The f*** off contact page

diziet

"You will get less leads with the 'enterprise style' contact page. You don't have enough leads right now. You don't have low value self-serve users you want to turn away. Your BDR team is not overflowing with leads you need to turn away. You can make money from having more leads. Less leads will generate less revenue. Here are some potential metrics from the two styles of contact pages. Here is how these metrics tie into revenue."

I think an honest message like this, at least communicated via email to the budget owners would abscond... or at least absolve one of any guilt.

Also, thank you for having the option to toggle the font. I wrote a css rule, but found it later.

reedf1

I think the last point combined with some real data or case studies would prompt introspection.

Anecdotally I stick to companies with good customer support like glue, even if their product is inferior. It's an absolute wonder to be taken seriously by a company, to have feedback integrated into future products, or just have small issues taken care of without hassle.

dotancohen

You're going to laugh, but this is why I stick with AWS. They've twice helped me with billing issues on my personal account - as in an actual human helping me. They have no idea I manage large (not huge) AWS deployments at my day job. They just demonstrate great customer service to me as a small client.

So they have me as a loyal customer. And advocate, it seems.

hhh

AWS support is extremely good. I have had the same experience in personal projects and in turn have quadrupled down on our leverage of their support at my work.

rikafurude21

Scolding your clients like theyre kids will definitely sour the relationship

nkrisc

Where’s the font option? I hate playing games to make a site readable.

oneeyedpigeon

Bottom-right.

(Very few sites have this feature, so the one in question gets big bonus points from me)

nkrisc

Thanks. Turns out reader mode works fine too. I thought it wouldn’t but I was mistaken.

Veen

You have to judge it client by client though. Some are amenable to and grateful for a flatly stated analysis and recommendation, even if it goes against their ideas. Some will feel belittled and undermined. You need both sorts to pay their invoices and refer their peers, so you pick your battles.

oneeyedpigeon

> Some will feel belittled and undermined.

This has always frustrated me. You wouldn't go to a doctor, hear that you need an appendix removed, and feel "belittled and undermined"!

The 'problem' (it's a problem from my pov) is that clients simply think they know better when it comes to digital/computer/online stuff. They're used to browsing the web, so they think they know what a good website is. They know how to write a letter in MS Word, so they think they can write good web copy. Etc.

zhisme

Wow, that's website theme is awesome. windows XP like, breath of nostalgia. Thank you for that !

Rebuff5007

This whole post is coming of a bit naive to me... I highly doubt this client is just an inspirational design meeting away from changing their offering and make a massive investment in customer support. I also don't get why a web-development consultant would feel so responsible for a pretty typical business decision.

ikr678

If you're a web dev who has had past clients not pay up due to going broke/cashflow issues, then you have a bit of vested interest in seeing them succeed (and then pay you properly).

oneeyedpigeon

> I also don't get why a web-development consultant would feel so responsible for a pretty typical business decision by their client.

Because they are an expert in their field and the client, presumably, isn't? I can't imagine another field—hairdressing, construction, financial advice—where the client would reject the paid expert's viewpoint so readily and firmly.

Rebuff5007

The expertise offered here is "how to build a website". If the client is insisting that the dev use a specific javascript library, that would be odd.

The client here is just requesting specific content on their website, similar to someone requesting a granite countertop in their kitchen; that seems fine, even if its not particularly classy or aesthetically pleasing to the contractor.

kinematikk

I love this site it’s so cute and interesting

froh42

That with its pixel art is styled so beautifully and so hard to read at the same time. Couldn't read it at all. (It's not an eye vision problem, reading pixel fonts just is quite taxing on the brain).

tgv

I found it hard too. Perhaps the difference with the other people responding is the size the font is rendered. On my screen, the distance between the top of a "d" and the bottom of a "y" in the body text is 7mm. That corresponds to font size 18 in Word, or 22px in the browser, so basically a chapter heading.

frizlab

Yeah I started to read the article, went into the CSS, disabled the custom font, and continued reading.

Then I went on HN to read the comments, and found out there is a toggle to get an anti-aliased font…

Aeolun

I went in and just… read it? Don’t see the issue with the thing.

nly

You can turn on anti-aliased fonts by clicking the bottom right hand corner menu button

AndrewThrowaway

I had to go back to the page to check that it actually uses pixel font. To each its own I guess. For me the font was barely noticeable.

Angostura

Interesting - meanwhile, I found it refreshingly easy to read.

ares623

Off topic but love the site design

frizlab

Not a fan personally, but I do recognize its uniqueness and would love to see more pearls like these!

debesyla

Yeah! It's unique, has a personal charm and also everything seems to fit together nicely. Fun to discover such pages, reminds me of the old days, haha!

shit_game

I agree with the author in that there are such things as "fuck off" contact pages; I deal with them often looking for hardware and software and professional services. The gating of contact behind a sales department is one method of "fucking off" a person, but so is omitting necessary contact information, gating it behind some absolutely hostile AI chat agent, or just burying the page entirely. Certain large American ISPs are very guilty of this behavior, even going so far as to make the entire process of contacting them one giant, deliberately engineered "fuck off and die" experience across literally every medium of contact (web, mail, phone call, etc.).

Though to be fair, this is a bit rich coming from a blog that I'd describe as a "fuck off blog". This was incredibly difficult to read. I'm all for people doing whatever they want with their site (I'm guilty of doing ornery things on my site because I enjoy it and the aesthetic), but I find the irony palpable.

Regarding the communicative iterations where you desperately (read: hopelessly) try to convince a client otherwise as they demand something unreasonable; 100% on-point. In my consultations with a close friend I've found that it's not only hard, but interpersonally challenging to say "no" to someone when you're either being compensated by them or in some personal relationship with them that you don't want to jeopardize. The best advice I've recieved regarding business operations is "don't do business with friends", and I imagine this kind of situation is one of the biiggest reasons why. Someone being set on a terrible idea and relying on you to implement it is not pleasant. My experience with this to date has been informal, but I'd imagine that once legal contracts are involved it becomes hair loss-tier stressful to deal with.

patrick4urcloud

very nice website !

geenat

Udemy is famous for the fuck off style for paying customers.

4gotunameagain

Don't be so inconsiderate. Humans increase costs. The silicon valley oligarchs do not have enough. They need to reduce costs. Replace everyone possible with "AI". They are on the race to the first trillion after all.

Good luck trying to reach a human for support on google, one of the most rich companies in history, that permeates virtually every aspect of life.