

Why we ask people to sign in (Quora) - gergles
http://ghost.quora.com/Why-we-ask-people-to-sign-in

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mmorett
Unless things have changed recently, Quora requires users to sign in to simply
_read_ a post. The problem with that should be obvious. A user is not there to
serve Quora. Quora is (theoretically) there to serve the user.

Users not familiar with Quora (i.e. outside the SV bubble) may not have any
idea what Quora is, or what value it provides. Upon stumbling on a link from
Google, they click it, are sent to Quora and are _immediately_ asked to create
an account. Or maybe Quora will show a portion of the post or a few comments,
but you have to establish an account to read more.

Quora is essentially asking to have sex without a first date.

At its core, Quora is (roughly) Stack Overflow: knowledgeable answers to
questions, albeit across a broader spectrum of topics. There's good stuff in
there. I established an account about a year ago. But when I'm presented with
a prompt to log in to simply read something, I don't. And yet I have an
account. I simply move on. I can't explain it but it feels offensive, like I'm
being gamed.

Stack Overflow and HN provide enormous value to lurkers. I barely comment on
things here on HN...but I visit daily. Multiple times a day. Every day.

When I feel the need to comment on HN, I log in. It's actually a pretty simple
concept that somehow eludes Quora. One can't help but question why are they so
insistent on requiring a user to log in to simply read. Reading is not
participating. It is consuming. Imagine requiring a user to login to read a
blog post. That's crazy.

There is some motive to requiring a user to login to read. I don't know what
it is, but it feels wrong. At the very least, it's not user-friendly. They are
discouraging visits and turning people away.

The closest example I can think of to requiring a user to sign in to consume
content is Twitter. Somehow it feels different, maybe because Twitter is a
microphone for anything you want to say vs. writing up an intelligent answer
to a question (or asking a question). Folks can spout out nonsense on Twitter.
And part of it is gossip/entertainment. That content won't fly on Quora which
desires quality content.

I don't know. That's just one perspective.

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minimaxir
My rule of thumb with startups: if a UX interaction seems intrusive or
unintuitive, it's probably "growth hacking."

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ScottWhigham
What a waste of a post. There is absolutely no "meat" in that post; it's all
marketing fluff. Boo. Like minimaxir said, it's probably growth hacking.

