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Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

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Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#81

Whenever I used to demo one of my old projects, the immediate feedback I'd get from most "advisors" was something along the lines of, "oh, you don't offer Facebook signup. Why not?" I think the underlying assumption was that using Facebook login would make it easier to make the site "go viral" because we could more easily spam our user's networks. I always cringed at this idea from my own personal experience, and fro…

But they're not saying that offering Facebook logins is bad. Just that _forcing_ people to log in with Facebook and not offering an alternative is.

And at least by offering it, you'd get metrics on how many people use it. Like Patrick said, it's the most important 30 seconds of your relationship with the customer. It's worth trying whatever you can do to improve that signup process.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#82
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it is now possible to sign up with only email. Not sure if it applies to all markets, but in the US you can.

Wow, they don't want people to spot that, do they :) I went to the signup page to verify before I posted my comment and completely missed the link, even though I was looking for it. I really appreciate them doing that - will check out their library today. Edit: Or not. They seem to know my city better than me since my postcode is both required and invalid...

What's your city and postcode? I can forward it to the devs responsible for the signup page.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#83
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it is now possible to sign up with only email. Not sure if it applies to all markets, but in the US you can.

At the top of the page: "You need a Facebook account to register for Spotify" At the bottom of the page: "or Create an account using my e-mail address" Awesome design there!

Awesome design there!

I think you meant that sarcastically, but it actually is good design from Spotify's point of view. They really want people to link their accounts to Facebook, but don't want to lose the potential users who steadfastly refuse to do so. Tailoring the language and design to encourage the desired choice is smart, even if it might not be quite right grammatically.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always wondered why more websites/apps didn't have their own user database, with Facebook credentials as merely a link to an underlying record that the website actually owns. This way if you one day want to run far, far away from the FB monster you're already set - the behavior of your app doesn't break horrifically, and you can devise a seamless/pain-free transition for FB-authenticated users to create a passwo…

> I've always wondered why more websites/apps didn't have their own user database Because your password database is a liability. And it's a huge pain in the ass to store securely. And a breach at another site can harm your users if they re-used their password. And there's a huge amount of friction when you ask users to create and manage yet another password. Seriously, traditional login systems suck. They're great fo…

Because your password database is a liability.

Arguably it's a greater liability for a business to be dependent on a third party for a connection with their users. It means they lose important user data like email (they have to ask for it usually), they're tied to that provider, and their website breaks for those users if that third party service goes down or is unreliable.

If you store your passwords securely you can't leak them, only a hash, but I agree it's a pain for users to manage multiple passwords/identities and can lead to too much password sharing.

Persona looks far more interesting than social login as it addresses the issue with who owns controls user data/logins and does not have a single point of failure, plus it provides the email.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. The need to share and talk differently with different people, is precisely the problem that Google tried to solve with their concept of circles in Google+. However, the fact that they also required real names and a single identity, makes it a partial and therefore ineffective solution.

One serious problem with the way Google+ does circles is that once you post something, you _cannot_ change whom you've shared it with.

Well, keep in mind that the people you already shared the post with can always save it locally.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heard similar language from Google... and Apple... and MS... and ... The idea that you should or shouldn't "trust" a company...

It's just unusual if you think about it. It helps to have been alive in a time before the web was significant. Think of all the companies you give personal information to. Think of how much information you actually give them. Think about what they are permitted to do with that information. Then think about sending a list of all your friends, family, colleagues, your personal thoughts and commnications on personal mat…

Maybe it's because I've grown up with fairly ubiquitous internet, but I've never expected anything I put on the internet to be private. Furthermore, I've never expected anything done in public to be private. I have a hard time understanding why people expect otherwise on both.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#89
Their survey result gave me an idea for a user to give their own opinion and have those opinions to appear as choices for other users. Every opinion would have a tally and be ordered in popularity. The top 5 opinions would appear with an option to display more if desired.

Re: Surprise: People hate being forced to use Facebook

#90

So, I understand that Facebook et al are more popular options, but I am noticing that OpenID in particular is really losing momentum. Personally I really liked the idea of OpenID, so I'm just wondering, from the point of view of web developers, what is it about OpenID that makes you not want to use it? Or is it just that Facebook is overwhelmingly more popular as a login method so it's not worth it?

Logging in with a URL. That does not make sense.
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