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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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.