this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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[Moved to [email protected], check pinned post.] iiiiiiitttttttttttt.

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you know the computer thing is it plugged in?

Moved to [email protected].

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

The #1 reason I hate QR codes (edit: directing to a website to order & pay for a restaurant online) is because they make you agree to further terms and conditions like collecting data on you.

All just to fucking order food.

Shit should 100% be illegal.

I'm not against the concept of having digital ordering as an option. But it must be an option, and without any data collection

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think you have to agree to terms to look at a menu. Maybe a cookie popup though. Those are annoying!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

Oh sorry, I was referring to when the ordering is through a website, where you provide your email and phone number in order to pay.

Often times, they're harvesting your personal details.

I really wish it were possible to mask my number, but in my country that's not really possible.

The one thing I've done, is get an alt number as an esim, that I use to receive codes, or whoever you're required to provid a number.

Mean I know with certainty any call I get on that number is spam, or any text I receive I haven't initiated it spam.

I'd much prefer it I could get throw away numbers though

[–] [email protected] 3 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

The #1 reason I hate QR codes is because they make you agree to further terms and conditions like collecting data on you.

0.o A QR code is basically just a data-encoding format and is mostly used to store a link to something. I'm not sure where ToS/etc. come into that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You'll be redirected to a website, and then you'll get asked to allow cookies, etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Cool story but not really qr codes fault

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

That's because, unlike an AI, I deduced context from the entire thread and concluded that "I hate QR codes" was not an expression of disapproval of the technical concept of a QR code (i.e. encoding data), but how they are used in an obnoxious way to redirect a user to a website (usually with a menu).

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

I wasn't sure if the person meant that or fundamentally misunderstood what QR codes where and how they worked. Just wanted to clarify in case it were the latter.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago

Made an edit for clarity.

QR codes are great, linking me to a website where I need to provide my email and phone number to get food is annoying

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I had a worse fucking experience somehow just last week, the QR code pointed you to their fucking instagram, that's where the weekly lunch menu options were posted, except I have no idea how my colleagues even accessed it, because anything I clicked didn't take me to that "story/reel" whatever the fuck it's called, the owner of that restaurant deserves to burn in hell for eternity

[–] [email protected] 10 points 13 hours ago

I honestly want to fight businesses who don't have a website.

Website hosting is dirty cheap, domains are dirt cheap (relative to other costs of the business).

If you're a retail/hospitality venue your traffic is so low.

If you point me to a Facebook or Instagram page as your only web presence (meaning, no organisation at all, just bloody chronological posts, and maaaaybe some useful information in the page bio), I'm gonna be annoyed.

The number of times some business or organisation updates things on Facebook and Instagram, and not on their website, is frustrating.

Has happened to me many, many times, where I turn up to something that isn't happening because they've only posted it on Instagram

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago (4 children)

Reading other comments I'm on the unpopular side, but I prefer QR menus to physical ones. We don't have that surge price thing here, prices are pretty stable usually.

Printing several menus and having to replace them when they get dirty and stuff is such an unnecessary waste.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Aside from finding it annoying, QR code menus effectively prevent some people from viewing the menu.

Think about the requirements to view the menu. You must have a smartphone and a cellular data plan. People that aren't well off may skip on those in order to purchase things that are more important, like food. I guess I could understand if it was just fancy/expensive restaurants doing this, but I'm seeing it all over.

It's a similar issue to businesses that are cashless. You're effectively barring people who can't/don't have a bank account or credit card from paying. Both of which are notoriously hard to get if you're homeless.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I'd be fine with it if all the we page did was take my order. Too often I need to put in a name and email address, just to order food, and that pisses me right off. I just want to eat at your stupid place, not sign up to the foodies-food-fanclub

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago

In my experience, after thinking what I want I ask a server to take my order. The digital menu is there as a replacement of the physical menu. All the complaints I read are about the extra things the restaurant tries to do with it. Replacing servers' tasks and abusive pricing practices. Fix those, complain about those.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago

I'm not trying to touch a poorly laminated menu with the last guys spilled salsa on it that's been wiped "clean" by the hostess with a rag in some bucket of water that's been sitting there for god knows how long. Minutes before I touch my food.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 17 hours ago

I don't mind when there's physical menus but people saying that they would leave the restaurant when there's not is crazy for me, menus are a waste of paper and ink.

I'm more used to either PDFs that are updated once per year (and the restaurant usually has a bunch of physical copies, but not enough for everyone on peak hour and that's completely reasonable) or webapps that have the regular menu where they can strikethrough sold out items so that it's easier for customers to notice, add dynamic items like "the fish of the day", or even being able to click each item to get a preview image.

I agree that having prices be updated every hour/minute day according to demand is incredibly scummy and completely inexcusable, and restaurants that do those things should be boycotted, but that's a separate from the menu digitalization.

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I once got a group message from my child's teacher, screaming in excitement that "the event at school is live!"

The link points to 192.168.x.x.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago

The Inter Tubes!

[–] [email protected] 169 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Fuck I despise this menu bullshit. Give me a fucking menu.

[–] [email protected] 86 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

They had to put a fucking law in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo mandating that restaurants had to have physical menus with the printed prices.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

Nunca me senti tao patriota. Kkkk

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I like when there's a qr code that allows you to order and pay without needing to wait for a waiter. A qr code where it just links to a pdf of a menu that they didn't want to print sucks.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago

If it’s printed on the inside of the menu so you can order quickly when it’s busy and help take some of the pressure off the servers and maybe get your food faster? That’s cool.

When it’s just a virtual menu so they can surge price in real time? Fuck those places.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago (1 children)

OK listen hear me out. Perfect opportunity for guests to learn how to ssh tunnel to port forward to their local device 😅

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I'll save noobies some time.

for (( i=1; i<65536; i++ ));do  
  for (( j=1; j<256; i++ ));do  
    ssh -L $j$i:127.0.0.1:$i -N 192.168.1.$j &  
  done  
done  

What could go wrong?

Okay clearly this won't work because there aren't enough local ports to match to 16 bits of ports on potentially 255 machines, but with some slight modification I could add in a test to only increment the local port if the forward is successful and thereby create the dumbest-ass port forwarding script ever.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago

Well, you forgot to install the menu-server-app. Do it, and the problem is solved.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I don't do resturants all that often and I never saw one that had these. But I once encountered this at a clinic. I had no qr reader on my phone and no internet access at the time. So I just waited around until the receptionist came around. Turns out every person in the room ignored the qr-code as well.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (8 children)

I get someone made a hilarious mistake.

But why would you not even test the code before gluing them to all the tables?

Or before sending the code to be etched?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They did test it. On their machine.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

Which implies he developed the menu on his phone, or he tried to scan it with a laptop webcam lmao

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

I created a QR generator website and you have no idea. I get emails from people saying they’ve printed the codes before discovering it goes to the wrong place (sometimes even to my own site!) and if I can fix it. No... check your codes before they go to print!

The funniest one I had caused me to get a huge spike of traffic on Christmas. It was so weird and left me clueless for weeks, until I got an email from somebody wishing to cancel a subscription.

I don’t sell subscriptions or anything at all!

Turns out somebody printed a QR code into a smartwatch instruction booklet that went straight to my site… The ad revenue was insane tho!

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I think since its not so much btoken as pointing to a local file, I think they may have tested it on the one device they made it, so it worked...on that device.

They should have 100% tested it on other devices

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Someone needs to name their catering business 'localhost'

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