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I agree that it's annoying, but I would like to see some data about conversions before I would say "Do not ever pull that 'Subscribe' pop-up crap." I have heard anecdotes to the effect that it's actually great for the publisher and it would be especially great to hear the results of site targetted to the HN crowd.

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Keeping a mailing list is great and super convenient, but there has to be a better way... For example, the inline Subscribe form is tucked all the way down as the last thing on the page.

I'm sure you'd get better conversion with it as the first thing at the top of the list, maybe with a pastel yellow background for the form.

It's sort of the same thing with pop-under ads or those video ads, sure you're likely going to get more clicks on those, but you've made your website look (1) sketchy (2) difficult to use and (3) undesirable to return to.

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