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Lumifer comments on Open Thread, May 18 - May 24, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Does anyone read the FAQ? Specifically, do the newbies look at the FAQ while being in the state of newbiedom?
At least some do. In general, we could improve the onboarding experience of LW.
"Hello, I see you found LW. Here is your welcome package which consists of a first-aid trauma kit, a consent form for amputations, and a coupon for a PTSD therapy session..."
X-)
...and a box of paperclips.
...please don't use it to tease resident AIs, it's likely to end very very badly...
What concrete actions could we take to improve the onboarding experience?
I imagine there are UI design best practices, like watching new users try out the site, that could be followed. A similarly serious approach I've seen is having a designated "help out the newbie" role, either as someone people are encouraged to approach or specifically pairing mentees with mentors.
Both of those probably cost more than they deliver. A more reasonable approach would be having two home pages: one for logged-in users that probably links to /r/all/new (or the list version), and one for new users that explains more about LW, and maybe has a flowchart about where to start reading based on interests.
So the homepage already explains some stuff about LW. What do you think is missing?
I'd guess we can get 80% of the value of a flowchart with some kind of bulleted question/recommendation list like the one at http://lesswrong.com/about/ Maybe each bullet should link to more posts though? Or recommend an entire sequence/tag/wiki page/something else? And the bullets could be better chosen?
...yes.
I went directly to the sequences, not sure why. Probably the sheer size of the list of contents was kind of intimidating.
"the sheer size of the list of contents" - hm? What are you referring to?
The FAQ
I figure an exhaustive FAQ isn't that bad, since it's indexed by question... you don't have to read all the questions, just the ones you're interested in.
No, it is not bad at all. But it does what it says on the tin, answers questions. When starting with LW from zero there are no questions yet or not many, but more like exploration.