5 ms·

I'd strongly suggest you demonstrate more value before you require auth. I looked at the front page and none of the 3 visible articles grabbed me. So I clicked

I'd strongly suggest you demonstrate more value before you require auth. I looked at the front page and none of the 3 visible articles grabbed me. So I clicked on "blogs" to see if I found anything interesting there. That gave me the registration wall, so I bounced. I'm sure that feels unfair given the work you've put in. But registration is a hassle that people don't go through unless they're expecting at least as much value or have built up a more significant relationship with the site. Especially these days, with endless popups asking for my email and registration walls, I'm strongly habituated to close the window when I see that. In your case it looks like the marginal cost of serving more pages is very low, so I'd make as much as possible public and only require registration for features that need identity. I'd even try letting people vote on articles before registering, as for you that's valuable signal about article quality. As to what I'd pay for, I'm already a NewsBlur subscriber, so I think there's a market for a personal front-end to blogs, the news, and the like. For me the valuable part is keeping track of the hundreds of niche authors I follow, plus knowing what I've read. The discovery component, which you've foregrounded here, isn't very valuable to me, but might make a nice freebie to draw people in.

khet 3y ago
The articles update every hour, so please check back again. The articles are from blogs that were deemed high quality, but even high quality blogs can churn out filler content. But in general, I think you'll always find one or two really interesting things to read at any given time, if not on the homepage, then on the blogs you follow.
- interestica 3y ago
  > The articles update every hour, so please check back again. Is that apparent to a user? You want ppl to stick around just a bit longer? Put a countdown clock to your master reset. Get it in their mind to come back and check again. Add just a touch of FOMO.
Michelangelo11 3y ago
Similar thoughts here. I'm looking for AI-related reading, so I was really interested when I saw you have an #AI tag -- but when I clicked it, I got a registration wall, so I bounced. I'd be happy to register if I used the service regularly, and to pay if it was really good, but asking me to register before I can even see if you have what I want -- a reliably good drip of AI news -- is a total turnoff.
khet 3y ago
It's funny, you (the user, and everyone else that commented about registering) say it's not worth your time registering, but if you look at it from my perspective, it's not worth putting in all this effort for someone who isn't willing to even register for free, let alone pay for the service that cost months to build.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  You’re the one who is trying to grab user’s attention, not the other way around.
- jsunderland323 3y ago
  But you did and people don’t want to register. So do you want to iterate towards a model that works for you and your users? I think OC left really good feedback. I’ve been in your shoes before and I really can empathize with your situation deeply but I’d try to lose the defensiveness asap. It sucks when the model of the universe in your head gets dashed by reality at launch but I think not taking the feedback is a mistake. I’d also challenge your line of reasoning about what constitutes a user for your service. I hear what you’re saying about ignoring bad (non-paying) users in the case of SaaS products etc. but this is literally a blogging aggregator without a network. Get the network going by reducing all the friction in the world and worry about the rest later. 6 man months is not a lot of time for a product. There’s a whole “free” internet just a click away. The good news is it does seem like there is market for this and as OC pointed out there are ways to make iterations and improvements that could get people to sign up. Keep moving! Good luck!
- duncan_mcisaac 3y ago
  The majority of users are not going to look at it from your perspective. The HN crowd is likely to be your highest intent audience, and your comment suggests they don't feel your product expresses enough of a value prop ahead of the registration wall. If you want this to grow organically, you're going to need to take a user-centered design perspective. It's not sufficient to say you yourself represent a user persona because you're biased by your desire to see a return on investment.
- dangoor 3y ago
latexr 3y ago
Especially true when you consider the website is called “bored reading”. Having to register for a service is even less appealing when you’re bored.
pcthrowaway 3y ago
If you scroll aaall the way to the bottom there's a tiny link to https://boredreading.com/what-is/ https://boredreading.com/what-is/ that's really easy to miss. That mentions the ability to create your own personalized reading lists, which, in my mind, is the killer feature that compels signup. But the lede is definitely buried. I'd suggest placing this at the top edit: never mind, it's in the navbar also, I just missed it

khet 3y ago

The articles update every hour, so please check back again. The articles are from blogs that were deemed high quality, but even high quality blogs can churn out filler content. But in general, I think you'll always find one or two really interesting things to read at any given time, if not on the homepage, then on the blogs you follow.

interestica 3y ago
> The articles update every hour, so please check back again. Is that apparent to a user? You want ppl to stick around just a bit longer? Put a countdown clock to your master reset. Get it in their mind to come back and check again. Add just a touch of FOMO.

Michelangelo11 3y ago

Similar thoughts here. I'm looking for AI-related reading, so I was really interested when I saw you have an #AI tag -- but when I clicked it, I got a registration wall, so I bounced. I'd be happy to register if I used the service regularly, and to pay if it was really good, but asking me to register before I can even see if you have what I want -- a reliably good drip of AI news -- is a total turnoff.

khet 3y ago

It's funny, you (the user, and everyone else that commented about registering) say it's not worth your time registering, but if you look at it from my perspective, it's not worth putting in all this effort for someone who isn't willing to even register for free, let alone pay for the service that cost months to build.

wiseowise 3y ago
You’re the one who is trying to grab user’s attention, not the other way around.
jsunderland323 3y ago
But you did and people don’t want to register. So do you want to iterate towards a model that works for you and your users? I think OC left really good feedback. I’ve been in your shoes before and I really can empathize with your situation deeply but I’d try to lose the defensiveness asap. It sucks when the model of the universe in your head gets dashed by reality at launch but I think not taking the feedback is a mistake. I’d also challenge your line of reasoning about what constitutes a user for your service. I hear what you’re saying about ignoring bad (non-paying) users in the case of SaaS products etc. but this is literally a blogging aggregator without a network. Get the network going by reducing all the friction in the world and worry about the rest later. 6 man months is not a lot of time for a product. There’s a whole “free” internet just a click away. The good news is it does seem like there is market for this and as OC pointed out there are ways to make iterations and improvements that could get people to sign up. Keep moving! Good luck!
duncan_mcisaac 3y ago
The majority of users are not going to look at it from your perspective. The HN crowd is likely to be your highest intent audience, and your comment suggests they don't feel your product expresses enough of a value prop ahead of the registration wall. If you want this to grow organically, you're going to need to take a user-centered design perspective. It's not sufficient to say you yourself represent a user persona because you're biased by your desire to see a return on investment.
dangoor 3y ago

latexr 3y ago

Especially true when you consider the website is called “bored reading”. Having to register for a service is even less appealing when you’re bored.

pcthrowaway 3y ago

If you scroll aaall the way to the bottom there's a tiny link to https://boredreading.com/what-is/ https://boredreading.com/what-is/ that's really easy to miss. That mentions the ability to create your own personalized reading lists, which, in my mind, is the killer feature that compels signup. But the lede is definitely buried. I'd suggest placing this at the top edit: never mind, it's in the navbar also, I just missed it