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Even better: If possible, don't ask for a signup until the user has actually tried your product. Just create a guest account which is deleted if unclaimed for a

Even better: If possible, don't ask for a signup until the user has actually tried your product. Just create a guest account which is deleted if unclaimed for a week or so, and disable "sensitive" features that could be abused. I have a couple of sites where I allow them to use the product just like a signed-in user, but to save their work, they need to sign in. So people can play around and try things about before entrusting me with their email.

solarkraft 6y ago
That's a great way of doing it: The initial friction is essentially 0 and you're already locking the user in a bit.
snazz 6y ago
This is how Discord works and it’s really great there. Anyone can start chatting with just an invite link.
waynecochran 6y ago
This page immediately had a pop up to ask for my email... funny...
WWLink 6y ago
Oh man, some web stores are like that! It's sooooooo nice. Like, you place your order as a guest and at the end it's like "hey if you give us a password we'll make an account for you!" THOSE ARE THE BEST!
- diggan 6y ago
  And you then sign up to ShoppingSpree.com in order to get your thing delivered. Email verification comes in, everything set. You get to the final order screen, enter your address and now they tell you they don't ship to your country, and the information was never shown before, as they never actually performed the validation until after you signed up. Yeah, been through that. So much fun.
  - endless1234 6y ago
    But hey, no problem, you can still get these 4 newsletters Free Of Charge delivered Straight To Your Inbox weekly! No need to thank us!
  - Zenbit_UX 6y ago
    Ughh, I went through an online loan application that after collecting all kinds of sensitive personal information told me St the final step that my country was not supported.
quickthrower2 6y ago
Scrimba who recently posted a launch HN [1] does this for their teaching/coding platform. It’s so rare to see that I thought wow this is it was really neat! [2] is an example of this. 1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24579699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24579699 2 https://scrimba.com/learn/learnreact/react-todo-app-phase-7-cKe27SD https://scrimba.com/learn/learnreact/react-todo-app-phase-7-...
ew6082 6y ago
Pinterest drove me up a wall with this. I didn't sign up for 4-5 years, and only because I actually needed to see an image for work, because the arrogance was annoying. I have a permanent dislike for their product because of it.
davidpolberger 6y ago
That's what we do. At www.calcapp.net, our main call-to-action is "Start app builder (no sign-up required)". Visitors are then informed that they'll need to create an account before leaving the service, otherwise their work won't be saved. At least one visitor was annoyed when they learned that they had to create an account in order to save their work and access certain features. They thought that the "no sign-up required" part meant that they would never have to sign up for an account. Perhaps we could fix this by going with "Try app builder" instead of "Start app builder"?

solarkraft 6y ago

That's a great way of doing it: The initial friction is essentially 0 and you're already locking the user in a bit.

snazz 6y ago

This is how Discord works and it’s really great there. Anyone can start chatting with just an invite link.

waynecochran 6y ago

This page immediately had a pop up to ask for my email... funny...

WWLink 6y ago

Oh man, some web stores are like that! It's sooooooo nice. Like, you place your order as a guest and at the end it's like "hey if you give us a password we'll make an account for you!" THOSE ARE THE BEST!

diggan 6y ago
And you then sign up to ShoppingSpree.com in order to get your thing delivered. Email verification comes in, everything set. You get to the final order screen, enter your address and now they tell you they don't ship to your country, and the information was never shown before, as they never actually performed the validation until after you signed up. Yeah, been through that. So much fun.
- endless1234 6y ago
  But hey, no problem, you can still get these 4 newsletters Free Of Charge delivered Straight To Your Inbox weekly! No need to thank us!
- Zenbit_UX 6y ago
  Ughh, I went through an online loan application that after collecting all kinds of sensitive personal information told me St the final step that my country was not supported.

quickthrower2 6y ago

Scrimba who recently posted a launch HN [1] does this for their teaching/coding platform. It’s so rare to see that I thought wow this is it was really neat! [2] is an example of this. 1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24579699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24579699 2 https://scrimba.com/learn/learnreact/react-todo-app-phase-7-cKe27SD https://scrimba.com/learn/learnreact/react-todo-app-phase-7-...

ew6082 6y ago

Pinterest drove me up a wall with this. I didn't sign up for 4-5 years, and only because I actually needed to see an image for work, because the arrogance was annoying. I have a permanent dislike for their product because of it.

davidpolberger 6y ago

That's what we do. At www.calcapp.net, our main call-to-action is "Start app builder (no sign-up required)". Visitors are then informed that they'll need to create an account before leaving the service, otherwise their work won't be saved. At least one visitor was annoyed when they learned that they had to create an account in order to save their work and access certain features. They thought that the "no sign-up required" part meant that they would never have to sign up for an account. Perhaps we could fix this by going with "Try app builder" instead of "Start app builder"?