Talk:Friend Spam

From Dark Patterns

Spam

You may need to change title of page to get rid of the s word

Failbetter

Request: I'm Alexis Kennedy from Failbetter Games, who run Echo Bazaar. The info here about our game contains some serious inaccuracies, and I'd like to request politely that it be removed.

(1) "When you first join the game, on the sign-up screen, the "Echo this message on your social network, once only:" tickbox is automatically checked. If you don't uncheck it, the site advertises itself on your Facebook or Twitter page."

This is not the case: the box is unchecked. (For a while we did leave it checked by default, but removed it because we were concerned that it goes against the spirit of our policy. This was some months ago, I believe.)

(2) "In the game itself, players are given ten actions per day, which are spent by performing the core activities of the game. Players are given the option to increase that to twenty actions per day, doubling their activity within the game [...] which will let you level up twice as quickly"

This is not, and has never been, the case. Players receive seventy actions actions a day by default. Echoing a link allows an extra ten actions. By design, this is a gentle inducement rather than a major bribe, to limit aggressively copious tweeting. I should note also that around a quarter of all echoes from the game are *entirely* elective, that is, the player has is using the function to share content which they find interesting and receiving no inducement at all.

(3) "Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People"

I submit that we don't at any point attempt to trick people. Our intent is not deceptive: (i) We have a prominent link on the home page, before a user signs up, that clearly explains what we do: http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Home/SocialNetworkPolicy (ii) It is not possible to echo any content to a Twitter or Facebook stream without an explicit user-initiated action, where a message is displayed that indicates exactly what is intended to happen. We've gone out of our way to make it clear what the effects are.

Thanks for reading. - Alexis

Edits made. But new players only start with ten actions, yes? So ten free actions for spamming their friends is a big deal, on day one.

Not sure what the site owner's definition of "designed to trick people" is, so I'll leave the decision to him/her, but "here, play this exciting new game, oh no, you've run out of actions very quickly, why not click this link to spam your friends?" seems like a design antipattern from here. --Brockley 01:25, 23 February 2011 (PST)

Friend Spam + Roadblock

Is there a category for an action which basically combines "Friend Spam" and "Road Block" into one? In other words, a site which forces visitors to tweet or post something in order to progress, be it in a game or to the next page in a website. Posting would be voluntary, so it is not quite "Friend Spam" as described on the current page, which seems to be more involuntary on the user's part, but it does force users to spam their friends. - SmudgeTheFirst 01:36, 2 February 2012 (PST)