this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2024
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It’s been a while since I last downloaded anaconda. But I remember when clicking on the download page, it would show the usual “choose your OS > download binary” (eg this archived version in 2019).

Recently I helped someone else set it up and it showed a form to put on email, with smaller gray text near the bottom of the form about skipping it.

Does this count as a dark pattern?

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 month ago

Yes. This is a dark pattern.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 month ago (4 children)

For those dark pattern email boxes I like entering things like admin@[website that's serving a dark pattern mailbox] or marketing@website because 50% of the time it just gives me whatever without any trouble and the other 50% of the time I clear cookies and consider if I really need whatever they're gating behind harvesting my email...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

This is such a great idea lol

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

That is a great alternative to [email protected], I'll also feel less bad about accidentally hitting a real email.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I never expected anyone to guess my address. Thanks a lot.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

haha nice. I’ll try that next time

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I like [email protected] (sorry to the admin, it means nowhere, I assume it's like /dev/null) Just like everyone should be using 01/01/1970 for a birthdate

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Please stop doxxing me. JK but I use 01/01/1980 for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They hit two dark patterns out of a possible seven.

I should make a browser plug-in that finds dark patterns and reverses them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)

First two: using color and button size/placement to guide clicks

The ones they didn’t do:

  • Misdirection of reason for interacting with elements
  • pre-selecting the checkbox
  • making the background elements a clickbox
  • using colors to scare user into a certain action
  • using text to scare user into a certain action
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

thanks for clarifying! that’s really helpful!

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 month ago

Absolutely. I didn't spot the link for skipping registration until someone pointed it out.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes and also not sure why you'd use Anaconda. What's wrong with plain regular Python?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

thanks for confirming my suspicion. as for your question, conda in general is good for installing non-python binaries when needed, and managing env. I don’t use anaconda but it provides a good enough interface for beginners and folks without much coding experience. It’s usually the easiest to use that than other variants for them, or the python route of setting up environments

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Conda package manager is like pip on steroids. It's great for science, especially when working on Linux servers where you don't have root

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What's the benefit over pip in a venv?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Pip in a venv doesn't get you non python tools.

Conda also has venvs, for seperate environments for stuff as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Conda environments can encapsulate more than just Python packages, it brings the pip/venv model to the ecosystems of many languages (R, Go, etc.), and does so at the user level rather than in a folder for one project. The other Anaconda stuff is pretty useless IMO, but Conda is exceptionally useful. Although I would echo what the other commentor said that the mambaforge version is even better than vanilla miniconda

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That'd be a big NOPE from me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

“NOPE” as in “not a dark pattern” or as in “I’m not touching this site”? if former, can you clarify on the reason?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sorry, I meant I wouldn't touch it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

gotcha, thanks for clarifying :)