'X' No Longer Means What It Used To..... (website, app)
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Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,038,399 times
Reputation: 2305
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'X' No Longer Means What It Used To.....
Having grown up when I did, early twenties when I first used a Mouse to interact with a desktop computer, I learned, and quickly accepted as second nature, along with billions of other people, that 'X' means CLOSE. That's right, the univeral X in the corner of an application window or pop-up, meant CLOSE when clicked, or tapped on in an iPad or Galaxy device.
Thirty years later, in smartphone and tabletville, that innocuous X, as of late, rarely actually closes anything:
1. A popup ad overlaying the website you're browsing
2. A video overlay
etc.
Now, pressing X most of the time does
1. nothing,
or
2. opens another page in your browser to show you whatever the ad is hawking,
or 3. Spawns the App Store interface!
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,038,399 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine
Agree with Gorilla.
You missed it.
You clicked the ad.
Also probably another ad that takes you to the app store.
Your aim got worse.
(and to be fair the x's probably got smaller)
Thanks for your ideas. I do pinch(or stretch rather) to zoom in and make the X as huge as possible, and sometimes then it will close whatever I'm atttempting to close.
Again, this is happening lately on my tablet. On my desktop, I can still easily mouse over any size X and close any popup, or anything else I don't want to see.
Question: How did you do that, above? The multiquoting, that is.
Which icon do I press, in this area, to multiquote?
Please screen-shot and indicate which one, thanks!
Thanks for your ideas. I do pinch(or stretch rather) to zoom in and make the X as huge as possible, and sometimes then it will close whatever I'm atttempting to close.
Again, this is happening lately on my tablet. On my desktop, I can still easily mouse over any size X and close any popup, or anything else I don't want to see.
Question: How did you do that, above? The multiquoting, that is.
Which icon do I press, in this area, to multiquote?
Please screen-shot and indicate which one, thanks!
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,038,399 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheGrandK-Man
Thanks for your ideas. I do pinch(or stretch rather) to zoom in and make the X as huge as possible, and sometimes then it will close whatever I'm atttempting to close.
Again, this is happening lately on my tablet. On my desktop, I can still easily mouse over any size X and close any popup, or anything else I don't want to see.
Question: How did you do that, above? The multiquoting, that is.
Which icon do I press, in this area, to multiquote?
Please screen-shot and indicate which one, thanks!
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,038,399 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldgorilla
"X" still works for me. When I press it, I no longer see the
pop-up, window, etc. and I see what I want to see.
Seriously: I thought web designers were intentionally making it hard to X-out a popup or othrr undesirable. Or, programming the X to take me someplace else I didn't want to go on the web.
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,038,399 times
Reputation: 2305
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine
Agree with Gorilla.
You missed it.
You clicked the ad.
Also probably another ad that takes you to the app store.
Your aim got worse.
(and to be fair the x's probably got smaller)
In Facebook on Mobile Safari, when I get a pop-up notification in the lower LH of my tablet screen, when I press X to close it, it consistently takes me right to the thread it was notifying me about.
You can't blame my coordination for that! Dang you, Zuckerburg!
Location: Removing a snake out of the neighbor's washing machine
3,095 posts, read 2,038,399 times
Reputation: 2305
So two months after I posted my experiences with "X" stands for Close on my phone and tablet, and still the same outcome in about half of instances:
I zoom in with my fingers so that the 'X' is as big as the screen - the biggest X you've ever seen! - slowllllly and carrrrrrefullllly press on the intersection of the two lines that make the X, and in about half of such instances does not close, but takes me to app store, or to some page I do not want to be.
I rest my case.
X no longer means exlusively to close something - at least not on tactile devices(smart phones, tablets, etc).
Last edited by TheGrandK-Man; 10-22-2020 at 07:18 PM..
X still closes things for me, but I am seeing more ads with a real X and then a more prominent fake X. I have been seeing those for several years, trying to fool you. You have to find the real X.
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