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When I try to read the article on mobile, an unstoppable video fills up 1/3 of my screen. The video is unrelated to the article and has no obvious UX to stop or dismiss.

Gizmodo’s website is fucking stupid. Who comes up with this shit?

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The hedge fund placed exec who has been running Gizmodo into the ground for the last year. Part of a larger trend of user-hostile design changes that have caused quite a lot of controversy as they attempt to extract as much value in the short term as they can. Last time they implemented this exact change it only lasted a few days before the writers at most of the Gizmodo sites more or less openly revolted. It resulted in the shut down of the left leaning news site though. I'm wondering whether we'll see a repeat, or if they'll shrug and give up.

What kind of short term value does this kind of stuff extract? Does forcing visitors to watch a video bring ad revenue or something?

Here's an alternate write up: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/science/sparrow-bird-song...

It even has audio clips of the two melodies.

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