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Comment by monix | Hacker News Reader

Other big players like Microsoft are doing it too. And that dialog can be worse:

    Do you like our app?

    <Yes, rate it> <Later>

It's also freaking annoying because it interrupts your workflow, the thing for which you ended up installing that stupid app in the first place. It's basically disrespectful of their users' time and needs.

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See also: the Windows 10 "upgrade" fiasco. It's as if they took their ethics lessons from the bully in _Calvin and Hobbes_: "Yes means no and no means yes. Do you want me to hit you?"

Medium does this too, no option to cancel. You can only click later. Tired of growth growth growth by all means...

That particular phrasing also discourages negative feedback.

I feel you... I do it in my app and I hate doing it, but it's a necessary evil. Way too many people see the comments/ratings as either a support board or a way of punishing bad apps but very rarely they give a good or even just decent review, without being asked.

It's not necessary at all.

> I feel you... I do it in my app and I hate doing it, but it's a necessary evil.

This is what makes the IT part of my heart die a little inside even more: when even the "good folks" in this industry feel like they have to do obnoxious things just to get ahead or keep up.

Folks, this is why the bigger arguments about competition or arbitration and so on always come back to the same point ("there's no meaningful choice"): Eventually, everyone winds up doing the same thing because it's the only way to simply not lose ground to the others who are doing the obnoxious-overall-but-good-for-just-me-in-the-short-term tricks. If I uninstalled every app that demanded this...well, I'd have very few apps. And that's even worse because it's just obnoxious enough to help the individual app developer but not so obnoxious as to spur people onto meaningful action, yet the annoyance is still present...always grating on nerves...disrupting just a little bit of productivity or happiness...needlessly.

Do not delude yourself: The “good folks” in the industry do not do this.

> when even the "good folks" in this industry feel like they have to do obnoxious things just to get ahead or keep up.

That's when you have to start thinking about regulation.

On the case of the Android store, regulation by Google. Their inaction is harming everyone.

> I feel you... I do it in my app and I hate doing it, but it's a necessary evil.

If we ever meet, I might ask you if you want to be hit in the face now or later. I hate doing it, but it's a necessary evil.

You may want to reconsider. I've had much better success with providing "Rate Now", "Rate Later", and "Leave Me Alone!" options. Even great apps are prone to bad reviews if the user is being prompted for the 5th time.

Like many users, I as well have fallen victim for having a temporary fit of rage and leaving a 1 star review with a 1 liner of nonconstructive feedback for an otherwise useful app.

As if to say "Fine, you want it? Here's your god damn review!"

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