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A comment on I've spent the last two years building a new email client. Parent comment

Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by loceng on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:32PM (#16978642)
I dislike tricks like this too, especially because in the end you're still going to get access to it. If a product is good enough, as you said, then I'll tell everyone about it. I think technical or non-business people see this kind of trick and perhaps don't think of the deeper consequences of it - it's not quite a dark pattern, though it feels manipulative.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by muszc-master on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:34PM (#16978671)
I'm sorry if it came across as manipulative. One of the reasons for having it like this is also so it can give me a metric on who in the waiting list are most interested in the program. And of course also to offer an incentive to share it.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by Exuma on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:38PM (#16978729)
That is not a good metric. There's no way I would take part in that even if I were interested. It's just a big turn off.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by StevenRayOrr on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @01:45PM (#16979394)
Your first sentence isn't supported by your second and third. It is incredibly common to track not just interest but level of interest -- and lots of companies find it a valuable metric for marshalling their resources. Is this perhaps not the best way to get that metric? Now that can be a helpful question to ask and a good thing for this dev to think about, rather than outright dismissing the attempt.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by Exuma on Thursday May 03, 2018 @02:27AM (#16983787)
I'm more just saying that I don't think people doing/not doing that action is a good indication of their interest level. My interest level could be an 8 out of 10, but there's no way I'm pestering my friends about it.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by loceng on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:52PM (#16978849)
A different option I'd suggest that will likely provide higher engagement/response rate is putting some kind of a 1-to-5 star or 1-to-10 ranking - something quick for the user to click (or ignore) - simply asking them "How interested or excited are you about this product?"

Re: Incentive to share it - Just build a good to amazing product - which the comments and upvotes you have on HN are already significant proof of - and you'll get higher adoption in the long run with exponential growth, without adding friction of little tricks like this which will be relatively inconsequential in the long run, other than perhaps causing friction with early adopters who will get turned off by them.

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by muszc-master on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @01:00PM (#16978936)
That's a good idea, and in hindsight, you and the other commenters disliking the wording are correct. I just haven't received this feedback on the wording before, will change it!
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by c0smic on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @05:29PM (#16981304)
An interesting question might be, what other ways could you allow people in the queue to jump up in position, without requiring them to share with others?

Maybe a quick survey with questions like, - what email client do you use now? - what is your favorite/least favorite feature of said client? - how often do you check your email? etc

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by scottybowl on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:55PM (#16978874)
I'm extremely interested.. Me sharing it with other people is a poor way of measuring my enthusiasm.. I'm not going to share it until I've tried it, so that I can vouch for its quality.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by muszc-master on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @01:01PM (#16978944)
Noted. It was a poor choice of words / trick on my part it seems.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by voicedYoda on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:59PM (#16980623)
Don’t call it a trick. It isn’t a trick. It is a marketing ploy.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by loceng on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @10:54PM (#16983031)
Trick is a synonym for trick.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by loceng on Thursday May 03, 2018 @12:09PM (#16987195)
Ahhh. Trick is a synonym for ploy.
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by mateus1 on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @12:43PM (#16978779)
I'd advise you to reword it as "Want to join as a beta user? Share".

Frame it as a reward not a punishment.

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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by kemiller on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @01:30PM (#16979207)
What deeper consequences are those?
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Re:I've spent the last two years building a new email client by loceng on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @11:34PM (#16983166)
A portion of people find that kind of tactic/trick to be manipulative, cause discomfort, which will add friction to adoption - why do that to anyone who might become an early adopter when you can avoid it? In another reply I go in a little more detail - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16978849
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