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I put my name on the waitlist, but instantly lost interest and confidence by: “Jump forward 5 steps in the line for every person you invite and get beta access
by salimmadjd 8y ago
I put my name on the waitlist, but instantly lost interest and confidence by:
“Jump forward 5 steps in the line for every person you invite and get beta access sooner.”
Why? If the product is that good I’ll evangelize it. This is a desktop application, so I don’t see a big boost from a network effect. All this does makes me wonder if the product is more about building hype than value
- adamnemecek 8y agoI think that that one email app that got acquired by dropbox before even launching did this and I think people are just copying it.
- brianjking 8y agoYeah, Mailbox app used this prior to it's Dropbox acquisition. Mailbox is now a dead product. RIP.
- pmarreck 8y agoWhy would Dropbox (note: not remotely an email service) acquire Mailbox and then kill it?
- lgregg 8y agoThey probably saw something in their software to strip for Dropbox.
- adamnemecek 8y agoAcquihire.
- pmarreck 8y agoThis answer makes the most sense, but is still sad
- brianjking 8y agoThey paid a pretty penny too, $100 million to acquire Mailbox. As per the article from Wired (https://www.wired.com/2015/12/dropbox-kills-carousel-and-mailbox-as-it-turns-toward-businesses/ https://www.wired.com/2015/12/dropbox-kills-carousel-and-mai...) they said: Although Mailbox could presumably fit into that strategy, Dropbox is instead focusing on its new Google Docs-style document editing and collaboration service Paper, which may gain some of the functionality of Mailbox. "As we deepened our focus on collaboration, we realized there’s only so much an email app can do to fundamentally fix email," a blog post credited to "the Mailbox team" reads. "We’ve come to believe that the best way for us to improve people’s productivity going forward is to streamline the workflows that generate so much email in the first place."
- loceng 8y agoI dislike tricks like this too, especially because in the end you're still going to get access to it. If a product is good enough, as you said, then I'll tell everyone about it. I think technical or non-business people see this kind of trick and perhaps don't think of the deeper consequences of it - it's not quite a dark pattern, though it feels manipulative.
- muszc-master 8y agoI'm sorry if it came across as manipulative. One of the reasons for having it like this is also so it can give me a metric on who in the waiting list are most interested in the program. And of course also to offer an incentive to share it.
- Exuma 8y agoThat is not a good metric. There's no way I would take part in that even if I were interested. It's just a big turn off.
- StevenRayOrr 8y agoYour first sentence isn't supported by your second and third. It is incredibly common to track not just interest but level of interest -- and lots of companies find it a valuable metric for marshalling their resources. Is this perhaps not the best way to get that metric? Now that can be a helpful question to ask and a good thing for this dev to think about, rather than outright dismissing the attempt.
- Exuma 8y agoI'm more just saying that I don't think people doing/not doing that action is a good indication of their interest level. My interest level could be an 8 out of 10, but there's no way I'm pestering my friends about it.
- mateus1 8y agoI'd advise you to reword it as "Want to join as a beta user? Share". Frame it as a reward not a punishment.
- kemiller 8y agoYou are not alone in this attitude, so don't take this personally, but I'm going to reply to you because you're the top comment. This is an incredibly destructive point of view. Promotion is essential to any software project, even open source, and in the vast majority of cases, word of mouth is not enough. This is an ethical, up-front, straightforward ask that costs you and anyone you might contact very little and is optional in any case. He's a solo developer. Cut him some slack.
- nojvek 8y agoTop secret product built in stealth mode rarely achieves success. Where are the boring products without dumb marketing techniques to generate hype, with actual things to show other than a waiting list?
- untog 8y agoBut what am I endorsing? I haven't tried the product myself yet. It's not unethical, but it's also simply not something I'm prepared to do - I will not recommend something to anyone without having been able to evaluate it myself first.
- lisper 8y agoThis. In a world where publishing is essentially free, reputation is an extremely valuable commodity. The ask here is not trivial.
- DrScump 8y agoreputation is an extremely valuable commodity But how does pre-use endorsement have any actual value toward a positive reputation? Did the definition of "reputation" change when I wasn't watching?
- lisper 8y agoWhenever anyone makes a recommendation you have to ask yourself: is this person making this recommendation because they have actually investigated the thing they are recommending and found it to have merit, or are they doing it simply because they are getting some personal benefit from making the recommendation. I hope I don't have to explain why a recommendation has much more value in the former case than the latter. This may not matter much if the thing you're recommending is an email client. But it matters a lot if the thing you're recommending is, say, an investment in a startup company. It also matters a lot if you're, say, Amazon or Yelp or TripAdvisor and a big part of your stock in trade is an enormous volume of product recommendations.
- kbenson 8y ago> Jump forward 5 steps in the line for every person you invite and get beta access sooner. So what you're saying is that Viktor Hn just shot to the front of the line? Well played, Viktor. Edit: Actually, based on the invite code, it's likely a specific code for HN. The Developer's name appears to be Viktor Jansson, I just assumed Hn was a last name. :)