Help us test a new subscription technology: webpass

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#1418953 2-Nov-2015 16:19

Out of curiousity, is there any reason the giant orange "help test an ads-free Geekzone" banner appears to those who subscribe and therefore do not actually see ads anyway?

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#1418957 2-Nov-2015 16:20

Because it's an alternative for them to see if it works? It's not mandatory, for sure.

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#1419028 2-Nov-2015 17:32

Thanks for signing up to Webpass.io. I've noticed that you haven't completed the final step of setting up our plugin with your browser.

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#1420588 4-Nov-2015 11:46

freitasm: Cookies + JS + AJAX requires much more changes to the website code than the plugin, which can be just an additional check on the backend, as we've done.

Yes, it absolutely is, but it makes user adoption a "just signup to webpass" process. I don't know if webpass have done stats on their funnel but I'd wager real money that for less geeky audiences than geekzone, they will lose users at the "install a browser extension" step. Especially if the users are on mobile browsers that don't support extensions.

Making a cookies+JS+AJAX system that has good performance and is easy to use for website owners is an engineering problem, but it's not insurmountable.

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#1420597 4-Nov-2015 11:54

But then you have things in the client-side which can be bypassed by some GreaseMonkey script...

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#1420601 4-Nov-2015 11:59

freitasm: But then you have things in the client-side which can be bypassed by some GreaseMonkey script...

From the user's perspective, the competition to Webpass is site-specific subscriptions, other "subscribe to the web" services, and ad blockers. Why fake a webpass check when you could just run an adblocker?

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#1420606 4-Nov-2015 12:03

You are missing the other use cases. A site might offer more features to subscribers than just ad removal.

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#1420617 4-Nov-2015 12:16

I think there's things to be said in favour of both directions. There are good and bad things about each choice (just plugin; just cookies+js; both). In engineering, seldom is there an option that gives you everything. Each choice involves a tradeoff, and you need to balance those tradeoffs with the benefits.

By requiring a plugin, we are (as you say) taking a risk that adoption will be lower. Hopefully though, people are not as worried by a plugin now, having become used to using at least an adblocker. We can help this by making the plugin installation as simple as possible (we could make it, for example, that one just install the plugin and it's done -- no need to even sign in -- single click install, and done).

This also gives us the advantages that freistasm points out. Whatever extras websites want to offer to subscribers, that can't easily be overridden, since there is no need to trust the client.

If we provide both methods, we'd have two classes of users, with different feature sets for each. That makes our service more complicated, which can also turn users away. It also means we can't count on our subscribers having access to certain features. This isn't a big deal now, but as I mentioned, we have other unannounced features that will require a plugin to work with trust.

But this is something we will monitor to see if it is costing us too many users by requiring a plugin.

One Subscription. Many Websites. No ads. https://webpass.io

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#1421574 5-Nov-2015 12:14

Server is currently down while I make some changes. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Edit: back up again.

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#1425998 11-Nov-2015 10:04

Just got an email about the webpass.io subscription has been renewed (with $0.00), @freitasm is it still being trialled? (If so, thank you for the renewal).

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#1426002 11-Nov-2015 10:08

Yes, it's on trial until further notice.

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#1432211 21-Nov-2015 14:44

Thanks so far to everyone here who has been helping us test, it's been great!

The next step is for us to allow people to sign up to paid plans, and start supporting partnering sites financially, in return for no ads (that most likely means geekzone for you, for now). The payment system is live, but restricted to only a limited number of users. I'm looking to find two or so more testers who are interested in and willing to go on a paid plan now.

If you let me know either here, or email support at webpass.io, then I'll add your account to the list, and set your free subscription to end within a couple of days so that it will renew under the paid plan.

Thanks again for your help, and if you have any other feedback on your experience so far, I'd love to hear from you (email me if you wish).

One Subscription. Many Websites. No ads. https://webpass.io