initial openness

Initial openness, then lockdown – a hidden recruitment strategy of social media platforms? (Instagram, Tellonym, Ask.FM, Quora)

A recurring pattern throughout social media platforms such as Instagram, Tellonym, Ask.FM, and Quora:

First, they are very open. Users are able to browse the site without needing to log in. But over time, they start requiring login for parts of the site, or after a browsing quota. Later, the entire site is behind a login wall.

But the most hostile of all is Tellonym, a redundant Ask.FM clone, which in 2020 started forcing users to use the Tellonym **app** to view more than users' two recent posts. As we know, **apps** allow things like hardware fingerprinting.

In 2018, Tellonym's site was nonhostile: HTML-based loading, URL parameter pagination, and loginless browsing. Just like one would expect a website to be.

Hostile changes Tellonym made in 2019 and 2020:

* AJAX-based website loading?
  * ☑ Check.
* Require login to view more than few answers?
  * ☑ Check.
* Require **app** (i. e. hardware fingerprinting) two view more than two recent answers?
  * ☑ Check.


In late 2020, even Ask.FM started requiring login. Quite possibly, also they will go further downhill. Quora has a pop-up that prompts login since 2015 or 2016 after viewing one page, but that is bypassed using the "share" URL parameter or element hiding in browsers' developer tools.