Is it just my perception or are aggressive “signup walls” and the like becoming more common? I feel like it was very frowned upon when Quora and Pinterest did it. But now Reddit, Instagram and even Dribbble are very aggressive about refusing to let you do nearly anything without an account.
This has some negative consequences for their logged in users too. For example, many small shops and restaurants seem to use Instagram instead of a traditional website. I wonder if they are aware that plenty of people can’t see their menus etc?
I find Dribbble’s wall especially ironic. For the longest time it would be hard to get a Dribbble account - you had to know someone with an invite. And now they refuse to even tell you who designed which image unless you create an account. (Isn’t that rather problematic from a copyright perspective?)
It’s a stage in the bubble process: these companies were funded well beyond their real revenue prospects and those unsustainable business models are also seeing ad rates which have been declining for many years. The investors expect returns which the market can’t deliver and that’s going to lead to more abuses until the users switch to a company earlier in the cycle.
Reddit has had something like $550M in funding, with the last round in December 2019. It’s been around for 15 years so it’s unlikely to become profitable at the desired levels but everyone involved has a strong incentive not to recognize that.
This has some negative consequences for their logged in users too. For example, many small shops and restaurants seem to use Instagram instead of a traditional website. I wonder if they are aware that plenty of people can’t see their menus etc?
I find Dribbble’s wall especially ironic. For the longest time it would be hard to get a Dribbble account - you had to know someone with an invite. And now they refuse to even tell you who designed which image unless you create an account. (Isn’t that rather problematic from a copyright perspective?)