A message pops up on the deviantART page:

"It's important to have an up-to-date email address. Can we still reach you at the following address?"

This is one of those things that make me shake my head. One of the things that bother me about dA is the absence of the very basic and common feature of getting notification of new messages via e-mail. Few websites make an e-mail address as unnecessary as dA does. And now they want to ensure that they still can reach me under the address in my profile.

I'm actively using that account, but for some reason they still ask this. And hey, here's a very straightforward way to check whether the e-mail address is still valid AND actually signal at least a tiny amount of factual usefulness of that address: They could have sent me an e-mail! (But that wouldn't be as bothersome and coercive as that big space-waster on the website.)

It makes sense that they're getting unsure about whether e-mail addresses actually still exist since they're not using them for anything. It also explains why they're saying it's important. Because it's not at all apparent (and neither is it convincing).

This even makes me wonder why they're requiring an e-mail address for registration in the first place. ... Or what's the actual reason for asking this. But they'd be damned if they told me. After all, they are the ones asking the questions, right? It's not like the users deserve the respect of being informed about the why. Just answer it and don't ask questions. Don't think.

And yes, I have a very finely tuned bullshit sensor. That stuff starts small, but tends to grow on you. When information given is scarce, it's usually very deliberate.

The mindset that this is feeding also makes people click on ad banners that say "Click here to claim your prize!".

When cashiers at the supermarket ask for people's ZIP code, can you imagine how many give that information like a robot, without even forming one thought about why someone would want that information from them or should have it? And the cashiers are not saying what it's for. They merely form the demand of the information and expect the customer to comply. (They could even make a profit selling that information and you wouldn't know it.) Whenever I witness a scene like that, it feels a little creepy.

If you think the idea that a zombie army will eventually overrun society is absurd, how about the idea that that army is already marching everywhere?