#NoMeansNo

Today I learned that the phrase for a website hating on people making decisions for themselves, is called Confirmshaming.

I learned about this term after finding yet another adorable Interactive Advent Calendar from another Dev Bootcamp alum, this time giving gifts of knowledge about web and design.

Day One discusses the topic, and defines Confirmshaming as

a very aggressive type of marketing, where the general idea seems to be that if the carrot doesn’t do the job, the stick will.

What immediately came to mind is “negging” or back-handed compliments, but in reality, it’s about not letting a person say no, which is classic BULLY TACTICS.

To see some examples, you can check out this confirmshaming tumblr feed full of confirmation modals from sites that chastize you for choosing not to do whatever it is they’re trying to get you signed up for.

If you work on a team, and see a UI like this, do us all a favor, and let your UI team know they’re Confirmshaming the user, and it’s not cool at all.

Here’s a few more indepth articles, and if you haven’t already, I’d check out Consentual Software, as I’m sure their work keeps you from doing things like this anyway.