment Procedure at the EPO Challenged
the EPO must properly compensate staff in order to attract and retain suitably skilled examiners
How to get selected for Outreachy internships
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Links 26/04/2024: Surveillance Abundant, Restoring Net Neutrality Rules (US)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/04/2024: uConsole and EXWM and stdu 1.0.0
Links for the day
Red Hat Corporate Communications is "Red" Now
Also notice they offer just two options: MICROSOFT or... MICROSOFT!
Links 26/04/2024: XBox Sales Have Collapsed, Facebook's Shares Collapse Too
Links for the day
Albanian women, Brazilian women & Debian Outreachy racism under Chris Lamb
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Microsoft-Funded 'News' Site: XBox Hardware Revenue Declined by 31%
Ignore the ludicrous media spin
Mark Shuttleworth, Elio Qoshi & Debian/Ubuntu underage girls
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Karen Sandler, Outreachy & Debian Money in Albania
Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 25, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, April 25, 2024
Links 26/04/2024: Facebook Collapses, Kangaroo Courts for Patents, BlizzCon Canceled Under Microsoft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/04/2024: Music, Philosophy, and Socialising
Links for the day