Dark Patterns

What it is

Dark Patterns is a scrolling page of the tricks websites use to make you do things you did not mean to, each one explained in a paragraph and then demonstrated with a working fake. A shady store sneaks an extra item into your basket. A newsletter box makes the No button say you hate amazing content. A friend request turns out to send one instead. Twelve email lists to unsubscribe from one at a time.

How to play

Scroll and fall for them. Every example is interactive, so you can accept the fake friend request, try to unsubscribe, hunt for the real download button among the fake ones and read the terms you are agreeing to when you create an account. Nothing is real and nothing leaves the page. The intro explains the idea, the closing line explains why it matters: if more people know these patterns, they lose their power.

What makes it different

It teaches by letting you get tricked in a safe room. Reading about confirmshaming is one thing, clicking No, I hate amazing content is another, and the fakes are close enough to the real thing that you will recognize half of them from last week. It is short, funny, and the kind of page that makes you a slightly harder target the next time a site tries the same move for real.

Why it is on Bored

You come for a laugh at fake buttons and leave slightly better at the internet, which is the best outcome a pointless page can have. It runs with no download and no account. The site shows a consent dialog on the first visit and a row of sponsored links above the page, which is its own kind of joke.

Tips

• Actually click the examples, reading them is half the lesson
• Try the download buttons, all of them
• Try to create an account and read what you agreed to
• Send it to whoever in your life keeps ending up subscribed to things

FAQ