Would you disable sign up and just let everybody create?

Hi there!

I have a mini side project (https://thankfulsite.com), which is completely free to use, the only thing people have to do before using it is signing up, verifying their email and then logging in.

You can basically create a thankfulsite (4 pages with customizable pictures, texts and music), get a link a send it to others. An online gift thing.

I got a few suggestions that I should make it smoother by disabling authentication altogether, and yes this is a nice idea but I am worried about bots. I'm using a cheap shared hosting, and bots could shut down my site I guess.

And with authentication comes a profile, where you can see the sites you created, change password etc.

Would it improve the overall usage if I let anybody create sites without logging in? Maybe I could setup some honeypot, custom captcha etc.

Right now my main goal is to get as many users as I can, the only monetization there would be merchandise (T-shirts, mugs from Teespring).
I see this website as a learning project, I'm trying out marketing, managing users, improving UX, selling merch.

Any suggestions are very welcome!

Joseph

on November 7, 2020

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3

Do some A/B testing

ishfillet

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6 years ago
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Great product. Congratulations.

Have you thought about AB testing opening up the site but needing to sign up to share vs creating only after registering? Not sure how possible it is, but it'll give you some data on whether sessions convert to signups.

derk

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6 years ago
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  I see that is a good advice, but if I let anyone create a site, maybe bots and spammers would have an easier work.
  
  But you got me thinking!
  And thank you! :)
  
  Joseph
  
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  6 years ago
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I voted no, but I think you have some other options.

You can disable signup, but the pages don't get published until they do. That way people can start playing around with the product, but there is no value in having a bot sign up.

You can also smooth out the authentication by doing SSO with Google/Twitter/Github/etc. Makes it easier because the user doesn't feel like they need to make yet another username/password combination somewhere.

ProfessorBeekums

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6 years ago
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  Yes you're right, although I've never implemented google auth, I will give it a look.
  
  Thank you for your feedback!! :)
  
  Joseph
  
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  6 years ago
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try to use reCAPTCHA

kudymov

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6 years ago
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  I've read some reddit post about reCaptcha, and a lot of developers hate it for privacy(?) reasons.
  But I will take a closer look, thanks!
  
  Joseph
  
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  6 years ago
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Nice project idea!

Things to consider regarding authentication:
- Abuse could also happen with the account system.
- How would I edit one of my pages without an account? (Let's say I found a typo.)
- If an email is required for signup, you can use it to contact the user and bring him/her back to the app later (e.g. via a newsletter).
- If you keep the current system, I'd redirect users to the signup form instead of the login when they click the "Create" button. One click less for new users. Recurring users will be more willing to make that click.
- It might also work to let your users configure their sites and only prompt them for login/signup when they try to save/share it: "To save your site, please create an account or log in." That way, I can test your site builder right away and can create an account if I like it.
Other stuff:
- Do you display a "please support this project" message when the user has successfully created a site? If not, I'd consider adding it.
- Maybe add a donation option for people who do not want to spend $10+? Something like https://ko-fi.com?
nikwen

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6 years ago
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  Really good suggestions! Thanks for your time!!
  I especially liked when you said I should alert them to authenticate once their site is finished.
  
  Joseph
  
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  6 years ago
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    You're welcome! I wish you all the best for your project. :)
    
    nikwen
    
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    6 years ago
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This comment was deleted 2 years ago

DeletedUser

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6 years ago
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  Thank you for your detailed answer - much value in there.
  
  You're right, I will create a Cookie consent before letting GA collect any data.
  
  The Privacy Policy and Terms of conditions were actually generated by an automated website - although I read through it, I'm not really experienced in this so I didn't know it could be a GDPR problem.
  
  What would you say about this solution: no sign-up, but when completing the site, users should complete reCaptcha (to make sure they are not bots).
  And in the mean time, expanding the Privacy policy where I let the users know that I use GA and reCaptcha, which can collect data.
  
  And, of course, create a popup when visiting the site for accepting these policies(?).
  
  Joseph
  
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  6 years ago
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    This comment was deleted 2 years ago
    
    DeletedUser
    
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    6 years ago
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      I have heard about Plausible, I will consider using it.
      
      Man, thanks for all of this info.
      My biggest weakness in my knowledge in businesses is probably law and these kind of things. I like how simple you wrote this info.
      
      Are you a lawyer btw? Or did you learn all of these from somewhere? Would love to get some recommendations (blogs/books) if you don't mind!
      
      Anyway, thanks again.
      
      Joseph
      
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      6 years ago
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        This comment was deleted 2 years ago
        
        DeletedUser
        
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        6 years ago
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This comment was deleted 5 years ago

DeletedUser

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6 years ago
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  I see, thank you for your advice!!
  
  Joseph
  
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  6 years ago
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