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If you refuse to sign up to sites, you aren't giving them a fair chance.

The only people who give a startup a truly fair chance are the founders' parents. Everyone else skims, misreads, jumps around, and then tells their friends about a verdict formed mostly on misconceptions.

Great consumer businesses optimize for this behavior.

That was really insightful. Where's the Temple Grandin[1] of designing web experiences and UIs for Joe Blub? Complaining about not getting a chance to show off what you do is just complaining about your poor understanding of the behavior of the internet herd that's trampling all over your website or app. Stop whining, start designing. See also Luke Wroblewski's ALA article "Sign Up Forms Must Die"[2] from nearly 3 years ago and compare[3].

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin

2. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/signupforms

3. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5271434/ns/business-consumer_new...

I disagree. When site doesn't let me view what is behind the login page (what will I gain after the sign up) or even doesn't give me any idea about what the site is all about (like in the case of Google's HotSpot), then I don't have any reason to sign up...

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