6 ms·

Not a fan of scratch-like UIs but I figured I'd play around a bit. "Solved" the first problem and went to continue, but was met with a signup wall. Immediatel

Not a fan of scratch-like UIs but I figured I'd play around a bit. "Solved" the first problem and went to continue, but was met with a signup wall. Immediately left with no intention to come back. Things like this absolutely destroy your funnel. Prompt me to sign up after I've made some progress, not before I've even gotten a feel for what you're offering.

ninkendo 7y ago
Saved me a click!
openstep 7y ago
Couldn't have said it better myself
kmill 7y ago
This is a game made by a research lab for fun, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Unix. I'm not sure they're too interested in funnels, beyond letting people have a little fun (and some advertising that something like the Bell Labs of old might still exist). The signup annoyed me, too, but it just wants a username and password for the leaderboard. It's not collecting your e-mail address. (There was some kind of bug with the user creation step where it would keep prompting for your country. Reloading the page is a workaround.)
- imglorp 7y ago
  A bookmarkable private URL, ie some kind of unique token for each user, would have been easier than messing around with emails and annoying users.
  - kmill 7y ago
    There are no e-mails involved if you choose to create an account, just a choice of username and password. Sure, there are lots of things they could have done better, but I admire outreach projects like this from research labs.
    - imron 7y ago
      > There are no e-mails involved That's not obvious from the sign up dialog, and like the top post I closed out of the site as soon as the dialog appeared.
- reificator 7y ago
  > I'm not sure they're too interested in funnels, beyond letting people have a little fun (and some advertising that something like the Bell Labs of old might still exist). I picked the word funnel because I'm on HN and that's the quickest way to convey that showing me a signup screen before I've done anything of value is going to lose me. Unless I clicked a button to sign up or went to do something that I have an intuition would result in a signup page, I usually click control-w before I'm conscious of why. Most users don't care about leaderboards and global leaderboards have been shown to have a demotivating effect. There's a reason why most games that show leaderboards now default to a friends leaderboard, with the global one tucked away behind it. Forcing a signup to enable something I don't care about doesn't seem like a great bargain to me. Prompt me to sign up in order to save my progress and I might do it. Prompt me as soon as I interact with the page and I'm out.
  - Vaslo 7y ago
    Next to no one cares about the free signup. Get a second email account for free and sign up and have fun. If you don’t like it, it’s your choice, but seems like it isn’t a big deal to me.
    - NikolaNovak 7y ago
      Ten years ago,maybe. Today my techie friends are guarded (and the way everybody is correlating and analyzing everything, a single “throwaway” email is again a decade past it’s usefulness as a construct), whereas my non techie friends are merely impatient and will go to buzzfeed to get their non-signup fun (rather than any conscious concern). So it’s mostly an attention span thing in my mind . Always ask yourself what is that signup/gate costing vs what is it gaining you. If you are losing X percentage of users for no identifiable gain, the question should be why is it there, not why should it be removed / why is it a big deal to somebody .
    - jannotti 7y ago
      You say "next to no one" but I certainly feel the same way, and his comment was the highest voted. So...
    - 7y ago
- MichaelDickens 7y ago
  If it's made for fun, why is sign-up mandatory at all? Why can't I play the game without creating an account?
gosub 7y ago
$(".login-popup")[0].remove()
- iliketocomplain 7y ago
  Wish I could do that on mobile
baahublime 7y ago
I think sign up is more for keeping tack of your score, which is a good thing. They dont even ask for your email when you dont choose either FB or Google, that's the thing that caught my attention. Scores can really make it fun.
- spc476 7y ago
  Okay, but instead of the popup asking to immediately log in, say "Congratulations on solving the puzzle. To keep your score, create an account (or log in with Facebook, etc). Otherwise, you can continue to play ... "
  - TurkishPoptart 7y ago
    Yup. Nowadays if I'm required to provide an email I will just bail. I would rather watch an ad than provide my info.
choward 7y ago
This was my exact experience. They provide a UI that doesn't allow me to type and then immediately after I'm done using it and want to get feedback I need to type? No thanks.
a3n 7y ago
> Not a fan of scratch-like UIs I glanced at this on my phone earlier and thought "what fun!" Then I looked at it on my laptop, intending to play. Nah, I only want to think about the text processing tools, I don't want to figure out a UI that has nothing to do with text processing tools. Nice work, really, but I'm just going to play around in my terminal.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

ninkendo 7y ago

Saved me a click!

