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Whenever I see these pop up I basically never believe them. They are even worse when made up scarcity is involved. I want to go one step further and say this i
by barbazoo 2y ago
Whenever I see these pop up I basically never believe them. They are even worse when made up scarcity is involved.
I want to go one step further and say this is actually a dark pattern.
- laweijfmvo 2y agoAgree, super ironic that they’re apparently called “Social Proof” haha
- Phreaker00 2y agoI agree. As a programmer I never believe this is actual interaction of people but instead random events programmed to show up to spoof activity. There's no way to verify the truthfulness of the data. As a consequence I distrust the website and make an effort to find a different seller.
- hnuser123456 2y agoYes, but we're not typical customers.
- barbazoo 2y agoMakes it even worse if they find actual people to deceive.
- kulkarniankita 2y agowhat would make you trust us? I am asking so I can show more legitimacy as I'm also a programmer and I agree with you
- Phreaker00 1y agoWhat you're trying to solve is a form of social validation and trust that brick and mortar stores implicitly have: 1. They have to have spent a reasonable amount of money to actually be there; 2. A busy store with lots of people at the registers means there's enough trust to spend money here. To solve this in a virtual environment you'd need a comparable amount of implicit trust. For #1 it's doable: have a trustworthy domain name. Amazon.com is a lot more trustworthy than look-at-my-shop.tk. For #2 I don't think there's a trustworthy equivalent, since it's either off-site by a third party or unverifiable by users.
- ramoz 2y agoThese are all dark patterns used in the SaaS community and it takes zero effort to create. Two valid alternatives to this product: (1) lie (2) average out whatever proof throughput you get and simulate the events
- aledalgrande 2y agoNot just the SaaS community, unfortunately.
- subpixel 2y agoExactly, like the bubble/up-sell in the Uber app that claims 'busier than usual' circumstances can only be remedied by paying a little more for a quicker pickup.
- hnlmorg 2y agoAgreed. I’ve actually ended purchasing from alternative places because of these things. If I feel like a site is trying to pressure or rush me into a sale then I usually end up feeling negatively towards that site and thus shop elsewhere.
- kulkarniankita 2y agoOh really? This helped to show actual social proof vs fake it. Users that sign up can't really fake it