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Forget about HN for a moment and ask yourself who benefits from a waitlist announcement vs waiting to announce your launch until the product actually exists. Th

Forget about HN for a moment and ask yourself who benefits from a waitlist announcement vs waiting to announce your launch until the product actually exists. The only party who benefits from a waitlist is the owner of the list. That's great for that person, but spam contact harvesting pollution for everyone else, which is ultimately destructive to the community. "Great for me but destructive pollution for the community" defines an antisocial act. Is selfish community harm something that you want people to associate with your brand?

arcastroe 3y ago
Waitlists are mutually beneficial. Users actively sign up to receive updates because they are interested in the product and want to be notified about it's progress and launch. If you see it as "spam", then don't add your email to the list.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
  A great way of notifying people about a launch is to announce it when you launch. Harvesting emails without a product doesn't help you notify people any better than announcing the actual thing when it's actually available to actually use. The reach is identical.
s3p 3y ago
This is not entirely true. What about services that actively want to add people, but just need time to scale up their resources? Then they can add users as they have the capacity to. I signed up on Beeper's waitlist a few months ago and just got access last week. I am extremely happy with their service and believe it was well worth the wait. There was no spam and destruction, only a short wait and then I got access. Can you see how it is potentially beneficial to do this rather than hope you get the exact amount of users you can handle at any moment in time?
- falcor84 3y ago
  That's not what this thread is about; the OP explicitly said "for an upcoming product". As I see it, it depends on the default. If you are already actively taking on users but are throttling the sign-ups due to unexpectedly high demand, that's much more legitimate than just getting people's emails into a list, knowing it will be months before you're able to sign them up.
NikolaNovak 3y ago
I understand the scenario you're describing but I don't think it's the only one.some services need resources to scale. It can be a mutually beneficial feedback loop for customers to express interest, and producers to validate fit and understand the magnitude of their market. The big bang go-live approach you describe isn't always the best for either side.
bluepod4 3y ago
[flagged]
- collingreen 3y ago
  Asking how long someone has used the internet in order to undermine their opinion on being treated like a resource is moderately patronizing and doesn't feel constructive. I'm glad you are happy with how folks use your email address! I understand the above post's perspective as well and probably lean more that way. I think there are some good comments here about throttling new accounts on an existing, scaling product (feels good faith and positive to me) vs collecting emails saying something exists or is in progress when it's really just someone trying to decide IF they should make it at all (feels bad faith and very mildly exploitive to me).
  - bluepod4 3y ago
    You seem level-headed unlike GP with his extreme views on email capture forms. “Spam contact harvesting pollution for everyone else” “The only person that benefits from a waiting list is the owner” “Destructive pollution for the community” “Antisocial act” “Selfish community harm” It’s a fucking email capture form.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- ajkjk 3y ago
  > Do lots of people view it this way? Oh definitely. The internet today feels like a giant cesspool in which everyone is trying to get ahead by manipulating each other. Many of us do all we can to keep out of it, for instance by never seeing an ad and certainly by never clicking on one. The last thing I want is to have to manually go and hide / downvote someone who's taking advantage of a community's goodwill for person benefit. If there was a distributed way to punish advertisers and waitlist-spammers, a 'boycott this product to punish them for their transgressions against the community' tool, I'd be first in line.

arcastroe 3y ago

Waitlists are mutually beneficial. Users actively sign up to receive updates because they are interested in the product and want to be notified about it's progress and launch. If you see it as "spam", then don't add your email to the list.

BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
A great way of notifying people about a launch is to announce it when you launch. Harvesting emails without a product doesn't help you notify people any better than announcing the actual thing when it's actually available to actually use. The reach is identical.

s3p 3y ago

This is not entirely true. What about services that actively want to add people, but just need time to scale up their resources? Then they can add users as they have the capacity to. I signed up on Beeper's waitlist a few months ago and just got access last week. I am extremely happy with their service and believe it was well worth the wait. There was no spam and destruction, only a short wait and then I got access. Can you see how it is potentially beneficial to do this rather than hope you get the exact amount of users you can handle at any moment in time?

falcor84 3y ago
That's not what this thread is about; the OP explicitly said "for an upcoming product". As I see it, it depends on the default. If you are already actively taking on users but are throttling the sign-ups due to unexpectedly high demand, that's much more legitimate than just getting people's emails into a list, knowing it will be months before you're able to sign them up.

NikolaNovak 3y ago

I understand the scenario you're describing but I don't think it's the only one.some services need resources to scale. It can be a mutually beneficial feedback loop for customers to express interest, and producers to validate fit and understand the magnitude of their market. The big bang go-live approach you describe isn't always the best for either side.

bluepod4 3y ago

[flagged]

collingreen 3y ago
Asking how long someone has used the internet in order to undermine their opinion on being treated like a resource is moderately patronizing and doesn't feel constructive. I'm glad you are happy with how folks use your email address! I understand the above post's perspective as well and probably lean more that way. I think there are some good comments here about throttling new accounts on an existing, scaling product (feels good faith and positive to me) vs collecting emails saying something exists or is in progress when it's really just someone trying to decide IF they should make it at all (feels bad faith and very mildly exploitive to me).
- bluepod4 3y ago
  You seem level-headed unlike GP with his extreme views on email capture forms. “Spam contact harvesting pollution for everyone else” “The only person that benefits from a waiting list is the owner” “Destructive pollution for the community” “Antisocial act” “Selfish community harm” It’s a fucking email capture form.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
ajkjk 3y ago
> Do lots of people view it this way? Oh definitely. The internet today feels like a giant cesspool in which everyone is trying to get ahead by manipulating each other. Many of us do all we can to keep out of it, for instance by never seeing an ad and certainly by never clicking on one. The last thing I want is to have to manually go and hide / downvote someone who's taking advantage of a community's goodwill for person benefit. If there was a distributed way to punish advertisers and waitlist-spammers, a 'boycott this product to punish them for their transgressions against the community' tool, I'd be first in line.