Posted by matser 1 day ago
I don’t think this is a real problem that needs solving; or I at least think it’s a problem browser vendors should solve, but lets over engineer it while still trying to keep it simple and usable…
What I might do is something similar to what you’re suggesting. I would have the anchor tag be a regular old anchor tag. Then, I’d highlight the heading (maybe just temporarily) at the same time. I’d use CSS if I could figure that out or JS if I couldn’t. The end result would send the user to the normal place and flash a highlight on the heading for users with JS support.
Keep it simple, but over engineer it to make whoever requested this happy.
Edit: After re-reading your response we probably aren’t talking about the same thing, exactly.
In fact the final solution is pretty bad. Sure, it looks nice when I scroll down, but when I use the alternative navigation method of clicking the sidebar items, it just scrolls to unexpected places.
Beautiful article, though.
So you could have multiple items highlighted, but it still "works" somewhat intuitively for the end user.
The drawback is that it requires JS via intersection observer. But maybe the CSS standards committee could see value in this kind of thing eventually.
Setting all moral arguments aside, it's important to know that similar phrases can work as dog-whistles to signal belonging to radical groups, and as such can easily give people the wrong impression about you as an author.
If I were to see a blog post titled "Work will set you free"[1] written by a peer, prospective employee/employer, colleague, etc., it would immediately set off alarm bells in my mind – even if the content of the post is a completely innocent discussion of the uplifting benefits of buckling down on one's workload. At best, it implies lack of awareness – at worst, it implies some extremely hateful beliefs and desires.
[1]: Written above the entrance to the Nazi concentration camps as a false promise encouraging prisoners often destined for death to work hard in forced labor.
By calling out and avoiding dog-whistles, even including accidental Nazi slogans (once pointed out), we reduce the impact of this attack on good-faith discussion and actual increase the level of openness and being up-front with our opinions.
One key difference between this and virtue signaling or thought policing is that it's the specific wording that is avoided, and not the underlying thoughts or opinions.
> thought policing is that it's the specific wording that is avoided, and not the underlying thoughts or opinions.
So we should avoid the wording / phrasing such as "killing children" in IT? It refers to well-known concepts, within a specific context. It is bad outside of IT, for sure, but not inside IT, it refers to ending processes (as you probably already know)
I may have used it unintentionally too, because "final solution" makes a lot of sense to use. The best way to ruin one's language is to keep using such common phrases that refer to such negative things. You know, there would not be a way to ruin it if people were just aware of the context and were not to attribute malice by default. It was probably accidental, like you said.
I think the issue is with this not-so-generous interpretation of it by default, or reading too much into it.
Do not allow your language to be ruined, and you could do a lot to help that cause.
On mobile just clicking the other blog post takes me to the end of that post. (Chrome iOS)