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Comment by sigmar | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why it prompts me to invite other people after putting me in line. Why would I email/tweet my friends to join this service if it isn't even ready for me? Seems rude to bother a friend with joining an internet line just so that I can get a better position in the line.

I love signal on android and have been looking forward to this, kind of rubs me the wrong way when I'm put in "line"

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I think it might be related to a restriction google groups has (https://twitter.com/liliakai/status/672219521654980608) "Waiting for Signal Desktop beta access? Know any googlers who can lift the 100-person daily limit on google group invites?"

> kind of rubs me the wrong way when I'm put in "line"

Made even more fun by the fact that unless you spam your friends with a useless link, you get to watch the number of people ahead of you climb.

I started out at ~600, and now I'm at ~1200.

The app is still in beta testing. I think this is their way to drum up support.

Forces all the die-hards who want in to try and get some people interested.

An app like this is only as useful as the number of people who use it.

Invite them to... not use it? That seems like a solid way to turn people off from using a service, not a way get them excited about it.

I don't feel strongly about the practice either way, but you're also indirectly prioritizing users who are most willing to share the product. So they're hoping their early users are also those most willing to spread. The "connectors" of the products ecosystem.

You're prioritizing users who are willing to spam their friends about a product they can't even use.

I would be _far_ more likely to tell my friends about the product if I could actually use it and be able to vouch for it (as I have with the mobile version of TextSecure/Signal).

Forcing me to get my friends to visit a page where they will find out about an application they can't even use is just annoying.

Ya, but it could go the way of Wave by not actually having people use it too.

In the same vein, the signup form allows you to trivially tell who and roughly when someone has signed up for the beta.

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