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Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

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Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#31

Post by djtriptych »

AznHisoka wrote: post #21
estel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was never a day when you didn't have to worry about supporting multiple browsers.

when IE was 95% market share?

This is actually a reasonable answer, having been around at that time. At one point, if it worked on IE it went out the door.

Actually I know that "one point". It was when Mozilla completely destroyed their browser platform with the horribly broken Netscape 4. Everybody stopped using it immediately.

Back then it was like "does it work on ie" and maybe "should we build an AOL presence?".

AOL then = Facebook today.

You're welcome, young people.

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#32

Post by djtriptych »

keturn wrote: post #13
dickersonjames wrote: post #11

Thoughts on Twitter only sign-in compared to FB? More likely to use?

Unless your product is something that builds on Twitter's platform, I wouldn't recommend it. It means your users don't have a choice about how they're authenticated to your site, and A) Failwhale, anyone? B) Twitter doesn't provide serious options for protecting their users' login credentials. It's the same username/password combo which is easily phished & replayable. Sadly, I've pretty much given up on the hope that…

From a dev's point of view I really feel that OpenID/OAuth is absolutely not worth the headache.

I'd rather just go the hacker news model. Choose a strong password and if you forget it, we send a new one to your email address.

Works fine, offloads a lot of security issues to email providers (who tend to be good at it), easy to code.

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#33

Post by jcdavis »

jgrahamc wrote: post #29

Another reason: yesterday's poll on who has and does not have a Facebook account showed that 38% of people here do not. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3542976

Obvious addendum to that: HN is a very different community from those that most of these startups might target.

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#35

Post by nknight »

jgrahamc wrote: post #29

Another reason: yesterday's poll on who has and does not have a Facebook account showed that 38% of people here do not. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3542976

I don't, my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles don't, my best friend doesn't, several of my favorite past and present colleagues don't. There are times I really wonder where Facebook's massive userbase comes from, and how it can ever possibly occur to anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances, to make Facebook the sole login system for their web startup that otherwise has little or nothing to do with Facebook.

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#36

Post by Blocks8 »

SatvikBeri wrote: post #14
Aqua_Geek wrote: post #3

There's a good chance that if FB is the only sign-in option, I will immediately close the window and never use your service. It's pretty much an insta-bounce for me for the exact reasons cited in the article.

Has anyone run some A/B tests and gotten stats on how different subscription rates are with multiple log in options? I'm curious as to exactly how much it matters.

gtrot.com started with Facebook-Connect login only. We didn't allow any access into the site unless you created account. The primary reason for this was that we used Facebook data to show you where your friends lived, where they've been and allowed you to connect with them on gtrot (through Facebook) so there was no "empty room" feeling when you started.

With our latest updates in November, we allowed a 'generic view' --- a user can search what's happening in a city without logging in. We've put in educational messaging and explain why the Facebook connect is important to being able to personalize results. Based on what you like, what your friends like, where you've been, where they've been etc. The data is core to the experience, but some people still don't want to give access to Facebook. We did, however, see our bounce rate cut in half when we provided a generic view. Customers were spending more time on the site (upward of 5 minutes) and even returning to use the site without the account.

I think the key is giving clarity, but this is a topic we've gone back and forth on as we don't think we can deliver on our promise of 'personalized advice in any city' without having the Facebook basis. We'll be changing this over time but for now, it's generic or Facebook account.

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#38

Post by veyron »

nknight wrote: post #35
jgrahamc wrote: post #29

Another reason: yesterday's poll on who has and does not have a Facebook account showed that 38% of people here do not. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3542976

I don't, my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles don't, my best friend doesn't, several of my favorite past and present colleagues don't. There are times I really wonder where Facebook's massive userbase comes from, and how it can ever possibly occur to anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances, to make Facebook the sole login system for their web startup that otherwise has little or nothing to do with Facebook.

Given that there are ~ 300M americans and facebook has ~850M users, my guess is that most of their userbase is overseas (and oftentimes falling prey to the whole "americans use it, so I should also be using it" mentality)

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#39

Post by tnorthcutt »

AznHisoka wrote: post #7

I never put a FB Connect button, but some people complain because they are used to logging in with one. It's a pain because it's another platform you have to support if you're a developer. What happened to the days when you just had to implement a simple website for 1 browser, without having to worry about multiple browsers, supporting iPhone, iPad, Android, and enabling Facebook/Twitter/OpenID logins, and finding fr…

What happened to the days when you just had to implement a simple website for 1 browser, without having to worry about multiple browsers, supporting iPhone, iPad, Android, and enabling Facebook/Twitter/OpenID logins, and finding friends through facebook/twitter/gmail?

Do you really yearn for those days? Think about what you can build now vs. what you could build then.

Re: Why Facebook Connect Shouldn't Be Your Only Sign-in Option

#40

Post by nknight »

antonlitvinenko wrote: post #26

From user perspective having several sign-in options is a source of confusion: first day I sign in with Facebook... next day I come in and don't remember which service I've used to sign in with? And this time I try Twitter only to see none of my data. How do you guys solve that problem? I think, this might be even the bigger problem than having 20% or 30% "drop out" on sign up process.

Isn't the obvious 80% solution a separate cookie that just says "this browser last logged in using service X" that the server can use to give UI cues?
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