Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Website pop-ups
Raised as a usability problem by 87 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 84 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Popups cover the whole page with no way to dismissUnreviewed
20092026- Closing the popup dismisses the article; the page is hard to reach and link to2026-02-18
- Close button is light grey and hard to find, a dark pattern2025-07-02
- Pop-up asks for email mid-scroll or mid-form, interrupting the user's task2025-04-27
Sign-up popup stays on screen after being ignoredUnreviewed
20092026- Sign-up pop-overs block the content users came to read2020-05-18
- Pop-ups and full-page overlays block content and must be closed before reading2019-11-11
- Must dismiss an ad popup, then faces a registration prompt to read the article2016-09-28
Modal interrupts readers a few seconds into articlesUnreviewed
20092026- Modal popup appears immediately on arrival, forcing dismissal before content is reachable2025-09-05
- Full-screen modals pop up after articles start loading, stealing attention and causing anxiety2023-10-10
- Newsletter modal appears moments after reading starts, interrupting and forcing people to leave2022-10-12
Modal can't be dismissed without accepting termsUnreviewed
20092026- Must dismiss five separate modals before reaching the content2026-05-06
- Modals block the page until the user finds a hidden close pixel2026-01-01
- Modal panels obscure the page content and gray out the text, making it hard to read or reach2022-08-04
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Must dismiss five separate modals before reaching the content2026-05-06
- Closing the popup dismisses the article; the page is hard to reach and link to2026-02-18
- Page switches to a giant donation box and exiting brings another popup2026-02-09
- Modals block the page until the user finds a hidden close pixel2026-01-01
- Modal popup appears immediately on arrival, forcing dismissal before content is reachable2025-09-05
- Close button is light grey and hard to find, a dark pattern2025-07-02
- Pop-up asks for email mid-scroll or mid-form, interrupting the user's task2025-04-27
- Popins broken on Firefox; clicking links does nothing with no explanation2025-04-03
- Popup banners asking for money make the article unreadable2025-02-12
- Navbars and cookie banners consume a third of the screen, cluttering reading2025-01-05
- Popups appear every time user selects text while reading, interrupting them2024-06-24
- Subscribers must go through a three-step email login process each time2024-04-16
- Pop-up interrupts the user's flow and gates content behind a form2024-04-05
- Pop-up forces email subscription prompt while scrolling, disrupting reading2024-03-12
- Full-screen modals pop up after articles start loading, stealing attention and causing anxiety2023-10-10
- Clicking maybe later jumps the page back to the top, losing reading position2023-09-06
- Ad-blocker prompt in first paragraph is confusing to the reader2023-08-26
- Only offers yes or maybe later, forcing an opt-in choice with no clean dismissal2023-07-30
- Pop-up appears mid-reading on scroll, disrupting reading and hiding the dismiss option in small print2023-07-16
- Removing the modal in the inspector still leaves the page unscrollable2023-06-25
- Unprompted inline modal windows keep appearing, and pop-up blockers don't stop them2022-12-03
- Newsletter modal appears moments after reading starts, interrupting and forcing people to leave2022-10-12
- Sign-up modal scrolls in front of content and cannot be dismissed2022-10-10
- Site's JavaScript overrides the back button, forcing the user to fight to return2022-10-04
- Popups from third-party widgets appear behind page menus due to z-index conflicts2022-08-25
- Modal panels obscure the page content and gray out the text, making it hard to read or reach2022-08-04
- Overlays on mobile make it impossible to read the article2022-04-21
- Share popup appears unwanted whenever the user highlights text on sites2022-04-12
- Colorful banner on black background was ignored at first, mistaken for non-content2022-04-08
- Popups appear when leaving or just after page loads, interrupting reading and pushing deals2022-02-23
- Permission dialogs are annoying and people click yes just to make them go away2022-02-11
- Non-obvious features go unfound, so users rarely see or use them2021-11-30
- Clicking through GIFs, closing them, and waiting for them to load is frustrating; accidental clicks2021-11-30
- Tapping a dotted-underlined term unexpectedly shows a GIF popup, confusing users who expect a link2021-11-30
- Giant popups appear when the mouse moves over things by accident2021-11-30
- A blocking modal forces the reader to deal with terms before seeing content2021-11-09
- Cookie and newsletter popups, autoplay video and moving content make modern sites painful to use2021-10-21
- Modal blocks the page and cannot be dismissed without accepting the terms2021-09-28
- Eyeballs pop up every few minutes over text and must be hovered to dismiss2021-04-20
- Pop-up asking for email appears before article is read, forcing the page closed2020-11-14
- Pop-up cannot be closed on iPhone SE with latest iOS2020-10-05
- Overlays hijack keyboard focus and cancel buttons are disabled, trapping blind users2020-09-10
- Must dismiss a pop-up before reaching the blog post content2020-07-01
- Users can't tell which items a confirmation dialog will actually delete2020-06-26
- Popups and sticky banners clutter the page, including a donation request2020-06-18
- Sign-up pop-overs block the content users came to read2020-05-18
- Autoplaying sound ads and stacked pop-ups make the content hard to enjoy2020-03-23
- Pop-ups and full-page overlays block content and must be closed before reading2019-11-11
- Full-screen modal can't be closed, forcing the reader to go back2019-11-06
- Leaving the page locks the browser and floods history so the user cannot go back2018-10-07