Requiring users to sign up before they know if the service is valuable is wrong. Prove to them what you did is worth their time first, then require them to sign

Requiring users to sign up before they know if the service is valuable is wrong. Prove to them what you did is worth their time first, then require them to sign up if they want to continue using it. You get a pretty good idea if HN is worth it by reading the posts and comments from others. If you like what you see and would like to contribute then sign up. Nothing wrong with that. It would be great to allow anonymous submissions and comments but unfortunately this is very likely to lead to abuse.