The Costs of Requiring Accounts

Re:The Costs of Requiring Accounts by pmayrgundter on Wednesday November 10, 2021 @01:51AM (#29171865)

7:1 decrease in positive:negative contributions seen when 137 Fandom sites started requiring accounts.

The negative contributions seem to catalyze an outsized positive response.

Reflects the experience of Wikipedia as well.

Apparently crowds know how to deal with themselves.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Costs of Requiring Accounts by crooked-v on Wednesday November 10, 2021 @03:59AM (#29172566)

There's a pretty big difference between wiki-first sites and discussion-first sites, though.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:The Costs of Requiring Accounts by netcan on Wednesday November 10, 2021 @05:15AM (#29173069)

Exactly. You can't, imo, usefully abstract login/anonymity from the context of what the site is. Is it a chatty forum, like hn? A wiki has somewhat objective or predefined goals. That legibility helps frame things and flame wars need to resolve somehow.

When a discussion thread on a forum erupts into flamewar, we just move on. No resolution is necessary except perhaps preventing the next flame war.

[ Parent | on HN ]