The modern web interaction I find most infuriating — given my long use of ad blockers, which remove the truly worst parts — is this: beginning to read some piece, scrolling, and suddenly being interrupted by an email signup pop-over. Substack the exemplar but far from unique. Do you want me to read this piece or do you not? The answer, it increasingly seems to me, is that you do not: You would rather me sign up for your list than read the piece I came to read, of which I have read a few paragraphs at most. I have no idea whether I want to read more; I have not even read this! It is rude. All pop-overs are rude, but this is especially rude.

(The even worse version: Substack and similar obstructing the content of a site with a signup form before I have seen or read anything at all. Perhaps it “converts better” but it is absurd and annoying.)

May it stop, and may everyone who has done this in the pursuit of engagement be afflicted with boils: a just punishment for so great a sin.