[lschueller]

> Create a free account to keep playing. Sign up or log in to create an account, save your progress, and continue this difficulty.

And here we are again. A nice idea, ai generated, for grabbing email addresses... Not even trying to give it a human touch. Is this the new spam? Hundreds of sites and web apps forcing you to sign up with a temp email address for no good reason?

[dang]

Show HNs are places to discuss people's work respectfully and curiously, so attacks like this are particularly harmful here. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html.

You can make your substantive points without any of that, and if you had followed the HN guidelines in general, you would have:

"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[IsTom]

So "no ads, no subscription" on its front page is a lie? I am shocked, so very shocked.

[HaxleRose]

No it's not a lie. It doesn't have ads or a subscription. You do need to login to continue playing more of the same type + difficulty for puzzles. There is an eventual paywall after you reach 25 puzzles + difficulty (so like after you've done 25 easy sudoku puzzles and you want to do more easy ones) for a couple bucks to help offset server costs. But it's a one-time thing. No monthly subscription at all. In all transparency, I've made $0 so far. No one has even reached the 25 free puzzle limit for any of the puzzles on there.

[bluehatbrit]

I think the messaging is just a bit confusing. You've said this had no ads and no subscription, and then people see you want them to create an account. If there's no money being paid, and no ads then the next conclusion is either you'll sell data or rug-pull later on. Clearly that isn't actually your intention.

Maybe try changing how you talk about the price a bit on the page. No one's going to be put off by knowing there's a lot of free content, and then later on you have a one-off fee to continue playing. But they will be put off if they don't understand how any of the pricing works, and if they feel like there's a catch you're not telling them about.

I get what you're trying to do, you want to offer something on the cheap and that's great. Just be open about when the payment is needed, and what that payment is. You'll likely get more sign ups from being open about it up front.

[HaxleRose]

Thanks for your thoughts. I completely agree. Let me think of how I can incorporate that into the site's wording. I do want to be completely up front.

[nephihaha]

Just put in some simple way to block bot accounts but ditch the email subscription thing.

[HaxleRose]

I don't have any need for your email address. You could put "[e-mail]" in there if you want. The account is for tracking progress and eventually there is a paywall. I give 25 puzzles for free for every puzzle type + every difficulty, but after that, you pay a couple bucks to unlock the rest of the puzzles. Helps pay the server fees. Although I've made $0 so far and that's fine really. This is mostly just a fun little site for people to use.

[chadgpt3]

Should've asked for a photo ID!

[lschueller]

Oh yes! This would fit in. "Please verify with Persona" will be the next level.

[HaxleRose]

Haha! That'll be required for your coding agents soon enough sadly.