Escape into the Net

29/04/2006 - Come see my adventures in cyberspace. This blog may tend to have a technical slant to it at times. At others, something I find interesting that I think should be noted rather than one of my other journals. Old description:Come read some accounts of my online adventures in cyberspace, at times you'll cross over into the real world with me too.

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Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada

Friday, December 02, 2005

Good article from Paul Graham ....At Y Combinator we advise all the startups we fund never to lord it over users. Never make users register, unless you need to in order to store something for them. If you do make users register, never make them wait for a confirmation link in an email; in fact, don't even ask for their email address unless you need it for some reason. Don't ask them any unnecessary questions. Never send them email unless they explicitly ask for it. Never frame pages you link to, or open them in new windows. If you have a free version and a pay version, don't make the free version too restricted. And if you find yourself asking "should we allow users to do x?" just answer "yes" whenever you're unsure. Err on the side of generosity.

In How to Start a Startup I advised startups never to let anyone fly under them, meaning never to let any other company offer a cheaper, easier solution. Another way to fly low is to give users more power. Let users do what they want. If you don't and a competitor does, you're in trouble."