I have a feeling that this HN submission is rather some test run which dark patterns work well on technically affine users. :-)

Having the knowledge which dark patterns even work well for technically affine users while still being "socially acceptable" can be worth a lot of money to specific companies.

Are you using "affine" to mean "for which one has an affinity"? I have never heard that nor can I see that as a wide-spread definition. Just curious!

Maybe non native speaker, here in germany we often say "technisch affin" which means proficient with technology

> here in germany we often say "technisch affin" which means proficient with technology

As a native German speaker, I indeed fell for this false friend. :-(

I’m a native English speaker and I have only ever heard “affine” as a technical term in mathematics, e.g. an affine transformation of vector spaces. I would have had no idea what it means outside of math.

However, OP’s usage seems logical, so I wouldn’t be upset if it became popular!

I think that poster is saying that here on HN posters typically preserve points, lines and parallelism. Rude, quite honestly.

I was wondering. Maybe "refined", as a derivative of the verb?

In fact, odds on someone who was complicit in developing many of the dark patterns that have run billions of dollars from consumers is reading this from their phone, thinking they should go to bed so they can wake up to the acai bowl, cold plunge, and early retirement to hobbies in seattle.

Exactly. We're doing this to ourselves. These horrible patterns are an HN reader's JIRA ticket next week, and they're going to happily implement them.

Are you actually complicit in this or do you really feel such a part of the "tech community" that you truly consider it as a "we"?

If the former, stop doing it right now and atone.

If the latter, I don't think that's healthy, you have nothing to do with it unless you're at a FAANG or something.

jfc new 'orthogonal' just dropped