Anecdotally, seems like there has been an increase to me. I just no longer visit those sites, if they don't want me for free then so be it. There is a lot more internet to be had out there.
Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
11–20 of 131 posts
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#12I agree that this seems to have increased.
Pushiness is advantageous to companies unless it disgusts so many people into leaving that it makes up for the added conversions (in the broadest sense: a conversion can be a sign-up, sign-in, consent for targeted ads, etc.)
People seem to be too willing to put up with them. Long term brand damage is likely not much of a concern nowadays, given that it has been normalized.
Everyone is now trying to become a unicorn and exit by selling the company for $$$$, and public-facing tech companies are mostly valued based on the number of users.
When people start publicly complaining about it, ending contracts and providing the popups as a reason etc., this will change. Until then, it will just become worse.
Edit: Rule-by-metric likely also contributes. "Signups go up" is easy to measure, "users hate it" and "the popup has put the user off so they will never trust us or sign up, ever" isn't.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#13> LinkedIn> Instagram
> Twitter
yeah, I basically just stopped using the site. I used it for a while when job hunting, but now I maybe login once a week or something. otherwise, since the site blocks anonymous use, I simply don't use it.
I have an account, but I don't post or comment, so I am not going to log in just to view shit. So I basically don't use the site anymore. If someone links to a post I will check it out, but usually you get login prompt after viewing like 5 posts, so at that point I am just done with Instagram for the day.
Twitter gives you like 10 comments before login prompt, so I just leave the site for the day after that.
> Medium
Medium is horrible, so nothing lost.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#14It's the cycle of life in the pursuit of ever increasing profit. As companies age and need to squeeze more blood from a stone, they resort to increasingly drastic measures.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#15Things I've noticed: 1. Obtrusive messaging / sign up modals / exit intent modals work. I hate them. But they convert. 2. There is a large group of people who don't blink at the 'account required' messages. They just sign up. 3. If you don't have an account, you're not a useful customer. There is no reason for the company to cater to you.
What honestly bothers me more is how "Yes/No" dialogs are increasingly being replaced by "Yes/Later", even in paid products/services. Seems like companies are done with even pretending to take "No" for an answer when they want to push something on you.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#16The free money train is over, so companies are trying to actually make a profit. Part of that is that they can't provide a free, non-monetized service for a decade+ before making people pay for it.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#17- Scraping is a major issue.
- Browser privacy / VPNs lead to an arms race where account. age/reputation become critical signal.
- Apple/Google play store apps provide device integrity check which improves confidence in account reputation / Ad targeting.
- Everyone already has a Google/Apple account and are unlikely to convert if they wont just signup via SSO which takes couple of clicks.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#18The internet is slowly being monopolized or corporatized.
Why? Capitalism. Money to be made capturing a particular market. Quarterly goals at each company to increase X by Y%, so how do we do that...
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#19Things I've noticed: 1. Obtrusive messaging / sign up modals / exit intent modals work. I hate them. But they convert. 2. There is a large group of people who don't blink at the 'account required' messages. They just sign up. 3. If you don't have an account, you're not a useful customer. There is no reason for the company to cater to you.
> Obtrusive messaging / sign up modals / exit intent modals work. I hate them.
In case anyone hasn't seen it, here's a godsend to get rid of that crap: https://github.com/t-mart/kill-sticky Works on mobile, too.
Re: Ask HN: Are companies becoming increasingly pushy? If so why?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
The last point always confuses me. Twitter can show ads to me without me having an account. Instead, they block me from reading on Twitter after a few tweets, thus loosing my eyeballs. Maybe that's compensated by signups, but it certainly didn't work for me.
Good news, one of Elon’s top priorities is to remove this nagging stuff and make Twitter fully usable via browser again.
Believe it when you see it, not when you hear it.