The problem is these boxes are designed to manipulate behaviour, not to avoid annoyance.<p>Unfortunately slamming a SIGN UP NOW!!!!! box in the middle of the page gets more people to sign up than a &quot;Please sign up over here&quot; box at the side.<p>The problem may be a lack of systems thinking.<p>If your metrics are sign-ups, then the aggressive pattern wins.<p>If your metrics are <i>committed</i> sign-ups by users who are genuinely interested and aren&#x27;t simply going to ignore your emails for the rest of eternity, the picture may be more complicated.<p>Too many UX people don&#x27;t seem to think this one through.