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it allows you to track stats more easily. for example, you can link bit.ly to Buffer and get a unique bit mark for each link/platform pair. then you can track e

it allows you to track stats more easily. for example, you can link bit.ly to Buffer and get a unique bit mark for each link/platform pair. then you can track engagement separately for each platform.

brownbat 12y ago
Couldn't you just have an IFTTT pull anything you bitly into a bucket of links to watch stats on? Why does bitly need to know who you are, or what links you submitted, if you can just remember (maybe through automation) which links are yours, and bitly or buffer can monitor each link individually for stats? My guess is that logins probably help bitly track usage patterns, improve the product, and keep an eye out for ways to increase their value by measuring engagement with their userbase. Maybe it was just "everyone's adding a social layer" peer pressure. Not sure. There are security costs to "use passwords everywhere, for everything," but they are more diffuse. We've ended up with a system where security best practices would recommend using hundreds of distinct passwords that are each too complex to memorize (so you can dump them in a locker or support one login services, each creating a single point of failure, or you can use a similar password or mental password algorithm for each site, it's all tradeoffs). I don't think there's an obviously better solution, I think it's just a tragedy of the commons we were probably inevitably going to trip over sooner or later.
- peteforde 12y ago
  What percentage of the internet would even understand what you just suggested, much less know how to do it? Also, you'd have to see a massive amount of value in not signing up to Bitly to offset the hours you'd spend creating a vastly inferior hack job on your own.
  - brownbat 12y ago
    > "[Your ideas are] vastly inferior hack jobs, 0/10 stars..." [ very roughly :) ] All I'm claiming is that bitly could have offered stats without a login system. IFTTT was just a proof of that concept, a gratuitous example, not some idealized form of stat tracking that everyone should run out and implement. You're probably right that the solution I thought of in around ten seconds sucks. I've spent more time on worse ideas. My real point is that login systems, despite their ubiquity, have their own share of downsides. Some of these downsides should be painfully evident today given the article.
    - Spockulus_Rift 12y ago
      if butt.ly didnt require user sign ups how would they measure growth and make Borthwick rich?

it allows you to track stats more easily. for example, you can link bit.ly to Buffer and get a unique bit mark for each link/platform pair. then you can track engagement separately for each platform.

brownbat 12y ago

Couldn't you just have an IFTTT pull anything you bitly into a bucket of links to watch stats on? Why does bitly need to know who you are, or what links you submitted, if you can just remember (maybe through automation) which links are yours, and bitly or buffer can monitor each link individually for stats? My guess is that logins probably help bitly track usage patterns, improve the product, and keep an eye out for ways to increase their value by measuring engagement with their userbase. Maybe it was just "everyone's adding a social layer" peer pressure. Not sure. There are security costs to "use passwords everywhere, for everything," but they are more diffuse. We've ended up with a system where security best practices would recommend using hundreds of distinct passwords that are each too complex to memorize (so you can dump them in a locker or support one login services, each creating a single point of failure, or you can use a similar password or mental password algorithm for each site, it's all tradeoffs). I don't think there's an obviously better solution, I think it's just a tragedy of the commons we were probably inevitably going to trip over sooner or later.

peteforde 12y ago
What percentage of the internet would even understand what you just suggested, much less know how to do it? Also, you'd have to see a massive amount of value in not signing up to Bitly to offset the hours you'd spend creating a vastly inferior hack job on your own.
- brownbat 12y ago
  > "[Your ideas are] vastly inferior hack jobs, 0/10 stars..." [ very roughly :) ] All I'm claiming is that bitly could have offered stats without a login system. IFTTT was just a proof of that concept, a gratuitous example, not some idealized form of stat tracking that everyone should run out and implement. You're probably right that the solution I thought of in around ten seconds sucks. I've spent more time on worse ideas. My real point is that login systems, despite their ubiquity, have their own share of downsides. Some of these downsides should be painfully evident today given the article.
  - Spockulus_Rift 12y ago
    if butt.ly didnt require user sign ups how would they measure growth and make Borthwick rich?