Google Calendar’s Enforced Birthdays Show the Ugly Side of Algorithms
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
I had to manually edit the HTML and add the onclick handler:
Note:
- change the id you pass to the onclick function to match yours if it differs.
- the "KNa" function might also be different. Check out the other checkboxes' HTML to figure it out.
BEFORE:
<input type="checkbox" id="cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" checked="" disabled="" class="al-ctrl al-nameref-showinlist">
AFTER:
<input type="checkbox" id="cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ" checked="" class="al-ctrl al-nameref-showinlist" onclick=KNa(('I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ'),(true));">
And then uncheck the box. Done.
<a href="javascript:void(0)" class="al-ctrl al-desc-self" onclick="LNa(('cbm-I2NvbnRhY3RzQGdyb3VwLnYuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ'));"><nobr>Unsubscribe</nobr></a>
That gets it out of your account completely.
1. It's annoying because I already have all the birthdays I want on my iCloud calendar; it's creating a pile of duplicate events.
2. It's annoying in 3rd party apps when you hit a show/hide all calendars button, but you never want to see the Birthdays calendar.
3. Some 3rd party apps don't let you show/hide calendars in general, and this isn't a writable calendar, so it's doubly annoying. (Yes, this is shitty design too.)
But interesting that two of your bullet points in a comment about Google's shitty design are actually about the shitty design of some 3rd party apps, not Google. None of the 3rd party apps I use for Calendar have those issues.
I don't think it is a big deal. You do. Both are opinions. We disagree.