Agreed and this brings up a big point. One of the most important things I have learned over the years is to look at the product. In a way, a product is like a painting and it is highly representative of the team that made it.
Is it fine art or throw away art? See how the team talks about their product. Their attention to detail and in this case how they treat their users. It tells you a lot about their values and how they, themselves, treat each other.
I think you're talking about Key Values/Culture Queries here, so let me chime in:
The team behind Key Values and Culture Queries is just me (oh hi! ) and I care tremendously about my users. Since I've been working full time for the last 6-7 months to build these incredibly valuable resources for people without charging for it, I thought it'd be okay to ask for an email address in exchange. I mean, you can always unsubscribe?
If you find my content to be high quality and interesting enough to want more of it, and you feel frustrated that you aren't getting more... why not stay in touch and let me continue delivering you high quality content? (Serious question.)
Ps. You can always spend 20 seconds going back, selecting fewer values, and seeing the results for those. I won't be mad. Pinky promise.
There's even no issue with leading me to a "give us your email and we'll send you what you want". I just feel that at this point if there was even a small link saying "I really don't want to give me email but I do want your stuff" then that retains relationship. As it stands I closed the window.
Wait. Earlier you said this was a side project ("side project marketing"), but now you say you've been working on this full-time for the last 6-7 months. Which one is it? :P
Is it fine art or throw away art? See how the team talks about their product. Their attention to detail and in this case how they treat their users. It tells you a lot about their values and how they, themselves, treat each other.