4 ms·

After further poking around, I see that if one ponies up one's email and follows the (surprisingly dark-patterned) [0] "Sign Up & Customize" button [1], one can

After further poking around, I see that if one ponies up one's email and follows the (surprisingly dark-patterned) [0] "Sign Up & Customize" button [1], one can see the whole catalogue of planned PiBox hardware. It looks like you'd want the currently-unreleased "Box 2" -- assuming you could swallow the presumably still unpalatable shipping charges. [0] OK, I get that these guys want to gauge interest as precisely as possible, given the frightening prospect of being a hardware startup during a chip shortage and/or burgeoning logistics apocalypse, but it's still a real eye-roller. Especially given how, like, cool this project otherwise seems. [1] https://pibox.io/prefs https://pibox.io/prefs <- note that without having already signed up, this'll bounce you to the homepage

paranoidrobot 5y ago
Yeah I saw their 3.5" variant that's coming soon, but assuming it's prices only slightly higher than the 2.5" variant (keeping in mind it'd need a different power supply setup) it's still too expensive IMO. It's edging into the price range of other commercially available NASs for less performance.
- revolvingocelot 5y ago
  Fair enough. I figure one of the things that I'm paying for is a non-wack firmware/OS in dedicated NAS hardware; it's less about performance for me (I could just use an old computer!) and more about power usage, form factor, and supporting general-purpose-computing-that-just-happens-to-be-running-a-NAS.
kelnos 5y ago
I think it's a little unfair to call this a dark pattern. There's no point in selecting product options if you're not going to give them your email (since nothing is actually available yet), and I think "Sign Up & Customize" is a pretty clear description of what's happening. It's pretty clear (to me, at least) that they're trying to see what people want (and even helpfully give the expected price points for the various options) in order to decide what order to design and build things, and I'm more than happy to help give that information, as well as give them my email address so they can tell me when the thing I want is going to be available. I guess I just don't see what your objection is to their flow. The only improvement I could see would be waiting to ask for an email address until the end instead of the beginning, but I don't see that as being all that huge. And honestly I see that as sorta worse: it feels dark-patterny to get people to engage with you (in this case, by putting the various hardware option selections first), and then after they've invested the time, require an email address to make that time worthwhile.
- revolvingocelot 5y ago
  >I guess I just don't see what your objection is to their flow ...they're asking for my email in order to let me see the prices. Why do they need my email in order to let me see the prices? Answer: they don't. So, uh, why are they asking for it? I find this bonkers. There are all kinds of Hackers on this site; I consider myself a Computer subtype, but I suppose from the perspective of the Growth Hacker, this isn't strange at all. >And honestly I see that as sorta worse: it feels dark-patterny to get people to engage with you (in this case, by putting the various hardware option selections first), and then after they've invested the time, require an email address to make that time worthwhile Question, would you engage in business with a physical store that made you provide ID (or even just an email) before letting you see how much things cost? Personally I go to the liquor store, select some liquor based on price and whimsy, and then I show them my ID to complete the flow. Placing roadblocks in the path of that flow -- I can't see the price without ID, and I can't just whimsically browse the shelves if I have to signal my intent to be there by digging out my ID before I enter -- seems like a bad idea.
danhor 5y ago
If you block scripts, the redirect doesn't happen. Very weird.

paranoidrobot 5y ago

Yeah I saw their 3.5" variant that's coming soon, but assuming it's prices only slightly higher than the 2.5" variant (keeping in mind it'd need a different power supply setup) it's still too expensive IMO. It's edging into the price range of other commercially available NASs for less performance.

revolvingocelot 5y ago
Fair enough. I figure one of the things that I'm paying for is a non-wack firmware/OS in dedicated NAS hardware; it's less about performance for me (I could just use an old computer!) and more about power usage, form factor, and supporting general-purpose-computing-that-just-happens-to-be-running-a-NAS.

kelnos 5y ago

I think it's a little unfair to call this a dark pattern. There's no point in selecting product options if you're not going to give them your email (since nothing is actually available yet), and I think "Sign Up & Customize" is a pretty clear description of what's happening. It's pretty clear (to me, at least) that they're trying to see what people want (and even helpfully give the expected price points for the various options) in order to decide what order to design and build things, and I'm more than happy to help give that information, as well as give them my email address so they can tell me when the thing I want is going to be available. I guess I just don't see what your objection is to their flow. The only improvement I could see would be waiting to ask for an email address until the end instead of the beginning, but I don't see that as being all that huge. And honestly I see that as sorta worse: it feels dark-patterny to get people to engage with you (in this case, by putting the various hardware option selections first), and then after they've invested the time, require an email address to make that time worthwhile.

revolvingocelot 5y ago
>I guess I just don't see what your objection is to their flow ...they're asking for my email in order to let me see the prices. Why do they need my email in order to let me see the prices? Answer: they don't. So, uh, why are they asking for it? I find this bonkers. There are all kinds of Hackers on this site; I consider myself a Computer subtype, but I suppose from the perspective of the Growth Hacker, this isn't strange at all. >And honestly I see that as sorta worse: it feels dark-patterny to get people to engage with you (in this case, by putting the various hardware option selections first), and then after they've invested the time, require an email address to make that time worthwhile Question, would you engage in business with a physical store that made you provide ID (or even just an email) before letting you see how much things cost? Personally I go to the liquor store, select some liquor based on price and whimsy, and then I show them my ID to complete the flow. Placing roadblocks in the path of that flow -- I can't see the price without ID, and I can't just whimsically browse the shelves if I have to signal my intent to be there by digging out my ID before I enter -- seems like a bad idea.

danhor 5y ago

If you block scripts, the redirect doesn't happen. Very weird.