I can see how this would benefit the user, you get to reserve your preferred name, but how is this good for developers?
Having users auto sign up would ruin any value in there uptake / usage data. How many of those users are interested in the product and how many are just squatting on the username?
I feel it's a legit idea. Some of us are really interested in new services. Most importantly, a service should not judge it's success by the number of sign ups (like G+ does) but on the number of interactions/service calls that it's users do over a period of time (twitter way of accounting itself).
If accounts added in this manor where removed after a set period of time due to inactivity i can see it being feasible.
It would be a good way to offer the service in bulk and then reduce the numbers down to just the users who will truly help grow the service by using it.
rather than auto-enrolling in every new service i picture a curated list of current or upcoming launches users can choose from. as far as name squatting, that's kinda the point. on the development side most sign-ups require more than one step (ie "confirm your email") so there'd be some engagement, at least showing interest in the service.
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 15.0 ms ] threadHaving users auto sign up would ruin any value in there uptake / usage data. How many of those users are interested in the product and how many are just squatting on the username?
Maybe this is over my head =/
It would be a good way to offer the service in bulk and then reduce the numbers down to just the users who will truly help grow the service by using it.