6 ms·

I don't know if this qualifies as a "dark pattern", but this kind of "social proof" feature that the article is about buying really is hostile to consumers and

I don't know if this qualifies as a "dark pattern", but this kind of "social proof" feature that the article is about buying really is hostile to consumers and is nothing to be proud about buying.

kyrieeschaton 6y ago
Not true. There is a reason why people sort products by popularity. This is just a variation.
mlyle 6y ago
This doesn't seem so bad to me. I've enjoyed seeing it at the bottom of sites. The upside is, it provides some evidence that the site is actually transacting business besides me (that could be fake). And I've clicked on the listings of things other people are buying-- e.g. what does this business mostly sell to people?
- ALittleLight 6y ago
  I just assumed it was fake. It feels so scammy.
  - luplex 6y ago
    That would be false advertising, therefore illegal. I'm sure smaller sites get away with it.
    - detaro 6y ago
      Do you have a source on that? (It's not exactly uncommon to be obviously fake, e.g. travel sites that show you they sold more rooms in a hotel in the past week than the hotel has)
      - jfk13 6y ago
        They may have truly sold more rooms than the hotel has... just not all for the same night.
      - luplex 6y ago
        IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that straight out lying about having customers in order to make your product seem better than it is is actually illegal, it feels like it should be covered by the following law in Germany (German): https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__3.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__3.html I would classify it as a dishonest practice, and it would be illegal.
    - alasdair_ 6y ago
      >false advertising, therefore illegal. I understand that it seems like this SHOULD be illegal but I am not sure it actually is.
- zaik 6y ago
  > it provides some evidence that the site is actually transacting business besides me It provides as much evidence as the incoming chat messages of hot singles in your area.
  - mlyle 6y ago
    Eh, making it look plausible is somewhat hard, and may be fraud.
  - 1123581321 6y ago
    If it's a known social proof widget on a known e-commerce platform (for example, Fomo on BigCommerce or Shopify), the odds that it's dishonest are quite low. Shoppers have at least some vague idea that some stores have similar platforms and providers as others.
- dkarp 6y ago
  It certainly is often fake. I've spotted it hardcoded in some page's javascript
  - 19h 6y ago
    Example: https://beeketing.com/ https://beeketing.com/ (Google & 500 invested into it) It literally loads static images: https://beeketing.com/bundles/bkcore/sources/images/notification/home_beeketing/7.png https://beeketing.com/bundles/bkcore/sources/images/notifica... (replace 7 with numbers from 1 ... 7) And that platform is listed as the most used platform for "social proof" notifications on this princeton site: https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/dark-patterns/ https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/dark-patterns/
    - mlyle 6y ago
      The Beeketing social proof stuff seems to be synchronized to actual realtime sales-- e.g. https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/24000029268-why-my-orders-cannot-be-synced-with-sales-pop- https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/240... https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/24000023513-how-to-hide-a-customer-s-name-on-sales-pop-notification- https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/240... Though they do suggest lying with {random_time_ago}... Shopify will only approve social proof plugins that use real data. edit: Indeed, I've confirmed that it doesn't even serve static images, but instead JavaScript injects dynamic HTML based on polled events-- https://imgur.com/a/2S1YHhG https://imgur.com/a/2S1YHhG I suspect those images you have are samples in the user interface or documentation.
      - 19h 6y ago
        No, I right clicked the notification bottom left and “opened image in new tab”. The point you’re missing here is that I’m not talking about their product but the notifications on their very own website.
        mlyle 6y ago
matsemann 6y ago
I always just assume it's fake. And if not, I'm pretty sure using my purchase data with my name for that would breach some GDPR or other privacy rules.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

I don't know if this qualifies as a "dark pattern", but this kind of "social proof" feature that the article is about buying really is hostile to consumers and is nothing to be proud about buying.

kyrieeschaton 6y ago

Not true. There is a reason why people sort products by popularity. This is just a variation.

mlyle 6y ago

This doesn't seem so bad to me. I've enjoyed seeing it at the bottom of sites. The upside is, it provides some evidence that the site is actually transacting business besides me (that could be fake). And I've clicked on the listings of things other people are buying-- e.g. what does this business mostly sell to people?

ALittleLight 6y ago
I just assumed it was fake. It feels so scammy.
- luplex 6y ago
  That would be false advertising, therefore illegal. I'm sure smaller sites get away with it.
  - detaro 6y ago
    Do you have a source on that? (It's not exactly uncommon to be obviously fake, e.g. travel sites that show you they sold more rooms in a hotel in the past week than the hotel has)
    - jfk13 6y ago
      They may have truly sold more rooms than the hotel has... just not all for the same night.
    - luplex 6y ago
      IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that straight out lying about having customers in order to make your product seem better than it is is actually illegal, it feels like it should be covered by the following law in Germany (German): https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__3.html https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/uwg_2004/__3.html I would classify it as a dishonest practice, and it would be illegal.
  - alasdair_ 6y ago
    >false advertising, therefore illegal. I understand that it seems like this SHOULD be illegal but I am not sure it actually is.
zaik 6y ago
> it provides some evidence that the site is actually transacting business besides me It provides as much evidence as the incoming chat messages of hot singles in your area.
- mlyle 6y ago
  Eh, making it look plausible is somewhat hard, and may be fraud.
- 1123581321 6y ago
  If it's a known social proof widget on a known e-commerce platform (for example, Fomo on BigCommerce or Shopify), the odds that it's dishonest are quite low. Shoppers have at least some vague idea that some stores have similar platforms and providers as others.
dkarp 6y ago
It certainly is often fake. I've spotted it hardcoded in some page's javascript
- 19h 6y ago
  Example: https://beeketing.com/ https://beeketing.com/ (Google & 500 invested into it) It literally loads static images: https://beeketing.com/bundles/bkcore/sources/images/notification/home_beeketing/7.png https://beeketing.com/bundles/bkcore/sources/images/notifica... (replace 7 with numbers from 1 ... 7) And that platform is listed as the most used platform for "social proof" notifications on this princeton site: https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/dark-patterns/ https://webtransparency.cs.princeton.edu/dark-patterns/
  - mlyle 6y ago
    The Beeketing social proof stuff seems to be synchronized to actual realtime sales-- e.g. https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/24000029268-why-my-orders-cannot-be-synced-with-sales-pop- https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/240... https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/24000023513-how-to-hide-a-customer-s-name-on-sales-pop-notification- https://support.beeketing.com/support/solutions/articles/240... Though they do suggest lying with {random_time_ago}... Shopify will only approve social proof plugins that use real data. edit: Indeed, I've confirmed that it doesn't even serve static images, but instead JavaScript injects dynamic HTML based on polled events-- https://imgur.com/a/2S1YHhG https://imgur.com/a/2S1YHhG I suspect those images you have are samples in the user interface or documentation.
    - 19h 6y ago
      No, I right clicked the notification bottom left and “opened image in new tab”. The point you’re missing here is that I’m not talking about their product but the notifications on their very own website.
      - mlyle 6y ago

matsemann 6y ago

I always just assume it's fake. And if not, I'm pretty sure using my purchase data with my name for that would breach some GDPR or other privacy rules.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]