Pale Moon Start Page Suggestions

[jumba]

Since this page is really customizable (didn't really know about this), let's share our customized Pale Moon start.me pages that we would like to see as Pale Moon's 27 start page!

Here is my try

pale-moon-startpage.png

Share link:
http://start.me/p/ZmMQx6/pale-moon-start

ps. start.me has a really nice tour that you should take a look at.

Maybe I've seen too many of those "malware" that replace the browsers home page with their own, but that is exactly the first impression I always get (which I would not want that any new Pale Moon user should get) from the default Pale Moon start page. It has no relation to Pale Moon nor Moonchild Productions (no logos or banners) without having any sort of description what this page is about and how Pale Moon user can use it or customize it.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Perhaps it would be better to share your customizations along with your current Pale Moon setup in the "What my Pale Moon looks like" thread. Since it is already established as a thing and screenshots of the browser with the start page wouldn't be diverging from that topic one bit.

[Wuzzy]

Okay, this thread is about start page suggestions? Here you go:

From the previous thread.

For the people who don't like it, any feedback to improve it (without suggesting to completely change it) is of course welcome. I do have full control over the public page's content and general looks (within the framework's limits).

Here are my suggestions:

1) Remove all tracker scripts
2) Remove ad

With those 2 changes, I would be perfectly fine with the start page and I would immediately stop complaining about it.

Point 1 is very important to me (simply out of respect towards the users), point 2 is less important to me. I might not be happy with the ad but if there is a reason for that I might accept it. But it is primarily the tracking I am concerned about.

I still don't understand why it is apparently completely out of question to change the default start page as such? Have I hit a nerve or something? You seem to feel very outspoken about that particular start page. I did not mean to start a flame war or hurt your feelings (about a start page …? ), so I am a bit confused here.

[jumba]

Perhaps it would be better to share your customizations along with your current Pale Moon setup in the "What my Pale Moon looks like" thread. Since it is already established as a thing and screenshots of the browser with the start page wouldn't be diverging from that topic one bit.

Perhaps, yes.. But Wuzzy, aside from your two points, would you improve the current start page by any other way aesthetically or functionally? Does any one actually use that page?

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Does any one actually use that page?

I would say yes since it was a constant request from a great number of people for the start page to be customizable. Also consider the number of users who run with minimal changes to defaults. Also, considering the partnership has continued on for this long it must also be successful to a good degree financially..

[Moonchild]

1) Remove all tracker scripts
2) Remove ad

Really?

1) Not possible, because your definition of 'tracker" is "anything that's external" -- that's not how portals work.
2) Pay start.me for a premium account.

Aside from that, this thread was created to suggest changes to the layout of the default/public/un-customized start page within start.me's framework, not to re-iterate things that are inherent to using the portal.

I still don't understand why it is apparently completely out of question to change the default start page as such? Have I hit a nerve or something?

You have to understand that this is a partnership with start.me - we have a contract in which Pale Moon users get the benefits of having this fully-customizable portal (even anonymously, without having an account, which they implemented initially for us) which many have asked for prior. On the flip-side, start.me gets more traffic from us. All this helps to make it viable to run and in turn support both us and them financially.

[Moonchild]

Does any one actually use that page?

Many people do.
Some numbers from June (made possible by having a "tracker" script -- are you paying attention, Wuzzy?)
This would exclude visits of people with aggressive blocking of benign analytics scripts/net requests:

Traffic report
Source: Analytics
Scope: http://palemoon.start.me (incl. static page)
Sessions 1,480,171
Unique users 351,119
Page views 2,212,276 (ad displayed)

[jumba]

That is interesting data. Thanks for sharing it, MC. Then this page should cater to those active users of it. My suggestions were based on my first time impression of the page. I haven't really used it, so instead of trying to convert me to use it, I would be interested to hear if users that are actively using it have any suggestions.

[Wuzzy]

Moderator note: all of this is off-topic.

Off-topic:

1) Remove all tracker scripts

1) Not possible, because your definition of 'tracker" is "anything that's external" -- that's not how portals work.

] This is a straw man argument. Where did you get the idea that I think a tracker is anything which is external?
I do not think a tracker is anything which is external, this is a silly and useless definition.
A tracker is a script or some other method for which its primary or even only task is to collect lots and lots of data about the user, such as operating system, browser, screen resolution, and much more data which you could get your hands on with the help of JavaScript (for example). This has the “side-effect” of breaking user privacy. Tracker scripts often have zero use for the users who execute them, they are mostly only for the benefit of the website operator and related 3rd parties.
I argue that it is unlikely that users would voluntarily agree to something like this, but they don't have to: This all happens automatically, without the user's knowledge and without their explicit permission.
Whether the tracker is hosted on the own server or somewhere else is irrelevant.
While I think it is not very efficient to load JavaScripts from sources other than the main site (because: Why not just hosting them on the main site in the first place?), I have no moral obligation with external scripts as long they are actually useful for the user and not used for tracking.

And Google Analytics is the PERFECT example of a tracker script. Also, Google Analytics is a proprietary software which is run automatically as soon as a new Pale Moon user opens up the browser.
But it's not just Google Analytics. Start.me uses tracker JavaScripts from other sources as well and I already demonstrated that they are not trustworthy as well. I specifically only listed domains known for tracking, not just any random external domain.

2) Remove ad

2) Pay start.me for a premium account.

Won't happen because I am not using start.me anyway. Also as I said, I am not THAT concerned about the ad anyway. Also, I bet paying for a premium account won't remove any of the tracker scripts, which are my much bigger concern here.

You have to understand that this is a partnership with start.me - we have a contract in which Pale Moon users get the benefits of having this fully-customizable portal (even anonymously, without having an account, which they implemented initially for us) which many have asked for prior. On the flip-side, start.me gets more traffic from us. All this helps to make it viable to run and in turn support both us and them financially.

OK, so I guess this means start.me is unlikely to change. Well, but even then I think it is wrong to force all those tracker scripts upon the (first-time-)users.

Some numbers from June (made possible by having a "tracker" script -- are you paying attention, Wuzzy?)
This would exclude visits of people with aggressive blocking of benign analytics scripts/net requests:
(…)
Source: Analytics

What are “benign analytics scripts”? Is such a thing even possible? I guess that “Analytics” is short for “Google Analytics”. How can you claim that Google Analytics is “benign”? Have you looked at the source code and can you proof to me that absolutely nothing fishy is going on with Google Analytics? I doubt it, since Google Analytics is proprietary software. So there is absolutely no reason to think that Google Analytics is trustworthy. For a rational user, there is no reason to voluntarily execute Google Analytics, yet this is done by default.


Long story short: Keep the start page if you must, but please, please try to do so without affecting user's privacy.

[Moonchild]

Off-topic:
Long story short: Google Analytics and any other analytics service is defined by you as a tracker. This is necessary for organizing this kind of service and is benign (as in: Google Analytics will not unduly make this data available to anyone). I get it, you hate Google, it's been clear from your frst contact.

Bottom line: you want Google-free start pages? Set your homepage to something else. End of story.