The lure of exclusivity | Hacker News Reader

The lure of exclusivity

11kclub.com

20 pointssw00724 comments

I've built a number of private online communities over the years and have experimented with language around exclusivity and scarcity enough to know that it works well to draw interest where it was previously difficult to get people to pay attention.

I've often wondered why more startups don't try to build some sense of exclusivity to the sign-up process. Everyone is so focused on removing the barriers to sign-up and getting the user to improve their vanity metrics. Getting quality users by creating barriers to entry can be a tactic as well...

But wasn't there like a beta "craze" up until a few years ago? Like when Gmail launched, Google Buzz and a many other sites and services that are long forgotten by now.

It certainly can work if the product is really attractive. But my suspicion is, that standing in line for an underwhelming experience might even amplify negative effects as the personal investment to gain that knowledge was substantially higher.

Quality users move on, status chasers move in.

Such a simple idea but I'm looking forward to see how it goes ( I have signed up ).

One feedback though. You brand this as something exclusive ( only 11K people ) but in the "Welcome mail" after I signed up you ask me to share it with my friends... Isn't that counter intuitive? If I want to be "selected" the less competition there is, the better so I shouldn't share it.

Thanks, and thanks for signing up. I appreciate it.

I can see how that may be confusing. And yes you are right - but we are hoping that as much as you want to get in, you will also want to join the club with your wife/husband/brother/sister/friend - a lot of clubs, no matter what they are, are more fun if the experience is shared (in my opinion).

thanks again..

You could limit the number of invites that a new customer could offer to be 1 or 2. It might even make them more likely to invite somebody because an invite appears to have greater value. Worth an A/B test at least imho.

Perhaps topically relevant:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarcity_value

"Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."

Would be interested to hear some product insight on how you guys think the 11kclub product compares with "Lily Cole's Impossible".

I hadn't heard of this story. Just looking at it now and will get back to you. At a first glance it seems we place more emphasis on bartering and exclusivity but looks like she's done a great thing. Thanks for sharing this - look forward to reading up on her project.

I tried signing up but I got this error: "a general error has occurred"

Sorry about this - we'll take a look. Can I ask What browser you are using?

Firefox

Ugh, for 111kclub I'd expect a much more specific, exclusive error. I can get a general error anywhere.

Maybe members-only get to see the exciting details of the error?

Interesting - anyone got the link to the original HN discussion?

I can share that with you (co-founder) - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4323459 - as I say, we wanted to create the illusion that we'd stumbled across it so that we got genuine sign up's. Alas, people found out who we were so we apoligised and held our hands up. Our intentions were always good and we felt it important to include that experience in our journey because we learnt a lot that day.

Thanks sw007 - well done for keeping calm and not rising to some of the comments in the thread. Good luck!

Thanks :) They were right I guess in that maybe we were not honest enough but at least our intentions have proved to be good. As I say, it was a good lesson. A sad night - we felt like the experiment was over a little bit - but ultimately it did us good.

The whole reason this is stupid is you are just trying to prove a point that has been well established. Facebook has proven exclusivity works already, we don't need clones just to prove the same well known thing over and over. Why don't I start the 5,20,100k club to see if this effect works at different levels! Because who cares! Solve a problem, build something useful, not just because.

This is such a dumb idea it blows my mind. Create something useful.

Thanks for the constructive feedback...

Meant to be honest not constructive, constructive is do something else.

I just don't see how that comment can possibly be worthwhile. If you don't like it, if you think it is rubbish, then fair enough. But we have spent a lot of time building a product we are proud of, building a community of great people and have aims that we think are worthwhile. I am not asking you to sign up - if you hate it, you hate it - don't sign up, it's pretty simple. Whilst I am on my soapbox - go build a product that doesn't suck and then come back to us and then I may care what you have to say..

So you do not want to be part of it? No news here. Honesty without a reason CAN be worthless.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com