SubscribeIs user registration really required?
At MashupCamp I had a long discussion with Gabe Rivera. Gabe is the brilliant mind behind Memeorandum, my favorite memetracker.
I spent half an hour listening to Gabe convience me that user registration is evil, and I should get rid of it. He didn’t actually use the word evil, he just said a lot of things that made sense. And he’s right. There must be a better way.
His idea has been haunting me for the past couple of weeks. How do I get rid of user registration? How can I make co.mments useable without it?
Why user registration?
Let me first explain why we ask people to register in the first place. It’s not because we want to make your life harder. Comment tracking should be as simple as possible.
It’s not because we want your e-mail address. You already get more spam than you care for, which is why co.mments has a no-spam policy. We’re not here to bother you, we’re here to make your life easier.
We only ask for e-mail in case you forgot your password, so we can send you a new one. And right here is the prolem. You need to create a username and password, and then you need to remember to use them.
Why?
Let’s say you use Internet Explorer at work to track conversations. And then you go home and use Firefox on a different computer to track the same conversations. Or maybe you use a PDA or your cell phone. I use two browsers and a cell phone, so I have that problem.
Because they are all different browsers, there’s no easy way to identify you. To recognize when you are using co.mments so we can serve you the right conversations.
So user registration is inevitable, if you want to use different computers or different browsers.
Is this a problem for you?
A lot of people, like Gabe, don’t care. You use the same computer and browser all the time. Or you use co.mments for disposable feeds. For you, registration is a burden. No value.
So let’s say we get rid of user registration. You still use the bookmarklet to track new conversations. You still use your feed reader to follow the conversations. You can use the tracking page, all without ever logging in. It works because it recognizes your browser.
There’s a downside. You can’t use more than one computer or more than one browser to track the same conversations. If your computer crashes, it’s tricky to retrieve the conversations you’re already tracking.
So the best solution, is to let people register for an account if they need to, and let people use co.mments without registration if they want to. The best of both worlds.
So what’s the problem?
Say you do have an account, but you happen to be logged out. You bookmark a new conversation, which gets added to a tracking list associated with your browser, not your account. Then you log in, and … no conversation. Where did it go? What happened? How do you get it back?
That’s a problem. I think I have a solution, it’s not perfect, but it can help you retrieve the conversation. It will make life easier for people who don’t want to register, but might be tricky for those who do need an account. It’s been bugging me for a week, and I’m still working out the kinks.
Meanwhile, I want to get you all involved and hear what you think. Is this useful? Would it make your life better? Are you worried about losing conversations?
Posted by Assaf in General on Thursday, March 9th, 2006. You can follow any responses using co.mments, leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
SterlingCamden
March 9th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I don’t mind registration — it beats losing threads if I’m not logged in or using a different computer/browser.
Assaf
March 11th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
After playing with it for a few days, I realize how much I like the no-registration feature. It so simple to get a taste for co.mments before deciding to register, or just for occassional use.
The registration will not go away. I definitely intend to keep it around. You’re right it “beats losing threads”. Also, there are some features that require registration.
It’s just a way to make it easy for occassional user, and powerful for more demanding users, without compromise.
Jeff Clavier
March 19th, 2006 at 2:46 am
Yes, it is if you want to store personal information that have to be retrieved on another machine, from another group account,… At the same time, you want to make sur that users have a minimal level of friction in trying your service.
Assaf
March 19th, 2006 at 2:59 am
I’m hoping this will turn out to be the best of both worlds.
eduo
March 30th, 2006 at 4:19 am
What I find amusing is that people don’t like registration yet 95% of all comments in blogs require an email address. I’m guessing those complaining won’t be putting their real addy there.
For me there is a middle ground that can be achieved. You currently have anonymous pages for ephemeral tracking (that is, you will lose the threads if you don’t delete your cookies, which you probably do frequently if you’re anal about user registration) and you have pages for full-on registration.
What’s the middle ground? Either allow for user registration without e-mail (implementing a question/answer challenge, for example) or to allow for generic user registration which will expire if not used in a set amount of time. In both you create a username/pass. In the first you get your password back by answering the challenge question, in the second you NEVER get your password back. If you forget it then it’s your fault and the account will be deleted in a week if it’s not used (or two weeks, whatever time you think you can handle dead data in your servers).
That would work and to me feels like a comfortable middle ground that, added to the two current tracking modes (email-registered user and anonymous) would cater for everyone.
Assaf
March 30th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Keeping accounts in the database doesn’t cost much, so there’s no reason to delete them. But, nobody likes to lose their data because they forgot their password, and the easiest solution is to just remember your e-mail and use it to send back a password if you forgot it.
eduo
March 31st, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Assaf: And it’s as easy or even more to answer a question to get your password reset. Even easier and better if you’re obsessive about giving your email address, which is the whole point of the post.
Assaf
April 1st, 2006 at 9:11 pm
There’s already a challenge/response mechanism: it’s the password. The e-mail is only there in case you forgot the answer and need to retrieve it.
I’m not happy about the practice of companies spamming users who submit their e-mail address. I get that spam all the time, I don’t appreciate it and have no plan to inflict that punishment on co.mments users.
But if you are concerned, there’s a simple solution that works with just about any Web service out there. Email is free. I just setup an e-mail account for the sole purpose of retrieving passwords. I don’t care how much it gets spammed, I only ever read the last e-mail I send to myself and ignore the rest.
co.mments.com » Blog Archive » New Login System and Some Cleanup
July 24th, 2006 at 10:25 am
[…] I developed co.mments for my own personal use, and when I decided to make it a free service, I wrote a login system so you can register for a free account. A few weeks later, Gabe Rivera convinced me to let people use co.mments without registering for an account. So I added that feature as well. I love it. […]
Paul Slinger
November 30th, 2006 at 8:50 am
Hello
There needs some registration on these things.
Paul Slinger
Manchester