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I think most of this anti-registration sentiment is coming from places like Quora which force you to register for no good reason, not sites that have a valid re

I think most of this anti-registration sentiment is coming from places like Quora which force you to register for no good reason, not sites that have a valid reason for an account. (I've never heard someone complain about needing to sign up to use Amazon.) GlassDoor is particularly obnoxious (as I just found out yesterday). If you click on this link http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Google-Salaries-E9079.htm all data will show. If you click almost any link or simply refresh the page, it's all hidden, blurred, and you get greeted with an overlay saying you must sign up.

callmeed 13y ago
Issues with Quora aside, I think it's actually coming from people inside the bubble of startups/design/ux who want to complain without actually testing things. I often show my wife sites/apps that might interest her. I've never heard her complain about creating an account (either with email/pw or facebook). If they drip-spam her, she'll unsubscribe. She's not a designer or hacker–just a normal 30-something, slightly-entrepreneurial, facebook-gmail-mac-using wife-mom.
- reginaldjcooper 13y ago
  I don't trust websites to not spam me and I don't trust them to not share my email with other spammers. I would never give my email to some unknown character. It's not an unreasonable position.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - gabemart 13y ago
    I have many email addresses. Some I use exclusively for things like signups, messages to which are diverted to particular folder on my mail client. I only ever dip into that folder to click activation links and password resets. Getting spam to those addresses has zero negative impact on me. I would have imagined this behavior is quite common.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - tnorthcutt 13y ago
      I suspect it's not as common as you think. I have many email addresses, and a couple of my friends (who work in tech) do, but the vast majority of the people I know only have one (or two, if they have one leftover from school, etc.).
  - troels 13y ago
    I've long since given up on that. I plaster my email address al over the internet, so that people can contact me. It means I get spam of course, but that's what spam filters were invented to deal with. Very little actual spam ends up in my inbox. If you need to keep your email address secret, I suggest that you're doing the internet wrong.
    - reginaldjcooper 13y ago
      Yes, everyone who disagrees with you is doing the internet wrong. FFS
- conflagration 13y ago
  Here is my trick for this: I use an individual email address for each signup I do, in the form of <signupdomain.com>@mydomain.com. By that way, when I get spam, I don't only know the spams source, but I can block it with only one click by blacklisting the specific receiver email address.
- asdasf 13y ago
  Your N=1 study does not provide statistically useful results.
tstrimple 13y ago
Agreed. There is a reason I actively participate in StackOverflow and have Quora in my Google search block list.
guelo 13y ago
I apreciate Glassdoor trying to force people to answer questions about their companies. That's how we can all find out about industry patterns.
- danielweber 13y ago
  It kind of sucks if you are the only employee of a certain class in a company doing an "anonymous" review of your employer.
ams6110 13y ago
I assume you mean Amazon services like EC2. Because there is no reason you should need to create an account to buy something on Amazon.com.
- nly 13y ago
  Depends. Providing the option to cancel an order necessitates authentication. E-mail updates on your order are also nice. Where do draw the line between purchase-time and lifetime user state?
kamjam 13y ago
I used Glassdoor to get a rough idea of what salary to ask for when I moved countries. Same issue as you. It massively peevs me when I want to download a free-to-try piece of software, or a whitepaper and they require my email address so they can mail me the link. So I did what I always do when something that shouldn't seemingly require an email address, forces me to register. I used a disposable email address (Yopmail is my favourite one :)) Did it add any value to process? Not particularly. If I like what you have to offer, then I will go back and sign-up for the newsletters, until then, stop filling up my inbox with random rubbsih!
xahrepap 13y ago
Funny: Amazon (and Newegg) were actually the sites I thought of that do this very well. I can shop around, add things to cart, get recommendations based on my shopping history, everything really, until checkout time. At that point it becomes reasonable to make an account. If Amazon did what a lot of sites do that I come across -- that is shove a monsterous sign-in form first thing then start asking me for referrals -- that would be a total turn off.
pseut 13y ago
I would be annoyed if I had to sign up/login to Amazon just to look at what they sell.

callmeed 13y ago

Issues with Quora aside, I think it's actually coming from people inside the bubble of startups/design/ux who want to complain without actually testing things. I often show my wife sites/apps that might interest her. I've never heard her complain about creating an account (either with email/pw or facebook). If they drip-spam her, she'll unsubscribe. She's not a designer or hacker–just a normal 30-something, slightly-entrepreneurial, facebook-gmail-mac-using wife-mom.

reginaldjcooper 13y ago
I don't trust websites to not spam me and I don't trust them to not share my email with other spammers. I would never give my email to some unknown character. It's not an unreasonable position.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- gabemart 13y ago
  I have many email addresses. Some I use exclusively for things like signups, messages to which are diverted to particular folder on my mail client. I only ever dip into that folder to click activation links and password resets. Getting spam to those addresses has zero negative impact on me. I would have imagined this behavior is quite common.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - tnorthcutt 13y ago
    I suspect it's not as common as you think. I have many email addresses, and a couple of my friends (who work in tech) do, but the vast majority of the people I know only have one (or two, if they have one leftover from school, etc.).
- troels 13y ago
  I've long since given up on that. I plaster my email address al over the internet, so that people can contact me. It means I get spam of course, but that's what spam filters were invented to deal with. Very little actual spam ends up in my inbox. If you need to keep your email address secret, I suggest that you're doing the internet wrong.
  - reginaldjcooper 13y ago
    Yes, everyone who disagrees with you is doing the internet wrong. FFS
conflagration 13y ago
Here is my trick for this: I use an individual email address for each signup I do, in the form of <signupdomain.com>@mydomain.com. By that way, when I get spam, I don't only know the spams source, but I can block it with only one click by blacklisting the specific receiver email address.
asdasf 13y ago
Your N=1 study does not provide statistically useful results.

tstrimple 13y ago

Agreed. There is a reason I actively participate in StackOverflow and have Quora in my Google search block list.

guelo 13y ago

I apreciate Glassdoor trying to force people to answer questions about their companies. That's how we can all find out about industry patterns.

danielweber 13y ago
It kind of sucks if you are the only employee of a certain class in a company doing an "anonymous" review of your employer.

ams6110 13y ago

I assume you mean Amazon services like EC2. Because there is no reason you should need to create an account to buy something on Amazon.com.

nly 13y ago
Depends. Providing the option to cancel an order necessitates authentication. E-mail updates on your order are also nice. Where do draw the line between purchase-time and lifetime user state?

kamjam 13y ago

I used Glassdoor to get a rough idea of what salary to ask for when I moved countries. Same issue as you. It massively peevs me when I want to download a free-to-try piece of software, or a whitepaper and they require my email address so they can mail me the link. So I did what I always do when something that shouldn't seemingly require an email address, forces me to register. I used a disposable email address (Yopmail is my favourite one :)) Did it add any value to process? Not particularly. If I like what you have to offer, then I will go back and sign-up for the newsletters, until then, stop filling up my inbox with random rubbsih!

xahrepap 13y ago

Funny: Amazon (and Newegg) were actually the sites I thought of that do this very well. I can shop around, add things to cart, get recommendations based on my shopping history, everything really, until checkout time. At that point it becomes reasonable to make an account. If Amazon did what a lot of sites do that I come across -- that is shove a monsterous sign-in form first thing then start asking me for referrals -- that would be a total turn off.

pseut 13y ago

I would be annoyed if I had to sign up/login to Amazon just to look at what they sell.