Side note, but Scribd is garbage. Got to page 3 or 4 before it demands that I install their mobile app to keep reading. I don't know why people keep posting on there.
For what that's worth, there's a separate subthread here where lots of people agree with you. The first time I encountered Scribd, I wrote them scathingly critical feedback indicating that it was infuriatingly awkward to use if not nonfunctional, worse than any existing alternative and should be nuked from orbit.
Some readers have pointed out that Scribd is a venture backed by YCombinator. Don't know how significant that is.
Heh yeah, I saw that after I posted... should have looked harder, but it was 5 AM and I wanted to go to sleep.
It started off pretty bad just because their tech wasn't very good, but then it seemed to be getting better as they ditched their flash based reader for HTML. Now they just seem to be actively user-hostile in the name of growing the number of app installs. Naked user coercion is much less forgivable than just sucking.
