The like bait

Like buttons. They're everywhere. And that's a good thing. Because that's the social power, right?

The fact that, as an civilian of the Internet, I can vote - at least upvote - the issues and words I care about is a great thing. There are no borders, no passport, no nationality, only a language barrier. We're all equals beyond the fact that we all speak English.

Movies, games, comments, ideas, social media posts, etc. There is real value in letting me claim that this is a good read, a good buy, something worth your time and money.

Where it starts going side ways is when the like button turns into a nasty invite to sign up.

"Hey, we love democracy, but you know what we love more? Your email!".

I find that absolutely disgusting. For two reasons.

First, the fact that clicking the like button will dump you to a login / sign up page, as opposed to right where you were. Why was the button enabled in the first place? Clearly I was bait. That button should not be there or disabled if I cannot currently use it.

Second, the fact that it will most likely take you away from your reading and into the abyss of web forms. It's a show stopper. It's saying "If you're not willing to join our elite community of smart thinkers, for free, you can F off".

And there is no coming back from that. Because at that point, you, me, everyone is pissed. We hit the back button at the sight of any H1 saying "Sign up". More importantly, we have a subconscious disgust for this site that pretended to be socially open and just showed us it wasn't.

So basically, that always fails. "Like" is never a strong enough feeling to get someone to fill up a form, confirm their email and click that button again. These Like traps are just a desperate way of saying "We need more users!".

And login forms become border patrols, customs. Except that you don't have one nationality. You have many. Each and every social site you're part of, is a nationality. These sites you belong to become your global identity and each of them represent a tag of your personality.

For example, what does someone that belongs to Pinterest, Instagram and Gowalla tell you? It tells you their age, their social activity, their online habits. Chances are they use the same nickname on all sites. What about someone who is a member of Stack Exchange and an editor on Wikipedia? Can you see the distinction? I can almost see their faces. Now what about all the small fringe community sites you may belong to? Well those even say more about you.

So the act of democracy is great when it comes to the like buttons littered all over the modern Internet. However, the ones requiring a login to voice a simple "like" are identity thefts. They're identity box makers, and they should be banned.

Let me like the comments, the posts, the articles, the items, the something of value. Let me tell you and the world I liked it. Then after that invite me to join the site with a one-liner appearing under the like button. That's more likely to succeed because I have already acted on this site and voiced my opinion, even so tiny. And further more, I made a personal connection to that page.