It's really that the message they want to send? "If you unsubscribe, it's like you kicked that guy in the nuts! Hope you're happy now (jerk)!" Even being satire, that has some creepy connotations of emotional blackmail.
Yea, and it’s insulting to even call it “unsubscribe” since I did not subscribe in the first place! The word itself subtly tries to shift blame onto the victim, as if it’s their fault they are getting spammed.
> it shows such complete lack of confidence in their product.
It can also show complete and utter overconfidence. "The only reason people would want to unsubscribe is by accident. We're doing people a favor when making it as hard as possible to make that mistake."
That's too milquetoast to even be half assed. You must be able to unsubscribe by whatever mediums you can subscribe by and do so without any bullshit dark patterns trying to trick you into not unsubscribing.
If it's so amazing that people only unsubscribe by accident, they'll certainly miss it quickly and subscribe again immediately. The practice of using "dark patterns" to prevent people from unsubscribing is utterly disrespectful.
I had the same experience cancelling my subscription. I was able to avoid the sales pitch the author received (I guess I was a little firmer), but I doubt I'll be subscribing again after I realized there was no unsubscribe button.
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