Get your shit together, marketing.

I think there are two forces at play here.

Publishers would kill their mothers to increase newsletter signups, because most of their traffic are from social networks where they read a single article and immediately leave. Increasing the amount of people who sign up for the newsletter becomes vital in that system since you're at least going to be able to retain users, at least through additional signups for the newsletter.

Then you have the retention services, who have to prove that their software and techniques work. Confirmshaming probably works in the short term, so they're incentivized to put up negative messages, at least when it's a new client.

I clearly remember someone shared a before-you-go modal here and I believe it was the pioneer of this trend. People approved like it is a "nice and clever idea" and then people started it implemented on their websites. Even, I have seen services that provide these kind of popups without any extra effort by installing their plugin.

I usually hate the 'stop doing x' articles, but agree with this one 100%

I am so glad this article exists.

A new type of pop-up blocker needs to be born.

Thank you Nielsen.