Dear restaurant owners:We ALL hate the QR code menu.

[culturednyc@mastodon.social]

@cmconseils

all of us

[robot@wetdry.world]

@cmconseils I actually like the qr menus, at least as an option (important part: "as an option"), if its an actual page on the restaurants actual website that is just an actual menu.

[felichsdakatze@mastodon.social]

@timsk @cmconseils

Living in a country where the dominant language is not my own, most often the codes open a webpage which I can easily translate, which is very useful when there are choices and options of the same dish.

As soon as a code takes me to an app install, suddenly my phone has "issues" and we go back to staff service.

[npars01@mstdn.social]

@cmconseils

The requirement to give up your privacy to buy a coffee is here.

The requirement to share your personal information with a restaurant before you order is here.

The requirement to use a loyalty card to buy a smoothie at McDonald's instead of cash is here.

Ubiquitous Computing becomes Ubiquitous Surveillance.

QR codes are a data brokers' dream.

[lrt_writes@mstdn.party]

@cmconseils not just the QR code menu, but also the one that must be downloaded to view...so annoying

[carstenfranke@mastodon.social]

@cmconseils the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis took decisive action when their restaurant switched to qr codes

Walker Art Center cuts ties with Cardamom after restaurant launches QR code ordering, eliminates staff

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis says it is terminating its relationship with Cardamom restaurant after its management group decided to replace staff positions with QR codes.

(www.cbsnews.com)

[print@theforkiverse.com]

@cmconseils

Nope. Best invention

Don't have to go line up and order/ pay at the counter. Particularly when you have kids unattended.

Can see pictures of the food

Can eat with another family and pay for just what YOU ordered.
(Friend love splitting bill 50/50 despite having wine and entrees and desert when we didn't)

Don't have to have a waiter keep coming over to see if you are ready to order, when you have not decided yet because too busy talking

Or having to wait for ages for a waiter

[spiegelmama@infosec.exchange]

@robot I would still rather have a bare URL. I'll type that in or navigate to it if you just tell me where it is. I will not be the one getting hijacked - no menu, no order from me.
@cmconseils

[roadskater@mastodon.social]

@DukeDuke @cmconseils It started becoming a thing during early Covid when restaurants were allowed to re-open, albeit at some limited capacity, perhaps entirely outdoors. Easier to tell people to scan the QR code than disinfect the menus between uses, I guess.

[robot@wetdry.world]

@spiegelmama @cmconseils I often use a dedicated barcode app for qr codes, so I can preview and save the link for later (it has a history page) and it shows up in my share sheet.

QR hijacking, while possible is overblown imo

I do not like link shorteners on qr codes tho, those go in the bin (metaphorically)

[asmaloney@fosstodon.org]

@Uair @cmconseils As a human without a mobile phone, I am starting to run into this... I walked away from an airport restaurant because they only had the QR thingy.

"I don't have a mobile, can you give me a real menu?"

They look at me like I'm an alien and shrug. "Nope". (I'm sure they had them, they were just being lazy.)

So I went to a different massively-overpriced restaurant!

[vp9kf@mastodon.social]

@cmconseils Especially at USA airports when changing planes. Credit cards here are scary and especially when forced to order by QR. We had decided to never use a credit card at an airport after a place at ATL did a rip-off attempt.

[hexaheximal@mstdn.social]

@cmconseils What annoys me the most is when people print/display QR codes without even providing the link as text alongside it. I always point that out when I see it.

[maccruiskeen@social.linux.pizza]

@cmconseils What's real fun is the confusion you can cause by paying in cash.

[whatzaname@mstdn.social]

@cmconseils i just request a menu. And wait. If it takes longer, it takes longer. Capitalism requires compliance to maximize profits. We wouldn't want anything to happen to their profits though, would we.

[mokhtarstork@zirk.us]

@cmconseils I refuse to fill up one... and get them to do it.

[qgustavor@urusai.social]

@cmconseils I don't hate. I hate when it's the main option or, worse, the only option.

Some restaurants put better photos of their food on the website rather than in the print menu. And I'm biased, I develop websites.

[spiegelmama@infosec.exchange]

@robot Physical menu hijacking is impossible, though. Why would I ever prefer to take out my phone at the beginning of the meal so I could view a menu on a tiny screen instead of on a piece of paper or on a menu board?

Also, the filthy public (kidding, mostly) has access to a surprising amount of café QR menus here. I don't want someone's crappy lifestyle store to invade my phone.
@cmconseils

[disorderlyf@todon.eu]

@cmconseils The temptation to leave a piece of paper with a QR code on a table at a restaurant that stops just shy of being actual malware if any of them ever tell me to fuck off for wanting a paper menu. The whole reason people reluctantly agreed to QR codes was because we thought we could get COVID from touching a menu but somehow didn't put two and two together for eating inside a restaurant. Now that nobody gives a shit even in the face of a potential pandemic from a disease that actually does stick to surfaces and in the air long enough for that to be a concern, it's all the downsides without the benefit of performative sanitisation and courtesy.

[robot@wetdry.world]

@spiegelmama @cmconseils honestly I think they are nice for the situ where the waitstaff has taken all your menus already and you want to check it again without having to wait for them to come around and ask for a menu again, or you are outside the restaurant/waiting to be seated and want to check the menu without having to figure out the website URL is and where the menu page is. That's why I said "as an option", I think a physical menu has to exist as a base, even if you have to ask for it.

The QR code *only* ordering/menus people are mentioning elsewhere in the thread sound horrible.