[throw10920]

Not to defend the US immigration system, but my experience is that this user-hostile behavior (modulo the port scanning lol) is endemic across US government websites - including those that nominally want to serve you, those that are at the state level instead of the federal level (such as the DMV sites), and those that are even internal for use by government employees only.

It's bad enough that in some cases I believe the designers should be threatened with legal penalties.

[Sohcahtoa82]

> user-hostile behavior (modulo the port scanning lol) is endemic across US government websites

I discovered this when it was late at night and I was procrastinating going to bed and I was curious what my estimated Social Security benefit would be at retirement so I tried to log into mySSA and it said the website is closed from like 11 PM to 5 AM or something like that.

I couldn't believe it. I could understand a weekly several-hour maintenance/batch processing window, but DAILY?

[PaulHoule]

That e-filing web site for taxes has never worked for my son because he can’t complete the id.me process, it might be as simple as you are an unperson if you use an android phone or maybe because he’s just started in the workforce he does not have a long history of tax filing and credit history to match up with.

Two years in a row we’ve been able to fill out a 1040 and the NY state equivalent and make a paper submission in less time than it takes to reach an operator on hold.

These identity verification services look like a scam to me. LinkedIn incessantly hassles me to verify with CLEAR and it always fails without a clear error message, either “it just doesn’t work” or my hair has grown too much since I got my driver’s license or it is making me take my glasses off and comparing to a driver’s license photo where I am wearing glasses.

[jofla_net]

>These identity verification services look like a scam to me.

Even if their intent is to run an 'honest' business, the method of bouncing a user around to god knows how many domains during the process becomes effectively indistinguishable from a compromised service, and the alternative of having each site host their own id verification system screams, HACK US. I can see users becoming increasingly accustomed to getting out their cards several times during a sign-up and not having the foggiest idea of where their information went to.

[smithkl42]

The id.me process is absolutely horrific.

[IT4MD]

I'm not sure the word horrific is up to carrying the weight of just how bad id.me is. Still, a great effort.

[crote]

It starts to make a lot more sense when you realise there is a huge group in the US actively trying to make the government fail. It's pretty hard to make a good and user-friendly website when every few years some high-level people try to kneecap you.

These aren't unsolvable problems. The UK, for example, had invested a lot of time and effort into making their websites user-friendly. In most countries filing taxes online is something you can do during your lunch break - without paying the Turbotax maffia. Driver's license? You can order that online, and make an appointment for a 15-minute window to pick it up.

If interacting with the government is painful, it is almost always because someone benefits from it being painful.

[xenadu02]

Gaming of the procurement system. The websites are all written by big consulting outfits. Not to mention the disaster that is big corporate IT projects combined with government rules.

Obama had the Digital Service (that Trump shut down) which paid higher salaries. Those folks were sharp and everything they touched was actually decent.

As I noted this is not unique to government. Large corporate projects at the Fortune 500 are often the same sort of consultant-driven crap.

[anticensor]

Digital Service didn't shut down, it just temporarily got retasked to DOGE.

[dragonwriter]

It wasn't temporarily retasked, it was reorganized and permanently repurposed and renamed the US DOGE Service, and then within that reorganized service, a subordinate temporary organization was created called the US DOGE Service Temporary Organization that was scheduled to sunset not later than July 4, 2026. (All but 65 of USDS's pre-reorg employees were also fired as part of the reorg, and 21 of those remaining 65 employees did a mass resignation.)

If you visit their website, you will notice that except for historical documents, there is no full name branding at all; mostly only the logo and the occasional "USDS", when prior to the reorg (as can be seen on the Wayback machine) the original full name was prominent.

[Our_Benefactors]

This. The website for buying treasury products is straight out of the year 2002. The login is so bad I would never consider buying them there - the service fee charged by brokerages is absolutely worth it in this case.

[ryandrake]

Which brokerages charge fees for purchasing US Treasuries? Schwab definitely doesn't.

Really the only reason you need TreasuryDirect is for buying Series I bonds (and maybe a few other niche Treasury products), which are not available through brokerages.

[aianus]

Schwab folds their fees into their bid/ask spread, they're not doing it for free.

[PaulHoule]

Back when interest rates peaked around that period I bought a huge number of I bonds which were a great investment —- got fired by my broker because I interrupted a sales presentation with “why don’t I just buy I bonds?”

Back then I thought Treasury Direct was great.

[teiferer]

Makes it obvious which lobby has a hand in this, doesn't it?