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shminux comments on LessWrong could grow a lot, but we're doing it wrong. - Less Wrong
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Comments (106)
Don't forget A/B testing...
I think this is really important, so I'm just going to say it again, only louder.
DON'T FORGET A/B TESTING.
A/B testing is useless without variations to test. If you want to create a variation, go for it.
Right now there is a lot of commentary in this thread but not much action.
We're starting to come up with a lot of plans here and I don't want this to step on anybody's toes.
I'm not sure whether you're the sole decision maker for the website, or if other people need to be told. Do changes like these need to be approved or is the website delegated to you?
I'm no decisionmaker. I just created that post because I thought things could be improved.
If you or anyone else has text they want to put on the about page or the home page, send me a personal message and I'll tell you how. Right now things rely on security by obscurity.
Edit: As matt points out, it's not security by obscurity so much as Wikipedia-style open collaboration.
Erm… that's security by obscurity in the same way that Wikipedia relies on security by obscurity, right?
Fair enough.
Please don't. All edits to the about page should go through an editor. Random people should not be told how to edit the about page.
Er, want to specify who counts as an "editor"?
Don't worry, I would have politely turned down anyone who didn't meet some threshold of credibility...
See Who are the LW editors?
OK.
This policy doesn't make very much sense, in my opinion. Based on the log, lots of people have already edited the homepage who weren't editors, and at least some of the edits they made were valuable.
Asking an editor's permission to make changes to the homepage is an inconvenience, and it's also a little demeaning. I suspect that the (extremely small) amount of community effort that's been put forward towards actually making improvements to these pages will completely dry up if this policy is broadcasted. (I know my enthusiasm has dropped dramatically.)
I could see why this policy might sense if spam or prank edits were a problem, but as it is it seems needlessly controlling. Bleh.
Edit: Eliezer has communicated via email to Louie, Matt and me that he retracts his statement.
The Singularity Institute has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into LessWrong.com. I don't think it's too unreasonable that we'd like to have some quality control on a few central pages like the home page and the about page.
People able to edit other people's LW posts. AFAIK, Eliezer and Alicorn (and possibly someone else too).
Current design is the control.
Hm. Do you see any advantages to formal A/B testing over just popping something in and seeing how stats like the bounce rate change?
DON'T FORGET A/B TESTING!!!!!
I've been thinking about that. Here are my thoughts:
Obviously we will want to see if the new pages are getting more members than the old ones - we can look at the statistics for that. I'll definitely want to know if we're getting results if my idea was used, and I will be really curious about why not if that's the case, which will lead to speculation and new ideas, I'm sure.
I am also really curious about which articles hook users most effectively. I'm thinking a random excerpt rotator would do the trick. There are ways to see, in the statistics, which pages are working the best. (By going to the stats for that particular page and see how many people were referred over by the home page.)
This is going to be a lot of data to demand. So, either somebody with access to Google Analytics is going to have to get involved, or I will have to get access to it. I'll see what they want to do.
Ah! Also! I'll need to get "number of members" statistics before we do anything, and then compare a before and after.