When I'm forced to provide an email address to access wifi but the email address doesn't have to be valid, I typically use something like pr@ or press@ the responsible organisation's mail domain.
F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
11–20 of 143 posts
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#12The worst type is the: "We would love to have your feedback" popup overlay upon entering a site.
I've just landed on your site! How am I supposed to have an opinion of it already? Well I do now, the first 3 seconds sucked big time!
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#13I don't see why Dropbox is on there. That's just a sign in/register window for a service that requires an account.
When you try to download the software, they try to make you sign up or log in for no reason.
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#14You know, the age of ACTUAL pop-up windows really sucked, and it was amazing when browsers rendered them largely obsolete by limiting how websites could launch another window but at least all of those had the X in the SAME EXACT PLACE.
The new crop of lightboxed modal popups that are now ubiquitous are 100 times worse since they:
- are modal
- often work poorly on mobile
- have as many different dismiss mechanisms as there are popups
- web marketers love them
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#15I've definitely noticed a trend in technical blogs/ newsletters (some of which have been featured on HN) throw up a "like this article? Sign up for our newsletter" popup after you start to scroll down the page. "I don't fucking know if I like this article, you're interrupting me while I'm still in the middle of reading it!"
Is it popping up halfway through or when it thinks you're mousing over to close the tab? Sudden upward mouse movements trigger some of those javascript retention popups, even though you were just moving to the scroll bar or something.
But while we're on the topic, the recent trend of "No thanks, I don't want to get all this awesome stuff" or "No, I don't want to become a master in subject X" buttons are very condescending.
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#16The worst type is the: "We would love to have your feedback" popup overlay upon entering a site. I've just landed on your site! How am I supposed to have an opinion of it already? Well I do now, the first 3 seconds sucked big time!
Microsoft would ask if you wanted to take a survey when you were done with a site, then pop-under a window that would detect when you had closed the first one and start a survey.
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#17I've definitely noticed a trend in technical blogs/ newsletters (some of which have been featured on HN) throw up a "like this article? Sign up for our newsletter" popup after you start to scroll down the page. "I don't fucking know if I like this article, you're interrupting me while I'm still in the middle of reading it!"
Is it popping up halfway through or when it thinks you're mousing over to close the tab? Sudden upward mouse movements trigger some of those javascript retention popups, even though you were just moving to the scroll bar or something. But while we're on the topic, the recent trend of "No thanks, I don't want to get all this awesome stuff" or "No, I don't want to become a master in subject X" buttons are very condesce…
I have seen that, but some of them pop up partway down a page or even on a timer.
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#18I've never understood this design. Someone came to your website to do something. Why is the first thing you do is give them a bad experience?
Because it works.
I had a small deals aggregator site which got most of its traffic from Google. When users landed I knew they were interested in the content, and I showed it through a semi-transparent background and forced them to enter their emails before being able to click through. I remember conversions going from 10-20 new emails per day to over 100 emails per day.
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#19You know, the age of ACTUAL pop-up windows really sucked, and it was amazing when browsers rendered them largely obsolete by limiting how websites could launch another window but at least all of those had the X in the SAME EXACT PLACE. The new crop of lightboxed modal popups that are now ubiquitous are 100 times worse since they: - are modal - often work poorly on mobile - have as many different dismiss mechanisms as…
The crucial usability difference is that lightbox style "popups" are all gone instantly when you close the page/tab.
Re: F*** those popups – signing up those who deserve it
#20So long as they keep working, those popups aren't going anywhere.