Why do some websites make it easier to register than to log in?

Asked by aidje (3662

) February 25th, 2009

It seems like a fair number of websites will put a registration form on the front page of their website, but require a click to access the sign-in form. Why do websites do this? It saves users one click when they first sign up, but then wastes a click with every subsequent visit.

Fluther is one culprit. Netflix does the same thing. Twitter is a positive example, though: a site that puts the login form right up front.

Is there any logic to adding this wasted click? Does this supposedly lead to more registrations or something? Even if it does, is it worth the loss of efficiency for regular users?

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6 Answers

It probably ensures that you are on a secure page before logging in.

But, it’s been a while since I logged into Fluther.
Don’t they have a login area right on the front?

fireside (12359

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If you’ve logged in before, you’re presented with the login form here on Fluther, @aidje.

andrew (16543

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And the logic works like this:
– If you present both login and join, there will be countless mistakes.
– In general, users who’ve already joined are more likely to click a few times than new users; so you make join easier.
– As @andrew said, at Fluther we store a cookie so after you’ve joined you’re presented the login form instead. :)

ben (9080

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Okay. I suppose the cookie method kind of makes sense. The reason it doesn’t work for me is that I don’t let Firefox store cookies except for a certain couple of sites. If I don’t want to stay logged in across sessions, then I don’t put the site on the whitelist.

aidje (3662

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~ ben and andrew may be right, but we’d have to check with the founder of Fluther to find out for sure.

fireside (12359

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