Ask HN: Is requiring a demo the best tactic to prevent hackers from registering? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is requiring a demo the best tactic to prevent hackers from registering?

2 pointsdfeusse5 comments

Our team at Segmed.ai (YC W20) wants to prevent malicious users from registering for our application - but not introduce too much friction, leading to churn. We've narrowed down two options: 1. Require a potential user to sit through a demo 2. Require a phone number, text a code, and require the potential user to enter the code

We'd love to hear advice on verifying users and / or the % of drop-off you've seen when requiring a user to sit through a demo.

Thanks!

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Is it a problem you actually have? Have you identified something malicious users can do of they sign up for your platform?

I think you'll see significant drop-off if you try to get people to sit through a demo. And couldn't a bot do that anyway? What are other platforms doing, because have never seen this. I hate re-captcha and would not sign up of I had to identify crosswalks either, but maybe find a captcha that doesn't hate users and try that?

A malicious user could be a big threat to our business. Right now, we are in beta and manually verify every user. My guess is the same; we'd see a major drop-off after a demo. We've been thinking about requiring a demo, re-captcha, requiring a phone number, requiring a credit card - and are debating the method that's most effective that would lead to the least amount of drop-off.

Wow, how can a single user be so damaging? Also, recaptcha and sms verifications can be defeated by bots, probably credit card verifications can be defeated too.

I think you shouldn't be concerned about drop-off unless your demo is asinine and patronizing. Anyone actually interested in your product will happily sit through a demonstration, and if they won't, do you think they would actually convert to paying customers? Casual interest is unlikely to be valuable for your business, so maybe you shouldn't be too concerned with friction.

Honestly, looking over your site, I think you can probably afford to be highly targeted and personal with your sales and registration procedures.

2 is completely mainstream

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