openstep 7y ago

Couldn't have said it better myself

kmill 7y ago

This is a game made by a research lab for fun, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Unix. I'm not sure they're too interested in funnels, beyond letting people have a little fun (and some advertising that something like the Bell Labs of old might still exist). The signup annoyed me, too, but it just wants a username and password for the leaderboard. It's not collecting your e-mail address. (There was some kind of bug with the user creation step where it would keep prompting for your country. Reloading the page is a workaround.)

imglorp 7y ago
A bookmarkable private URL, ie some kind of unique token for each user, would have been easier than messing around with emails and annoying users.
- kmill 7y ago
  There are no e-mails involved if you choose to create an account, just a choice of username and password. Sure, there are lots of things they could have done better, but I admire outreach projects like this from research labs.
  - imron 7y ago
    > There are no e-mails involved That's not obvious from the sign up dialog, and like the top post I closed out of the site as soon as the dialog appeared.
reificator 7y ago
> I'm not sure they're too interested in funnels, beyond letting people have a little fun (and some advertising that something like the Bell Labs of old might still exist). I picked the word funnel because I'm on HN and that's the quickest way to convey that showing me a signup screen before I've done anything of value is going to lose me. Unless I clicked a button to sign up or went to do something that I have an intuition would result in a signup page, I usually click control-w before I'm conscious of why. Most users don't care about leaderboards and global leaderboards have been shown to have a demotivating effect. There's a reason why most games that show leaderboards now default to a friends leaderboard, with the global one tucked away behind it. Forcing a signup to enable something I don't care about doesn't seem like a great bargain to me. Prompt me to sign up in order to save my progress and I might do it. Prompt me as soon as I interact with the page and I'm out.
- Vaslo 7y ago
  Next to no one cares about the free signup. Get a second email account for free and sign up and have fun. If you don’t like it, it’s your choice, but seems like it isn’t a big deal to me.
  - NikolaNovak 7y ago
    Ten years ago,maybe. Today my techie friends are guarded (and the way everybody is correlating and analyzing everything, a single “throwaway” email is again a decade past it’s usefulness as a construct), whereas my non techie friends are merely impatient and will go to buzzfeed to get their non-signup fun (rather than any conscious concern). So it’s mostly an attention span thing in my mind . Always ask yourself what is that signup/gate costing vs what is it gaining you. If you are losing X percentage of users for no identifiable gain, the question should be why is it there, not why should it be removed / why is it a big deal to somebody .
  - jannotti 7y ago
    You say "next to no one" but I certainly feel the same way, and his comment was the highest voted. So...
  - 7y ago
MichaelDickens 7y ago
If it's made for fun, why is sign-up mandatory at all? Why can't I play the game without creating an account?

gosub 7y ago

$(".login-popup")[0].remove()

iliketocomplain 7y ago
Wish I could do that on mobile

baahublime 7y ago

I think sign up is more for keeping tack of your score, which is a good thing. They dont even ask for your email when you dont choose either FB or Google, that's the thing that caught my attention. Scores can really make it fun.

spc476 7y ago
Okay, but instead of the popup asking to immediately log in, say "Congratulations on solving the puzzle. To keep your score, create an account (or log in with Facebook, etc). Otherwise, you can continue to play ... "
- TurkishPoptart 7y ago
  Yup. Nowadays if I'm required to provide an email I will just bail. I would rather watch an ad than provide my info.

choward 7y ago

This was my exact experience. They provide a UI that doesn't allow me to type and then immediately after I'm done using it and want to get feedback I need to type? No thanks.

a3n 7y ago

> Not a fan of scratch-like UIs I glanced at this on my phone earlier and thought "what fun!" Then I looked at it on my laptop, intending to play. Nah, I only want to think about the text processing tools, I don't want to figure out a UI that has nothing to do with text processing tools. Nice work, really, but I'm just going to play around in my terminal.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]