matt comments on What if the front page… - Less Wrong

38 Post author: matt 14 March 2012 06:47AM

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Comment author: matt 14 March 2012 11:23:12PM 0 points [-]

The very few occasions you recommend the site to everyday visitors spawn interesting conversations but very little website traffic. Your site recommendations to new visitors are much more relevant to this discussion.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 14 March 2012 11:38:44PM *  1 point [-]

I'm not sure where the communication disconnect is-- I recommend Less Wrong to people who generally haven't heard of it before. They are potential new visitors.

Comment author: matt 15 March 2012 06:33:10PM 1 point [-]

They are potential new visitors, and they will likely go to the front page. The front page should cater for them.
billswift seems to me to be arguing that "everyday visitors" (which I interpret to mean frequent users of the site) should bookmark or remember other site locations or other ways of consuming site content (eg. the many RSS feeds available), so shouldn't be much concerned for the usability of the front page to them.

If billswift is right, the front page should be optimised for new visitors (the group you seem to be talking about), and not for returning visitors.