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Sign Up Forms Must Die

alistapart.com

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#11
post #5

If the gradual engagement includes a reasonably complex operation, like writing an article and then creating an account to post it, does this obviate the need for a CAPTCHA? I'm curious, because I hate CAPTCHAs, but only slightly less than I hate being used as a splog. I think it might, so I'm feeling happy.

Why would that remove the need for a CAPTCHA? Normal procedure: Register -> write spam. This method: write spam -> register.

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#12
post #8

How would you make this site have a gentler slope? Let the user post a comment and then say "Thanks for the comment, now you just need an account to publish this. Enter your username/password."? Some of the sites that do "gradual engagement" piss me off when they let me believe I'm about to do something and then surprise me with a sign up form. It strikes me as tricky and I very frequently walk away. I certainly beli…

[deleted]

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#13
post #8

How would you make this site have a gentler slope? Let the user post a comment and then say "Thanks for the comment, now you just need an account to publish this. Enter your username/password."? Some of the sites that do "gradual engagement" piss me off when they let me believe I'm about to do something and then surprise me with a sign up form. It strikes me as tricky and I very frequently walk away. I certainly beli…

It is possible, and we have done it on jaanix. Take a look, there are no surprises.

You have a guest id with no questions asked that lets do everything on the site. You can keep it forever if you come back at least once every two weeks. You only have to join if you want to have your own subdomain - and we ask you for the name and a password - that's it.

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#14
post #5

If the gradual engagement includes a reasonably complex operation, like writing an article and then creating an account to post it, does this obviate the need for a CAPTCHA? I'm curious, because I hate CAPTCHAs, but only slightly less than I hate being used as a splog. I think it might, so I'm feeling happy.

Why would that remove the need for a CAPTCHA? Normal procedure: Register -> write spam. This method: write spam -> register.

Hrm. Fair enough. I was assuming the "write" step would include something atypical enough to screw up a program that just looks for "blogs" to "comment on." But, that might not be the case for everyone (or even for me).

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#15
How does gradual engagement work precisely? If this is based entirely on cookies, which seems to be the only possibility, then: what if I started the process, posted something - my video, a blog post, etc - then got my cookies deleted? Or moved to another computer?

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#16
post #5

If the gradual engagement includes a reasonably complex operation, like writing an article and then creating an account to post it, does this obviate the need for a CAPTCHA? I'm curious, because I hate CAPTCHAs, but only slightly less than I hate being used as a splog. I think it might, so I'm feeling happy.

Bots won't be able to ab/use a site with gradual engagement, because the whole process would be too difficult for them to follow, I presume. Thus no need for captchas.

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#17
My current project involves interacting with a chat bot. We could require users to sign up on a form and make sure we have a boatload of data from them upfront before opening up the service to them.

Instead what we do is tell them to add a bot to their buddy list and send it a greeting. In doing this, they've already engaged in the service, and we have created an entry in our users database based on their buddy name and chat network. They can then decide whether supply additional information.

There are lots of ways to lower the barrier to entry if you're willing to change the way you think about online services.

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#18
post #8

How would you make this site have a gentler slope? Let the user post a comment and then say "Thanks for the comment, now you just need an account to publish this. Enter your username/password."? Some of the sites that do "gradual engagement" piss me off when they let me believe I'm about to do something and then surprise me with a sign up form. It strikes me as tricky and I very frequently walk away. I certainly beli…

Some users are used to registering no matter what. We only require registrations to upload content on the site, yet for some visitors the first thing they do on the site is register, without uploading anything.

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#19
post #16
post #5

If the gradual engagement includes a reasonably complex operation, like writing an article and then creating an account to post it, does this obviate the need for a CAPTCHA? I'm curious, because I hate CAPTCHAs, but only slightly less than I hate being used as a splog. I think it might, so I'm feeling happy.

Bots won't be able to ab/use a site with gradual engagement, because the whole process would be too difficult for them to follow, I presume. Thus no need for captchas.

That depends on the complexity of the bot. A general purpose bot might not get through a complex process, but someone could spend just a few minutes to customize a bot to a particular site. CAPTCHAs are reasonably good at stopping bots.

Re: Sign Up Forms Must Die

#20
post #8

How would you make this site have a gentler slope? Let the user post a comment and then say "Thanks for the comment, now you just need an account to publish this. Enter your username/password."? Some of the sites that do "gradual engagement" piss me off when they let me believe I'm about to do something and then surprise me with a sign up form. It strikes me as tricky and I very frequently walk away. I certainly beli…

"How would you make this site have a gentler slope? Let the user post a comment and then say "Thanks for the comment, now you just need an account to publish this. Enter your username/password."?"

An interesting idea, but it would probably deter casual commenters. People who drop by, see something interesting and want to add their two cents, sign their anonymous comment, and leave it at that.

It's a bit of a stretch, possibly, but track users and pester them gently if they comment several times anonymously. Something like "hey, I've noticed you've been around for awhile, if you sign up, you'll get these perks. Would you like to?"

http://qdb.us/latest does SOMETHING like this. It's a quotes database and after you've browsed around awhile it puts a non-intrusive nag-message at the top of the screen directing you to the FAQ. Maybe something similar to direct people to a signup form?

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