Hi,
I completely understand the issue — it makes sense that you had to block many free email providers given the large number of spammy registrations you were getting every day from Gmail and others, often for SEO/backlink purposes.
At the same time, as a creator, I do feel a bit disadvantaged by this decision. Recently, I’ve received a lot of messages from users whom I had shared my work with on another website, and they wanted to leave a rating for the products I’ve worked hard on — but they can’t even register to do so. Considering that most existing users aren’t particularly eager to leave even a small rating, from my perspective it feels like a significant loss and a bit of a disappointment.
I hope this feedback is useful, and I truly appreciate all the work you do to keep the platform running smoothly.
Given the fact that the restrictions are quite old (about 2.5 years), I’ve often wondered whether it is possible to ease them to a certain extent. If I’m not mistaken I’ve even read that this was initially the plan, but it never came true. However, in times of rising AI slop, liberalisation may not be a good idea.
Despite having hundreds of downloads, my three apps never received any rating, which is kind of odd too. I suspect that there’s some relation to the restriction.
Thank you both for sharing your perspectives and experiences.
You are absolutely right — the restrictions on free email providers were introduced mainly as a protective measure against massive waves of spam and automated registrations, which were putting a heavy strain on the platform. At the same time, we understand that these limitations can also create barriers for genuine users who simply want to leave feedback, ratings, or participate in the community.
We are currently looking at possible ways to balance these two aspects better: reducing spam while still making it easier for real people to join and interact. This is not an easy task, but your feedback helps us to better understand where the pain points are.
If you have ideas or practical suggestions on how we could improve the registration flow without opening the doors again for spam, we’d be glad to hear them.
Thanks again for raising the issue and for your continued contributions to the platform!