@Irelephant a few years ago I went to São Paulo and brough two phones, my main phone and a burner one
I went out with my friends with the burner one and we ended up in a bar that did not had any physical menu and the QR code only lead to Instagram. while I do use Instagram, I did not had it installed on the burner and they added the menu in the fixed stories, so it required logging in to look them (which I could not do since I had 2FA enabled)
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
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.
I don't think you have to agree to terms to look at a menu. Maybe a cookie popup though. Those are annoying!
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
Fuck I despise this menu bullshit. Give me a fucking menu.
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.
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.
Give me a menu or I'll tell you what I want and you can figure out how to put it in.
Either that or I walk.
The only setting in which it’s actually helpful is when you go to an establishment that prioritizes drinks and the food is an afterthought (but you can still walk up to the bar and never use the QR code if you wanted).
Yeah, sorry not sorry, I'm not sitting down at a restaurant and scanning a random QR code in the hopes of getting a menu.
Only thing worse than this is places that don't accept cash or credit, only some kind of cash transfer app like zelle.
don’t accept cash or credit, only some kind of cash transfer app like zelle.
That sounds sketchy, I've seen card only but where have you seen a business do this?
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
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
I've been on websites for restaurants that they are clearly trying to do it themselves. The site is janky, has empty menus (or the same broken link 6 times), but I can access the restaurant menu easily so I don't care.
I've tried to get online menus for restaurant's that only have Instagram or Facebook and it makes me really not want to order from them.
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.
Live on the intranet!
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?
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
Or perhaps hire someone who knows what they're doing.
Guess I'm showing my age then. Because the intended end use device is obviously a phone, I assume they used their phone to generate the qr, send it out to etch, and test the result. I can't use my phone for shit like that. To me that is much more a real screen type of job (generating the qr code, generating the gcode in lightburn, etc) done on a computer, instead of a tablet/phone
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!
They did test it. On their machine.
Which implies he developed the menu on his phone, or he tried to scan it with a laptop webcam lmao
Maybe OP is lying
Nothingeverhappens
Untrustworthy Poptarts
OK listen hear me out. Perfect opportunity for guests to learn how to ssh tunnel to port forward to their local device 😅
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 doneWhat 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.
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.
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.
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.
Why can't you have both?
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.
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
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.
Would this probably work if you connect to their Wi-Fi?
EDIT: I am smart, I promise
Localhost denotes the device itself. It would work if your phone were running a web server with the cafe's menu hosted on it
Listen, you’re in good company. I literally almost posted this and then I realized. Made my day that I wasn’t the only one.
Also, it’s amazing that someone made QR codes with a localhost URL.
You'd still go to localhost, so realistically: no.
Probably.
But ugh. What’s wrong with a printed, laminated menu‽
I like these digital menus.
For large groups they're so much better than all coordinating when you're ready to order, ordering, and later working out how to split the bill.
They also let you order in your own time, no need to have someone hovering waiting for you to be ready, or not be there at all.
Though my experience is that they're mostly used at pubs and clubs, where they replace ordering at the counter, rather than table service.
The worst thing is that they always ask for a fucking tip. Shitty companies trying to import even shittier American bullshit.
Up vote for the interrobang!
Well, you forgot to install the menu-server-app. Do it, and the problem is solved.
Someone needs to name their catering business 'localhost'
Yea but we shouldn't pollute the world with printed menus! websites don't get lost, like the printed ones! downtime is amazing! /S
I prefer printed menus, you sit, you read, you eat. No scan, no using your phone or anything else. What else they gonna add? dine in but order online?
What else they gonna add? dine in but order online?
Is this also sarcasm?
If not, I regret to inform you have I have been in places where this is currently happening.
I was questioning, and to be true can't believe this is happening!
dine in but order online?
This exists. A Mexican and an Asian chain here in Zürich do this.
"Ticket closed."
