I've noticed that a lot of sites don't bother anymore with work-arounds so users who have turned their cookies off can still get the same experience on the site. Has that problem just gone away in modern web development? Have we gotten to a point where nobody does it, so we don't need to bother?
+3
A:
Some people still turn off cookies every once in a while. Usually because they wanted to test something and then forget to leave them off. Nowadays most web apps require cookies on so I think it's perfectly acceptable that instead of complex workarounds to provide the same user experience with or without cookies you can live with just a simple check and a message stating that without cookies the user won't be able to use the site.
There are lots of major websites that behave this way.
Miguel Ventura
2009-10-27 11:58:06
+5
A:
I think I put this in the same category as JavaScript. Most people will have cookies enabled, but there will be a few people who have them turned off. There isn't the scare like there was in the mid 90s about evil corporations tracking you all over the net etc. People have become more accepting about how the web works and what is required to have the convenience of web sites remembering who you are etc.
Kevin
2009-10-27 11:58:18
And yet, there are evil people who track you via cookies (usually advert companies). The question is: does it really matter?
Matthew Scharley
2009-10-27 12:00:46
Evil people are more likely you track you using Flash nowadays anyway. As I see it, a little harmless targeted advertising is probably worth all the features it provides.
Lachlan McDonald
2009-10-27 12:07:38
To be honest, I block Flash by default too. Not for that reason though. (I'm just unusually adverse to large files in the middle of my nice HTML)
Matthew Scharley
2009-10-27 12:38:35
+1
A:
My 2c: cookies are good by default and Javascript is evil by default.
As to what general user sentiment is... I'd do cookie detection still so that you can display a meaningful error rather than simply not working if your users are blocking cookies for whatever reason. Don't bother trying to work around it though.
Matthew Scharley
2009-10-27 11:59:03
+1
A:
I'm going to guess that it'd be worthwhile running a test to see specifically if your visitors have cookies turned off, because different groups would have different issues. (if it's paranoia, security restrictions, etc.) A website catering to government employees might see higher percentages of cookie non-acceptance than other sites.
As some browsers (or plugins) allow customizing your acceptance of cookies by server or domain, it's possible that even two sites with identical user populations might have different levels of 'trust', if the users believe that one site seems shady.
Joe
2009-10-27 12:19:11