former globe employee here. i think "dark patterns" is a little strong. most of what the globe's doing here is just standard on-boarding marketing stuff IMHO.

former globe employee here. i think "dark patterns" is a little strong. most of what the globe's doing here is just standard on-boarding marketing stuff IMHO. not stating on the article page itself that the 99c price is temporary hardly seems like a major sin when that fact is clearly communicated on the landing page. Looking carefully through all the things the blogger is claiming, I think the strongest point he makes is that the globe doesn't make it clear that the "real" price doubles after 1 year. I am already a subscriber so I couldn't make it through the flow to see exactly how it's communicated, but if that's not clear, obviously it should be and that's not a minor point. I emailed the globe's editor, brian mcgrory, who is definitely a no-BS kind of guy, telling him lots of boston people are checking this out this morning (since it's on the HP) and he should respond :)