Don't hijack my mouse pointer

frereubu

> For example it can be as simple as this, to something completely unacceptable as this. I can't see any difference between these in terms of UX - I got annoyed just looking at them.

spacebacon

Unless it’s Ratty

Bender

ublock may be able to help, perhaps something like ##*:style(cursor: auto !important) Does anyone have a site to test it on?

timw4mail

Wait...what year is it again?

venzaspa

Not nearly as nasty as scroll hijacking so the page moves at a different speed than what I've instructed it to move at. Or pastejacking - when you're trying to copy a piece of text and the page makes you grab an entirely different string to what you'd highlighted and selected.

Theodores

I like it how the author says how busy he is and how he finally snatched a few minutes out of this busy life to bring us this edict: don't hijack mouse pointers, or else! What next, don't use blink or marquee elements? Or else! Standard issue cursors are not that great in all environments, sometimes making the cursor massively big or doing other daft things to it make sense. It is all about context and golden rules don't help.

teddyh

> For example, making it slightly tilted because it was easier to draw on old screens. No. Some older systems actually had straight pointers. The slightly tilted design is, I assume, a result of wanting to point to something while still being able to see what is to the immediate left of the pointer; useful for left-to-right text.

xnx

I can count on my left hand the number of acceptable times to change my cursor motion or shape. This is one: https://neal.fun/cursor-camp/

noiv

Lol, once made a game hiding mouse pointer temporarely when users did not behave :)

clickety_clack

I remember when the internet was wild, young and fun, and this was something people did all the time. If you’re building Salesforce or SAP or Microsoft Word you should avoid it, but if you’re making a fun and weird website you should go to town.

T_Potato

I use a very large mouse cursor because I hate when I have to search for the thing. Sometimes during meetings I get brain dead comments about it. I make it bigger in spite when I get a comment about it. Then in meetings they complain that they can't find their mouse pointer.... /rant

crest

Instant tab closed.

nfbs

I find it a bit surprising that there is no option in a browser to stop this kind of behavior. There is even a suggestion on mozzila.org. With this option placed it would just be another 'fun thing' you don't need to mind.

sixothree

Edge browser repositions your mouse cursor when you use the built-in screenshot tool.

juancn

My other pet peeve is sites that override text selection and add a popup or something. I select long text when I'm reading, I use it for focus and to keep track where I was if I need to switch to some other task in the middle. In general, excessive customization is a net negative if it breaks expectations.

AlienRobot

That's not "hijacking your mouse pointer" that's just changing the cursor. Absolutely change my cursor. But to something that looks cool, like a dragon or a sword. Not to a circle.

matteason

Google's design blog has a particularly egregious version of this: https://design.google/ The mouse blob morphs into the background of any buttons you hover over, which is technically impressive but annoying in practice

sys_64738

Try using RISC OS on the Archimedes if you want some really obnoxious mouse pointer hijacking.

dizhn

I encountered a few sites that can actually pull off "Hit ESC to enable video" even with ublock origin. I think they are using some sort of game controller api. Haven't encountered anything more infuriating in terms browsers and input device and haven't found a solution to it.

sig-11

As a millenial I sure am glad for AI to be blamed for everything, instead of my generation.