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Comment by kirse | Hacker News Reader

all the super-annoying gimmicky animations (rippling text inputs, wiggly text, excessively stretch-and-squashing motion)

I like to call this trend "Flanders Computing" -- where developers and designers increasingly create obnoxiously friendly websites and apps that treat you as if they're your diddly-doodly buddy-ol-pal.

A recent Windows 10 install told me "We're happy you're here!" Who exactly is "we" and why are they trying to be all buddy-buddy so soon? I assume the market research told them that this was the best start screen, but good grief is all the wiggly-wobbly buddy-ol-pal stuff so friggin annoying. It's like forced intimacy that can't be reciprocated, which feels weird.

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Similarly, when I sign into slack at work, I am presented with silly little messages from my "friends at slack". Why is the empty set writing me messages? The people who work on slack are probably nice, but I don't use the "friend" label on people who I've never met.

You can configure those messages. We've set them to be hilarious things our team has said over our time together. I rather enjoy it.

http://webcomicname.tumblr.com/post/154211839894

AKA Genuine People Personalities as predicted in Hitchhiker's Guide.

Re: Windows 10, it scared me so much the first time after a bigger update with the "Hi / We've updated your computer" type splash screen. "FUCK did it just reformat everything??"

"Hi, we've updated your computer. Pray we do not update it any further."

I also experienced that moment of "oh shit!". I've rarely used Windows in my life, but when I have, when Windows blanks the display and pops up something like that and isn't booting, it's historically something scary.

Not to mention "Don't worry, everything is where you left it" which I've had a few times when booting up. And the slow fade in makes it even creepier.

Yeah, that message made me nervous. "We didn't touch your stuff...this time."

This needs to develop into a grading system. A "Flanders Threshold" or something.

Hey cha-cho, thanks for reaching out.

Love your idea for the Flanders Threshold. Hit me up any time at john@cheesierthanaripecamembert.com and tell me what you need. I'll be more than happy to help.

Looking forward to making magic with you on the Flanders Threshold, cha-cho!

Best,

John

CEO/Sales/Customer Support*

Cheesier Than A Ripe Camembert, Inc.

(Every time I get a mail like this from some trendy tech firm, I die a little inside, but somewhere in the past year or two I think they all read the same book and now they're all doing it.)

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