Agree, super ironic that they’re apparently called “Social Proof” haha

I agree. As a programmer I never believe this is actual interaction of people but instead random events programmed to show up to spoof activity. There's no way to verify the truthfulness of the data. As a consequence I distrust the website and make an effort to find a different seller.

what would make you trust us? I am asking so I can show more legitimacy as I'm also a programmer and I agree with you

What you're trying to solve is a form of social validation and trust that brick and mortar stores implicitly have: 1. They have to have spent a reasonable amount of money to actually be there; 2. A busy store with lots of people at the registers means there's enough trust to spend money here.

To solve this in a virtual environment you'd need a comparable amount of implicit trust. For #1 it's doable: have a trustworthy domain name. Amazon.com is a lot more trustworthy than look-at-my-shop.tk. For #2 I don't think there's a trustworthy equivalent, since it's either off-site by a third party or unverifiable by users.

Yes, but we're not typical customers.

Makes it even worse if they find actual people to deceive.

These are all dark patterns used in the SaaS community and it takes zero effort to create. Two valid alternatives to this product: (1) lie (2) average out whatever proof throughput you get and simulate the events

Not just the SaaS community, unfortunately.

Exactly, like the bubble/up-sell in the Uber app that claims 'busier than usual' circumstances can only be remedied by paying a little more for a quicker pickup.

Agreed. I’ve actually ended purchasing from alternative places because of these things.

If I feel like a site is trying to pressure or rush me into a sale then I usually end up feeling negatively towards that site and thus shop elsewhere.

Oh really? This helped to show actual social proof vs fake it. Users that sign up can't really fake it