When it comes to terrible web practices, it takes a lot to shock me. I literally wrote the book on the subject. Last night, I encountered a piece of fuckery and I can't get it out of my head, because it's such a perfect storm of outrageous conduct and institutional decay.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/10/26/abandon-hope/#all-ye-who-enter-here
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