

Follow buttons and the logged out user - julien
http://blog.superfeedr.com/follow-buttons-logged-out-users/

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aaronbasssett
> Fred Wilson coined the term over 2 years ago

What? No. That's ridiculous. For as long as people have used the phrase
"logged in" there have been logged out users. A simple Google search for the
phrase turns up a thread† from 8 years ago, and that's certainly not the first
either. Coined the term? Really?

† [http://www.unix.com/unix-advanced-expert-
users/25178-who-9-c...](http://www.unix.com/unix-advanced-expert-
users/25178-who-9-command-shows-logged-out-users.html)

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NoodleIncident
I habitually hover over links before clicking them to see the url in the
status bar.

It _deeply_ unsettles me when I see a button for which this tactic doesn't
work. Rationally, I know there's no difference; you could have an
href="example.com" and just capture clicks to do whatever you want.
Nevertheless, it still spooked me enough to stop me from clicking the button.

~~~
julien
That's a very good point. I think we can do that by setting up a href on the
<a> will still return false on the onlick. right?

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adyus
The solution proposed seems interesting, but still requires an account with a
third party, in this case the feed reader (if not online, a downloaded native
app).

Given the nature of self-updating browsers and devices being permanently with
or around users, I suggest something else.

Let me follow whoever I want without creating an account, store these
preferences in localStorage, then use it to build a news feed on the home
page, just like a logged in user.

Then, unobtrusively suggest other features that can only be made available to
signed up users, due to technical constraints.

(No, notifications are not such features; a browser extension that checks
localStorage and raises browser notifications a la Chrome should be enough for
non-logged in users).

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christophe971
Sidenote: They updated their WP plugin today as well
[http://wordpress.org/plugins/subtome/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/subtome/)

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julien
I hope HN had a follow button too :)

