Comment by chimprich | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chimprich | Hacker News Reader

One pattern I've seen recently that's been increasingly prevalent (but I haven't seen discussed anywhere) is of a form where a site gives you two options in a dialog box along the lines of:

Would you like to sign up to our newsletter? o [[[ OK!! ]]] o No I'm an idiot and I don't want to save money or hear about the latest job offers that may change my life

(Exaggerated slightly.)

I'm not sure this if this technically counts as a dark pattern as it's fairly transparent but I find it is very annoying because it is an attempt to force a user to state an opinion they probably don't hold if they don't want to sign up for whatever service.

I assume it does work or it wouldn't spread so widely but exploiting people's reluctance to criticise themselves seems quite unpleasant: I imagine this affects people with the weakest self-esteem the most.

From a previous HN discussion...IMO, obnoxious and genius.

http://confirmshaming.tumblr.com/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11855787

I'd be more willing to call it genius if it weren't so popular with sites that can't deliver. Forcing people to click "I don't want to get rich" when your site is pushing crappy stock tips just seems like a way to make users hate you.

I would argue that it's a dark pattern if that's the only way past the form.

A lot of sites using that technique also let you click an X button or click the darkened non-form area to continue. If that's supported, I always choose it as a tiny protest (in hopes that someone actually profiles how click-outs are happening).

If you make users click something obnoxious and self-deprecating to continue, then I'd certainly call that a dark pattern. It's like an incredibly mild version of the cult tactic where you shame people for skepticism.

>A lot of sites using that technique also let you click an X button or click the darkened non-form area to continue. If that's supported, I always choose it as a tiny protest (in hopes that someone actually profiles how click-outs are happening).

I click the X/non-form area because I'm too lazy to read the text and figure out which of the buttons won't lead me to another form/sign me up/whatever.

If they ever start making that X the "haha, got you" I'll have to start paying more attention. That'll suck.

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