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Thank you for having strong ethics. But, what a bizarre dark pattern. How many users: 1. type out a complete email address 2. and then decide at the last mom

Thank you for having strong ethics. But, what a bizarre dark pattern. How many users: 1. type out a complete email address 2. and then decide at the last moment to not hit "submit?" Who even does that? Like 0.00000001% of all users? I've been using the web since the mid 90s and I don't think I've ever done this. Ethics aside, it's hard for me to believe that this dark pattern even yielded a useful return. To be perfectly clear, I'm not defending this dark pattern. It's bad. I'm just questioning its efficacy.

illnewsthat 5y ago
I’ve done this myself, and it’s typically because I will want to go through the checkout process to see the total cost of something (including shipping which wasn’t shared on the item page). I’ll use auto fill to save time and quickly click through to the page that finally shows the full price, then I will back out. More recently, instead of auto fill I take extra time to type a fake email address just to prevent the “lost cart” marketing emails that were mentioned in the article.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  Me too, but the author describes something different. You say that you "click through to the page that finally shows the full price." So, you are explicitly submitting multiple times. There's a reasonable user explanation that your information would be received by the server. In the author's example, they're describing something more insidious -- saving the user's information before they submit the form, thereby subverting user expectation.
  - beckingz 5y ago
    If I haven't consented to receive your marketing emails or have not entered into a business arrangement by purchasing something, I do not expect to receive emails even if I expect that my information has been received by the server.
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parrellel 5y ago
Autocomplete would be my guess. Which makes it more obviously scummy.

illnewsthat 5y ago

I’ve done this myself, and it’s typically because I will want to go through the checkout process to see the total cost of something (including shipping which wasn’t shared on the item page). I’ll use auto fill to save time and quickly click through to the page that finally shows the full price, then I will back out. More recently, instead of auto fill I take extra time to type a fake email address just to prevent the “lost cart” marketing emails that were mentioned in the article.

JohnBooty 5y ago
Me too, but the author describes something different. You say that you "click through to the page that finally shows the full price." So, you are explicitly submitting multiple times. There's a reasonable user explanation that your information would be received by the server. In the author's example, they're describing something more insidious -- saving the user's information before they submit the form, thereby subverting user expectation.
- beckingz 5y ago
  If I haven't consented to receive your marketing emails or have not entered into a business arrangement by purchasing something, I do not expect to receive emails even if I expect that my information has been received by the server.

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parrellel 5y ago

Autocomplete would be my guess. Which makes it more obviously scummy.