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Comment by darxius | Hacker News Reader

I would suggest having MUCH more information about what I'm signing up for before I actually hand over my information. All I know from the homepage and the about page is that its some form of Q&A website. You should have screenshots of what it looks like once you're logged in, better yet, let us see the questions without being logged in.

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Comments like this are almost always the top comment...yet people just can't seem to get the basics right. I'm not a designer, so I know it's much easier said than done, but what's up with the blatant refusal to learn from others' mistakes?

The fact that the top comment on HN posts is so often some sort of complaint or snarky remark is arguably a problem with HN itself. It's much broader than this post. It's the comment thread of analogue of the tendency of indignation-inducing stories to rise to the top of the frontpage.

Lame complaints may be a problem, but I'm not so sure about complaints in general.

A link like this exists to give you a one-sided case for using an app. Following that up with a counterpoint seems like the most informative way to proceed. I think the HN standard should be that comments of the form "This would likely improve your product" deserve to be voted up, while "Here's why this won't work" should be voted down.

Because the complaints are those of a vocal minority. Most people don't worry about "handing over" their information, viewing screenshots before they sign up, or if Facebook login is the only option.

Most people just aren't very picky.

I don't mind the handing over information part, but I will almost always leave a website that wants me to register without showing me what they do. It's laziness on my part, and I don't complain about it in public, I just don't sign up for those websites.

Sites like this are just throwing away users for no good reason.

It's not just about "handing over information"--the original question applies: what, exactly, am I signing up for? It just says "ask people questions."

Granted, there are "About" and "Privacy" links at the bottom of the page, but a few more sentences might be helpful.

I agree with your statement 100%, and yet I think even just a one sentence blurb would be really helpful in getting people to spend the time to bother waiting for another page to load: it doesn't have to be about "handing over" information... you still lose people in the conversion funnel by not enticing them to bother thinking about the next step.

if people don't get what your site provides or does in the first few seconds then more than likely they won't sign up. One reason so much time and effort is spent on A/B testing, to create an optimal page that will result in the most sign ups.

Hey all - thanks for all the comments. This is clearly something we can improve a lot on and we'll work on getting something pushed out. I appreciate everyone taking the time to let us know.

That's a good suggestion. You can click on a users profile image right now to see their current questions and answers, but the homepage could definitely use some improvement to show more information.

A list of users sorted by the follower count would be a very good step in a right direction.

Agreed.

More information is necessary. I'm really scared of signing up to something with my fb account without know exactly what for.

It's not a question of people jerking around the every topic like this, here in hacker news. It's an actual need that those who made the service didn't pay attention to.

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