Disabled Text Selection

Users complain about broken or intentionally disabled text selection on a website, making it impossible to copy-paste content, with some defending it or noting fixes.

➡️ Stable 0.9x Web Development
2,621
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#9663
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
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2010
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2012
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Keywords

apple.com SelectableText PC OS URL DOM cl.ly MVP ALERT text select selection selecting copy clicking disabled page user selected

Sample Comments

justinlardinois Mar 31, 2016 View on HN

Is there any reason text selection is broken/impaired?

fourk Jan 20, 2011 View on HN

Is it just me, or is the inability to select or deselect text on the page kind of obnoxious?

superasn Aug 12, 2015 View on HN

Why is text selection disabled? :(

drytinall May 20, 2022 View on HN

Great point! We'll work on allowing people to select text.

windsurfer May 8, 2014 View on HN

You also lose text select (and thus copy+paste)

chpmrc Apr 27, 2021 View on HN

Why on earth is text selection disabled on this website?

ndunn2 May 19, 2009 View on HN

Am I the only one who couldn't even select the resulting text? No good

thinkbohemian Feb 7, 2013 View on HN

What browser are you using? I can select text just fine http://cl.ly/image/3x07470L0z15

calloc May 6, 2011 View on HN

Definitely not just you. I can't select any of the text either!

shard Mar 13, 2010 View on HN

Not being able to select/copy text is pretty annoying too.