For a simple webapp like this, please don't make me get a twitter account/sign in to use.
Generate a unique URL for me to use, or hash my email address or something like that. Reduce friction, I want to be able to use this with 1 click.
Generate a unique URL for me to use, or hash my email address or something like that. Reduce friction, I want to be able to use this with 1 click.
i believe you're genuinely trying to be helpful with your suggestions, but comments like this reminds me of the vocal 0.1% of users who exercise troublesome preferences like disabling javascript, or installing ad-blocking plugins that break half the web, (which is fine!), but then complain that their (pathological) preferences prohibit them from enjoying the experience (which is not so helpful).
feedback like, "i can't be bothered to log in to give you feedback because i don't like your login" isn't great feedback. it might even be viewed as a sign to you that you're not the intended user. yet.
Why do I need to sign up for a microblogging platform to use a completely unrelated calendar app???
Anyway, my comments about reducing friction aren't based on my own preferences, they're based on dozens of multivariate split tests I have conducted across many thousand unique visitors.
Every single time, forcing the user to sign up, login, enter their email or anything of the sort before getting to use the site SIGNIFICANTLY decreases engagement, time on site, conversions, and pretty much every other metric you should care about.
The only way that would make sense is if beta testers don't have Twitter accounts, since OAuthing with an existing account reduces friction. Twitter's been around for four years and seems fairly well established among early adopters like HN readers, so counting on a critical mass of beta testers to have Twitter accounts hardly seems a stretch, even if those users aren't very active tweeters.
i for one was very glad not to need to enter an email address, pick a login name, etc; the oauth process handled that for me. ymmv
I was also pleasantly surprised when my login information was handled automatically as well.
Eh? I wanted to try this product out, but I don't have a Twitter account. In fact, I deleted it a few months ago. Now I have to create a new account just to use a (admittedly sorely needed) Seinfeld calendar? No thanks, I'll just use Vim and a text file.
I realize Streak.ly is a free application, so I have no right to complain. What bothered me about your comment was the assumption that everyone on the Internet should have a Twitter account.
> "i'm sure kyle will get around to supporting other login methods eventually."
I bet he will. But by the time he has a simpler login set up, people would have forgotten about Streak.ly altogether. The average Internet user (read: me) is a fickle being.
honestly, i'd prefer to have my own sign-in for your service and i think many other people would, too.
comments like yours remind me of the 0.1% of lazy programmers who would rather tell users that they're pathological than spend the day it would take to implement and test a simple user registration and sign-in system for people who would prefer that over using twitter sign-in. i, personally, will not be a customer of your service because of your customer service! :-)
Because there sure as shit isn't any way I will just give some random website my google account - they get a dummy email forward, just like everybody else.
Yes - I also do the dummy email forward. I agree about not giving random sites your google account. So create a dummy google account.
If you absolutely must, then use OpenId. It is was pretty much made for that (and it works with twitter, facebook, gmail, your mom, etc).