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    The user-select CSS style is pretty helpful when applied responsibly. For instance, if you want (especially older) users on a touchscreen clicking on buttons near label text, you don't want them to mark the label text instead of clicking the button.
    – phihag
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 14:00
  • 14
    What do you mean "by default"? This setting is only enabled if the website specifically enables it, that doesn't sound like "by default" to me. There will always be features that can be misused by bad web designers, there's not much you can do to prevent that without negatively affecting those who do have a legitimate reason to use those features... Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 15:18
  • 14
    @SeanT Again, if the browser exists to serve the person looking at webpages, then its job is to respond to what the web server sends however the user tells it to. If the user tells it to mute the page, or disallow pop-ups, or copy text, then the browser should do so. Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 16:14
  • 8
    No browser user is going to go to the bother of configuring their browser to explicitly enable a feature like this one, if it's not enabled by default then it's essentially useless and might as well not be implemented at all. And if you are suggesting that every feature must be explicitly enabled by the user, then where do you draw the line? Must the user enable the "images" feature before a website can display images? Must all browsers basically be Lynx by default until the user enables all the features they want? Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 16:16
  • 14
    @Acccumulation The user-select: none feature is used all over the place to maintain the style of a webpage e.g, stopping an ugly blue background when selecting an option from drop down lists. You just don't notice because it's being implemented correctly. The problem here is that it's been implemented in a restrictive way to the user, and a browser has no way to differentiate between the two. Therefore, blame the dev's :)
    – Sean T
    Commented Jan 5, 2018 at 16:57