Computing desk
< October 29	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	October 31 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 30

Cookies and website functionality

It seems that now some websites need regular cookies cleaning to load and work properly, while previously they didn't need that. Is it because of more advanced website design or something else? Apparently as their markup gets more modern, they are more burdensome to load. Brandmeister^talk 09:24, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Are you saying that the end-user needs to clean and delete outdated cookies in order to maintain website functionality now? Or that websites require the ability to set cookies in order to display properly? I have found the latter to be approaching "universally true" but I have not found any fitting the former scenarios... other than in the minds of inept tech-support reps. Elizium23 (talk) 17:10, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I remember that several years ago it wasn't an issue, or so it seemed. Nearly all websites worked without cookie cleaning by end users, even though cookies have long been around. Nowadays I cleaned cookies at least twice on my bank's website alone so that the log-on page would load correctly. Brandmeister^talk 19:04, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That likely indicates a bug in their software. For example, it may not allow you to logon again if a session is currently active, but may not always properly note that the session has ended, in the cookie, say if the computer was rebooted during an active session. SinisterLefty (talk) 19:29, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Clearing cookies is a bit like a reboot, in that it starts things over again, "clean". So, just like a reboot, it shouldn't be necessary, but frequently is. SinisterLefty (talk) 17:32, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Brandmeister: this is not my experience, so I would be curious whether yours is unique or common, and what browser, desktop, OS, and hardware you are running, as well as the sorts of websites where it makes a difference. Elizium23 (talk) 14:03, 31 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like it's a local issue, as noted above. In any case, Firefox on Windows 10, laptop. Brandmeister^talk 19:49, 31 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

You can set Firefox to delete all cookies on exit, or disable certain sites from setting cookies. Or at least you can do that in Pale Moon and Firefox 56, I don't know about new Firefox. But in any case there should be addons for new Firefox that do the same thing, if this isn't possible in the settings menu. 93.136.71.107 (talk) 22:39, 4 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Did unlimited talk and text plans for phones exist in the 2000s?

2600:1004:B036:EBFB:B4B:8C25:6F72:5319 (talk) 10:02, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean from 2000-2009 ? SinisterLefty (talk) 13:33, 30 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I got my mobile in 2001 (on Vodafone in the UK) and there was a choice of low call charges and you paid for the phone, or what I went for, high call charges and the phone was free. There was no limit on the number of calls you made on my plan, since you paid for them. Vodafone didn't do very well out of me; I made about 1 call a week. --TrogWoolley (talk) 16:14, 31 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]

There may be a cultural translation issue here. In the US we have unlimited text and call plans (but usually not data) which have only 1 fixed fee per month, for as low as $20. This is what this Q is about. Do you not have those in the UK ? SinisterLefty (talk)

I've had unlimited talk and text on a U.S. cell service since 2003. The original catch was that they separated in network and out of network calls on the bill and then charged each at $0. Now, I don't see them separated anymore. 135.84.167.41 (talk) 14:01, 1 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]