I don't believe that's true. What we see here is an exhibit of the False-Consensus Effect[1]. You believe they are annoying, and many on HN believe they are annoying, therefore they (popups) must be annoying to everyone. This logic ignores the fact that 99% of web users are not technical, and view the web in an entirely different light.
On ecommerce websites, popup forms are incredibly effective at capturing customer email addresses later used in direct email marketing. So effective, there is an entire industry built around providing the technology and controls to target certain customers with the popups (viewed 6 pages but did not add anything to cart yet, sat on a product page for 2 minutes, etc...).
For a lot of popups, an incentive is offered to the potential customer. Give us your email address and we'll give you 5% off your next purchase. We're basically buying the right to email market to you... understanding full well that some customers will be annoyed with the popup, and some might even provide fake details. But for the majority of customers, we just bought their loyalty. They will make a purchase with their new 5% off coupon, and will likely shop the site again when we email them promo offers later on.
If you visited one of my sites, and got annoyed by the popup, then I'd be OK with that... you were not my target. But if your parents or grandparents visited my site... chances are they'd fill out the popup. They are my target.
All the arguments above are about the site, not about the visitor. "capturing customer email", "Buying the right to email market" are not about the visitor gaining value by reading a blog entry. And those who object to the process are "not my target". Very convenient. Perhaps I was a whale with a blank check, reading the blog entry to find out more. One popup and now I'm gone. You'll never know, since you've already convinced yourself this is all ok.
You don't run websites (especially ecommerce websites) hoping and praying for a "whale" to come along and bless you with their deep pockets... just like you don't play baseball hedging on hitting only home runs. That's a recipe for failure.
> Its self-serving to stick a dialog box in somebody's face
Yes, that's the point. I want their email addresses.
> then spend 100's of words defending that choice by denying the obvious.
Frankly, you cannot argue with the effectiveness of popup email collection. Every time we blast our 150,000+ email marketing list (mostly gathered via the popup as well as other means), the websites are almost crushed under the traffic load. 1 email can generate $10's of thousands in revenue... so yes, collecting emails is of very high importance for us, and many similar ecommerce companies.
> are not about the visitor gaining value by reading a blog entry
You are certainly right -- it's more about the company gaining value, however, a great many of our customers gain value by seeing deals on products they are interested in. That is a win-win for everyone.
> And those who object to the process are "not my target".
If you aren't buying something from my site, or clicking an ad, then you are not my target. Instead you are just consuming my company's resources and ultimately won't convert into a sale. To be frank, we don't want those types of visitors on the website, although it's unavoidable (ecommerce generally considers an average 3-5% conversion rate to be good).
The point is, you are annoyed by popups, and choose to punish sites that employ them. Just like some choose to punish sites that provide free content but pay the bills with ads. It's a strong bias to impose on the rest of the internet users... especially when you are in the minority percentile.
I haven't but I've seen non-nerds get irritated by popups. Heck, given that their primary complaint about computers is that they're confusing, the last thing they want is for popups to confuse them further.
[EDIT] Here's a study that agrees with me:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/most-hated-advertising-techn...
I can't find the actual source, though, if a source even exists.
The rest of the Internet is pay-to-play like Steam. At least for me.
You are not the average internet user.
Your biases do not apply to 99% of internet users. The things on websites that annoy you do not annoy 99% of internet users. The marketing antics that work for 99% of internet users do not work on you.
A better metric is some sort of pageviews / site visitors / uniques / etc.
Are you only discussing VOD sites? That's the only way I can make any sense of your arguments. (Also, what do you mean by netflix being a "consumer of the internet"?)
Like stated before... you are letting your personal bias creep into a pseudo-fact.
> And what's with the 'pseudo' slam?
You are making up facts to support your skewed and biased view. You don't like popups that ask for email addresses, therefore you assert they are ineffective and annoying to all users. This is absurd, and provably false.
You assert Netflix has the most consumption of bandwidth for a single service on the internet, and they don't employ a popup to collect email addresses... and therefore conclude that nobody should use a popup to collect email addresses. This is equally absurd.
Remember you are not the best case when deciding what is effective at capturing your audience. You are more "internet savvy" or whatever...
Popups, email marketing, retargeted ads, et al are very, very effective means of capturing an audience online.