just to get it out of the way: yes, i know i can use a spam email/phone number. yes, i know i can opt out of promotional emails/texts. that doesn’t make it any less frustrating. i don’t need a growing list of empty accounts for websites i only spend an hour (or less) browsing through. don’t even get me started on restaurants that ask for your phone number when you scan their QR code…
I don’t like signing in to random websites cause sometimes they make you agree to questionable TOS and Privacy Policies
Absolutely. Especially when they start emailing you every day.
Reader mode, that often works
If not, leave or do Apple “hide my email”, verify, kill the temp email acct.
Probably a good time to plug bugmenot.com.
Almost useless. Now most sites send a magic login link to the email (which you can’t read) and if the user accidentally used a mailinator public mailbox and you can get the link, the account is banned anyway
never encountered any working credentials from that site
I actually successfully used it for zillow the other day just to find some info on a house near me.
Its like every website nowadays needs your every identifying information to even just browse their site.
Yeah, it’s getting annoying. The website says the content is free? Then why do I need an account to access it? If it is free, then I should be able to view it or download it without any restrictions.
Anyone use sites like bugmenot? Please post alternatives.
Yes sign up for Medium to ready by essay about it
These are websites I immediately leave. The majority of these are set-up simply to get your contact information so they can market to you.
they ask me to make an account, I close the tab and go on to something else.
Me too.
Curiously, I’m not at all tired of websites that make me create an account to use them, probably because they’re the fastest to get through of all websites.
As a side note, I’ve worked in B2C Smartphone Apps at one point, and in the customer acquisition pipeline forcing people to create an account in order for them to use your app (and should be the same for websites) is one of the best ways to lose a huge percentage of potential customers (depending on the situation, we’re taking over 80% of people dropping at that point).
This. Also, when I use Firefox, uBlock Origin (or when I use Safari, Wipr2) usually blocks these prompts, so I don’t see them as much. When I do see them, I just go elsewhere.
when google asks me to prove i’m human, I go to DDG
this is the exact reason I switched the default on my phone to ddg
it’s usually slightly worse (which is shocking with how bad Google itself has gotten) but good enough. “don’t annoy me” is my lowest baseline
Try something like Degoog or Startpage, you might like them
thanks for the recc’s!
Hint: you can eliminate a step by not using Google’s products.
Waterfox has been working well for me so far
Same, but I sometimes use BugMeNot.
This is the way
I am beyond sick of it. If they make me sign up for a bullshit account, they don’t get my business.
A restaurant with a QR code instead of a menu, I walk out of. One that requires a kiosk or app to order, same thing.
I have a zero tolerance for marketing e-mails & text. I block/spam every single one.
I had a $2.13 medical lab bill last week that wanted me to make an account including jumping through hoops to prove my identity etc… to pay them! They got a check in the mail.
Restaurant menus make sense. It’s easier for them to maintain any changes and it’s easier for you to get the order right. If it lets you pay, that’s also easier and faster than being held up by a waiter who has no interest in getting you to leave the table.
I’ve never had to sign up for anything when using such a menu.
First (and last) time I ever used a QR code on the table. We walked in, sat ourselves at an empty table. No sign of any staff. Ordered ourselves via their QR code. It was self service drinks even. Literally the only thing the server did was carry a couple plates from the kitchen to our table then we never saw them again.
The order required prepayment and added 15% tip by default.
Tired of that and tired of downloading a proprietary fucking app for everything.
It is a really good filter for me, any company that wants to harvest the bogus information I will use to access them had better do a good job of convincing me it’s worth the effort.
I have a similar take on online stores wanting me to create a login to get a shipping cost, unless they are offering a truly unique item, or outrageously good price I just don’t buy anything from them.
If we all had a similar standards these bits of UX fuckery would disappear over time, unfortunately most people don’t even think about it.
The reason why is because google lets you sign in from their account, so they don’t have to make a new account, just hit the share on the google thing.
No filling out forms then verifying email, which would severely lessen the number of people that would sign up.
When youtube tells me to verify my age, I ex out of youtube. Pretty convenient their protection of children yields them official receipt of commercially valuable information that they can make more money off of.
I’m definitely the same with online stores. I can go to the grocery store and buy shit without an account, wtf do i need one to buy online for? There’s just about always another site that’ll sell it to you without one.
Only if I am simply trying to look at the site. It makes perfect sense that I would need an account to post, reply, vote, etc. Requiring a log in just to browse is ridiculous.
tell that to tumblr and deviantart. you want to look around? too bad, sign up! such a pain in the ass.
I haven’t been on DeviantArt in years, so if that changed I never noticed.
I do often browse Tumblr without being logged in, tho. It just has a banner asking you to login or sign up the entire time. Doesn’t actually require doing so.
this is what deviantart does:
as for tumblr, i’ll get the same prompt after a certain point.
Many companies use workday for the job application process, which wants an account. Workday is a steaming pile of garbage.
I cannot stand how they operate over there. I currently have six different Workday accounts, for six different companies. With each, I’ve had to upload my resume and re-create my profile, filling in my experience, education, etc… because their parser blows.
Paychex sucks ass too. And bill.com same thing, had multiple accounts because they can’t figure their shit out.
The worst is when Workday parses your resume wrong and you know you’re gonna have to make the same corrections on every site because God forbid they allow you to upload some different format that is easily machine readable.
Workday also gets mad if your resume has “special characters” in it, like quotation marks. Why they can’t sanitize input themselves, I don’t know. Presumably incompetence.
