Subscriber’s Remorse

I sign up for almost every web application/service available. I try the alphas and the betas. I use OpenID or create logins. My GMail is crammed with automated emails. Many of the services add social networking features. I add some of the same friend’s on almost every service.

I have user accounts on hundreds of websites. I am not claiming to be in the top 1% of early adopters either. I would venture I am in the top 50%. Off the top of my head I have tried, Social Median, Profy, Toluu, FriendFeed, Diigo, TripSay, TradeVibes, Jott, Xoopit, Yokway, RememberTheMilk, Skribit, Woopra, Newscred, Socialthing, Plaxo, Plurk, Identi.ca, and MyBlogLog many many others all in the last 6 months.

OpenID is a good idea. We all could use one less username and password combination to remember. But once you are signed up for the service my questions begin.

My remorse centers around several questions.

  • When I sign up for a service who owns the data? Can I get data out that I put in? – The most annoying would have to be Facebook and their strangehold on user data. But generally I want the ability to export any data I put in.
  • How many annoying emails will I receive? Can I effectively opt out of them? – If a startup begins without some set small set of options for email notifications I contend it is doomed for failure.
  • Can I block users on the service? Can I import contacts from other services? – The Hide function on FriendFeed makes it one of the most useful applications around. Functionality that allows the end user to customize their experience even a little is a brilliant benefit.
  • How do I quit the service all together? – What if the service is just not for me. I do not ever want another email about it. I just want to quit and be assured my data is destroyed.
  • Is the application just a proof of concept? Is active development taking place? – Toluu is my greatest example of this. Toluu enhancements have been implemented and rolled out so quickly that there is no doubt that the application is in active development. Let me reiterate I understand the effort that scalability and keeping an application running takes. The development must continue and readily be seen by the end user.

Have you ever had subscriber’s remorse?

Zemanta Pixie

9 thoughts on “Subscriber’s Remorse”

  1. I know what you mean, you sent me that invite to Xoopit and before I realized what I was doing I gave them my e-mail password and full access to my GMail account. It looks like a great service but I prefer my privacy over the added functionality. Luckily for me they have great customer service and are going to purge me from their system.

  2. I used to, Franklin. Now I am in a state of happy denial when I sign up for a new service.. I shrug and say, “Yay, a new adventure!” and off I go. I am pretty sure it will catch up to me sooner or later, but I'm having fun in the meantime.. lol

  3. Good post. I'm glad you tried out our service – we've been rapidly trying to scale, so the past few weeks haven't had that many obvious user-facing features added. But I'm excited to say that's all changing this week as we push out some great additions.

    As for emails, I hate getting spammy emails from new services I try out. The number of emails we've sent out users? 0. Yup zero. That's obviously bad from a marketing standpoint, we strongly believe in waiting until we have some real news that will add value to the user before we message them – simply emailing to remind them we are still here is not good enough. It won't always be zero, but I can assure you it will be close!

    BTW, congrats on getting on Louis Gray's list! Well deserved.
    Shafqat (Cofounder of NewsCred)

  4. I am in the same boat. I love trying almost all of the new web services that pop on the scene. My biggest concern is always around spam and hoping they continue to develop and make it more useful. It is also great to know there is a real person working on the service and that they are active in the communities where their users hang out.

    With Toluu we do our best to respond to feedback as quickly as possible and implement new functionality that will either make it easier or faster to discover new people or feeds. Going dark is a bad idea if you want users to continue to have faith in your app.

  5. Just use Gmail's filters to have social media messages skip the inbox and deal with them on a scheduled basis instead of right when they come in. It helps 🙂

  6. I used to, Franklin. Now I am in a state of happy denial when I sign up for a new service.. I shrug and say, “Yay, a new adventure!” and off I go. I am pretty sure it will catch up to me sooner or later, but I'm having fun in the meantime.. lol

  7. Good post. I'm glad you tried out our service – we've been rapidly trying to scale, so the past few weeks haven't had that many obvious user-facing features added. But I'm excited to say that's all changing this week as we push out some great additions.

    As for emails, I hate getting spammy emails from new services I try out. The number of emails we've sent out users? 0. Yup zero. That's obviously bad from a marketing standpoint, we strongly believe in waiting until we have some real news that will add value to the user before we message them – simply emailing to remind them we are still here is not good enough. It won't always be zero, but I can assure you it will be close!

    BTW, congrats on getting on Louis Gray's list! Well deserved.
    Shafqat (Cofounder of NewsCred)

  8. I am in the same boat. I love trying almost all of the new web services that pop on the scene. My biggest concern is always around spam and hoping they continue to develop and make it more useful. It is also great to know there is a real person working on the service and that they are active in the communities where their users hang out.

    With Toluu we do our best to respond to feedback as quickly as possible and implement new functionality that will either make it easier or faster to discover new people or feeds. Going dark is a bad idea if you want users to continue to have faith in your app.

  9. Just use Gmail's filters to have social media messages skip the inbox and deal with them on a scheduled basis instead of right when they come in. It helps 🙂

Comments are closed.