It’s pretty easy to spot dark patterns when you look out for them, but I found a pretty obvious example of this.
Stoofie is a brand that sells water fountains for your pet (I don’t know what the problem with a water bowl is, but I digress). WayBack Machine
Plastered at the top of their website is “33% OFF Ends Today- Free Shipping” with no way to dismiss it. There is a scrolling text under the main image “FAST AND FREE SHIPPING 60-DAY FREE RETURNS”
If you scroll down, you’re immediately introduced with a product with the option to buy two preselected. The rest of this section explains itself:
Other things are sprinkled in the main page, but it really is the prime example of dark patterns. I am personally sick of finding them, but would love to see more examples of what others have found. Please, share your favorite examples of dark patterns. Don’t forget to archive them first so they can never be lived down.
(cats are more likely to drink moving water than still water since moving water is less likely to have bad things growing in it)
They also (generally) don’t like to have their water next to their food because when they drink they put their head down and can’t see predators that might be attracted to the food.
For some reason one of my cats only drinks water that she scoops up with her foot.
It means we have to clean her bowl way more often than should be necessary because the debris her feet collect gets deposited in the water bowl.
We have a cat that does that too. She’ll drink normally as well, though. I view it as her cleaning her little feet.
That could be, but the bowl is communal between our four animals. I wish she wouldn’t.
Huh. I always wondered. When I’m poiring our dog water to the bowl when hiking, he always prefers to drink “from the bottle” - the bowl is there basically to catch the rest to return to the bottle (or for the other dog to drink). Guess now I maybe know why he does it.
Good to know, thanks for the insight!