Note: I have no particular dislike of the website in question, in fact I read it on a regular basis, but what I’m about to talk about is a travesty. Although it does tie in rather nicely with a previous post of mine: Bloated Forms.
I was browsing one of my regular watering holes (water of knowledge, of course!) - The Server Side.Net - and I felt the overwhelming urge to make a reply in the forum. Registration was required, of course, so off to register I went. What followed was purely horrible on so many levels.
Step One
I was first presented with the rather humble request of entering my e-mail address, nothing un-expected here and to be honest, quite refreshing in its simplicity. I thought I may just receive an e-mail with a pre-generated password and that’d be it… but it wasn’t to be.
Step Two
Next was a list of ten check boxes for various newsletters I could subscribe to. I don’t know how many people actually use these “features” of registration forms, but I just wanted to register. If I wanted to receive newsletters I would opt-in from within my account once registered. In their defense, the checkboxes did at least default to false!
On a side note, how is it not understood that you should give the user as little to deal with as possible? Especially when you’re trying to get them to sign-up to your services, you should get them in as quickly as possible, no fuss, no mess and people won’t lose interest.
Step Three
This one is a whopper, scarily so. Baring in mind that all I want to do is make one post on their forum, this seems a tad excessive.
Firstly they want my first and last name, fair enough but I’d say even just my name, singular, would suffice. Next are my Company Name and my Title at said company, followed by my full address, postal code, telephone number and fax number. These are a bit odd, especially considering I might be unemployed and/or unwilling to disclose such information.
Based on what the next sections were, The Server Side are seriously interested in my company. They’re asking such in-depth questions as what my IT budget is, how many employees are at the company, how many of those are developers, the purchasing scope and the industry of my organisation. Woah. Who even knows that stuff? Never mind wants to disclose it.
Finally I get to choose which technologies are relevant to me, via another big list of checkboxes.
As if that huge list wasn’t bad enough, to put the proverbial icing on the cake, 90% of the fields are mandatory! Yes, even the IT Budget and Purchasing Scope. Absolute madness!
Step Four
Yes, there’s more. This is merely a finalisation of my e-mail and a password. Nothing fancy.
The End
When I encountered step three, all I thought of was targeted advertising; something I definitely do not want to be a part of. I’m shocked to be honest, it’s a sad state of affairs when so much information needs to be gathered just to allow simple forum/comment posting.
I didn’t make it past the form - The Server Side has lost my gems of wisdom.
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