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For me this area, red box:

enter image description here

is completely annoying and pointless.

Is there an option to turn it off?

If not, should you dudes add such an option?

Note -

  • I'm not, in any way, opposed to SO monetizing.
  • Actually if that was an ad it would be less annoying, strangely enough.
  • A great way to think about the huge mistake made here in your business model: that square indicated in red is exactly an example of the sort of crap that Google know to never, ever - ever - put on their product.

(Imagine if google Drive, say, or any of their products had a pointless box at the top with links to "blog!!! articles!" by vice presidents. It's not even funny - it's like a parody of adding pointless crap to a web product.)

|improve this question
  • What does monetising have to do with anything? The majority of what appears in that box are meta posts – Cai May 27 '18 at 13:36
  • ? would be like asking "When NBC runs a promo for their own shows rather than a Coke ad, how is that monetizing?" – Fattie May 27 '18 at 13:56
  • Heh - the voting here really emphasizes the difference between "people who hang out on the meta site" and "working engineers who use SO to ask questions" ! – Fattie May 27 '18 at 13:57
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    You missed my point. That box isn’t full of promo or ads, it’s full of meta posts (i.e stuff the community is discussing amongst itself; nothing to do with the company) – Cai May 27 '18 at 14:05
  • ? "meta" is a marketing effort. like adding "a logo", "tv ads" or "a! blog!" (note that anyway, the first link is to a marketing! blog!) – Fattie May 27 '18 at 16:44
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    Sure, there are blog posts, but not always and the majority aren’t. As for meta being a marketing effort... I don’t really understand what you’re saying (how do you equate a place where the community discusses itself with “tv ads”?) – Cai May 27 '18 at 17:38
  • You're right, google does sooooooo much better and would never waste quarter of the screen with useless "hints": i.stack.imgur.com/YOx22.png – user36296 May 28 '18 at 14:39
  • ? that's a one-time popup. So, let's change the area in question on SO to a one-time popup. And indeed, everyone loathes those things they are experimenting with on Sheets. – Fattie May 28 '18 at 15:54
8

Is there an option to turn it off?

There is a userscript:

SOX v2.1.0

Stack Overflow Extras (SOX) is a project that stemmed from the Stack Overflow Optional Features (SOOF) project.

The SOX userscript adds a bunch of optional features to all sites in the Stack Exchange network. These can be toggled on or off from an easy to use control panel (see screenshot below).

Note: This project has no relation to Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange; it is simply a userscript that enhances the sites!

Source sox/README.md at master · soscripted/sox

Example configuration:

enter image description here

|improve this answer
  • Fascinating info, thanks. You know, I think it would be better if they just got rid of it as a native change though. It would seem completely harmless to SO to add an option to remove it. – Fattie May 27 '18 at 13:38
  • @Fattie A feature request like this would be way down the list of developer priorities. – DavidPostill May 27 '18 at 13:39
  • If that's true, thanks for the info. I mean - it's their business - but we're talking about the second most prominent thing on the actual product of SO. The idea of google or amazon putting a "low priority" on such a hugely prominent Thing - is inconceivable. – Fattie May 27 '18 at 13:42
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    @Fattie "The idea of google or amazon putting a "low priority" on such a hugely prominent Thing" Well, they have a different business model. What else would you consider to make it driven in a better way? – πάντα ῥεῖ May 27 '18 at 15:05
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    @Fattie This answer is an indication that a cosmetic feature like this that can already be enabled with user-script is unlikely to be implemented. – Discrete lizard May 27 '18 at 15:35
  • @Discretelizard - if (that's if) SO staff think "the layout of the main money making web page" is a "cosmetic issue" - they have no staff who have ever worked at amazon, google, or, uh, any web company. Goodness! – Fattie May 27 '18 at 16:45
  • "It's a very popular thing to block" I see, @user1114, interesting info – Fattie May 27 '18 at 16:46

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