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Comment by geovizer | Hacker News Reader

I have the same problem and the same irritation as the author of the article: I can't turn off birthdays in Google Calendar using the GUI. The checkbox that should allow me to do so is greyed out. Perhaps Google are doing a staged rollout of this "feature", or perhaps you have escaped the clammy grip of Google+?

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The check box in the Calendar Settings page is grayed out for me too as it seems. But I just toggle it off in my actual calendar view so none of the dates show up. Sure it still is in the list of calendars but it is not like it really effects anything just being in the list.

0. Software is supposed to be designed to serve me; it's not my job to find workarounds for shitty design. This is a shitty design, and therefore people are criticizing it.

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.)

The toggles aren't "work arounds." They are the UI of Calendar.

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.

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