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Comment by winslow | Hacker News Reader

Was anyone else put off by the link github/enlist to continue after only two brainteasers? I felt like I was just starting to get really engaged in using the site and enjoying it, to only have a "paywall type obstacle" in the way and take away my good vibe feeling. Maybe rephrasing enlist to something like login to track your progress would be better?

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Thanks for the feedback winslow - we didn't mean to dampen your vibe. The idea is as the challenges get harder we want to make sure you get ones you care about (interest area, difficulty) - that's a good idea on rephrasing it, we could make that more apparent and give more challenges before requiring signup.

Critique really helps us improve, we love hearing it, everyone should feel free to reach out: nathan@codewars.com

A bit more feedback:

In chrome 32.0.1700.77, clicking join did nothing, it only scrolled to the top of the page.

Also, I'd love to see a quick video introduction. I like the concept.

I also had issues creating an account.

That's unfortunate - just shoot me an email and we'll hook you up: nathan@codewars.com

Same here. Some points:

- Navigation feels weird.

- The main call to action should be "Try Codewars" instead of "Join Codewars" so it'd feel like "no compromise just try it", also it'd be clearer that you can actually try it out before signing up. I agree that the teaser should be longer than the 2 small exercises.

- The webcam in the monitor kinda creeps me out and draws my attention away from the important stuff.

Good point on the text - we'll make an update... The landing page navigation?

The webcam comment had me laughing for a few minutes. Never really noticed, but it's an easy fix.

Yep the landing page navigation, I actually didn't notice there was more to it than the landing page. I felt kinda lost in the landing page cause there's no much else than the "Join us" thing. I'm a programmer, my eyes have been trained to ignore marketing copy and search for code examples and documentation.

Thanks - glad you like the concept. A video intro is a cool idea, we'll look into it.

The join button just isn't clear enough, when it scrolls up it's just taking you to the challenges on the monitor, since you signup through there.

Thanks, a couple people here also seem confused by the join button, perhaps take it to a sign-up form, or change the join button text to be a little more descriptive of what you want the user to accomplish.

You sure it's not so you can email us every day to pester us into coming back to your site?

Very sure... we promise we won't pester you. We send a weekly newsletter with challenges, but you can opt-out if it doesn't interest you.

Well, they are programmers, I think they are more than conscious about how we (others too, but especially programmers) feel about that! Also, we can always pest them back with auto response filters[1] :-)

[1]: A Croatian (I'm Croatian, too) website made me submit my email for a Web purchase, but they started sending newsletters they have no unsubscribtion mechanism, and they send the newsletter from <newsletter id>-newsletter@..., which I could filter and send to spam (which I also do) , but instead, I forward the email back to them and also send a reply that I'd like to stop receiving these emails. Ironically, they asked me on a few occasions to stop emailing them, I simply respond with the same reply they sent me when I asked to be unsubscribe: "It's automatic, there's nothing I can do about it." There's always a way to fuck with those who try to fuck with you. :-)

Sounds sort of like a quine e-mail.

Of course, I know you didn't mean to dampen the vibe. I really love the site and the love idea as it got my brain thinking which is why I was really bummed to see a forced login. Obviously you want to track progress, difficulty, and customize per user which is understandable and smart. I could be an outlier to the enlist statement/requirement so please grab other data points on this subject ;)

Keep up the good work on it!

Thanks Winslow - glad to hear you love the site!

We want to make sure to keep the intrigue and flow going. So we're seriously thinking about how we can open more challenges while balancing it with a customized experience, great advice. Appreciate the help.

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