[throwawayswede]

> To give some context, we indeed make these "side projects" hoping to drive signups and engagements to our core projects (Mailbrew and Typefully), but we always do them with the same care of main project, focusing on utility and user experience.

Doesn't seem like it's done with the same level of care though. I checked the other projects, and although Typefully for example follows almost the exact same aggressive flyover popup thing that obstructs interaction with the background before getting that number counter to flip one more time via a sign up, it still has the "try instead" link.

FeedMage still does not. For a service that was built in 2 weeks, adding a tiny hide button shouldn't take more than 3 days.

While you're free to do whatever you see fit for your business and brand, I'm just letting you know that people pick up on this. IMO tactics and darkpatterns like this are the root of a lot of awfulness on the web (but that's another matter). To me this is really disrespectful to your company's user base and the fact that it's still (checked as I'm typing this comment) doesn't have a close option sort of proves it. Even those aggressive ads have a tiny albeit hidden "x".