Am I the only one who thinks that linking this site to Facebook (or any other similar site) is a really bad idea? It sounds like a recipe for an Eternal September.
Well, in Germany one site (www.heise.de) made some nifty code to circumvent the specific problems of the like-buttons; it is open source and here available. It uses a two-click-solution; first you click on a button similar to the FB-ike-button; then you are forwarded to a second page with the real button.
I respectfully disagree. Because we have no major advertising campaign or other entry point most sharing of articles and getting people interested in the community is ‘peer-to-peer’ i.e. someone shares an interesting article with their friends or sends a friend a specific article they may be interested in. Facebook is an ideal medium for doing this as people of all social groups use it and it is a recognised format.
I personally have introduced many friends to LW via this method, and it is the primary way that people of college age communicate and pass on information. I don’t think I’m particularly unusual in that my friends share, re-post and discuss articles on political and scientific topics with great frequency.
Even if we don’t use the ‘like’ button, there are some changes that would make it easier to share. Aesthetically, currently if I post an article link I get an ugly text preview of less wrong tagline, rather than a summary/beginning of the article or a logo. This leaves us with a credibility gap when compared to other ‘mainstream’ news sites. [If someone can make the necessary changes to fix this issue I offer 100 of my karma]
Hi,
I believe this site is for the improvement of all mankind.
Facebook may currently be a less than intelligent social networking website. But are we not here to Raise the Sanity Waterline?
I can’t remember which article of Lesswrong indicated that it may be prudent not to enhance the upper reaches of Rationality, but to improve the lower end so that there are more people available to enhance the upper end.
( I believe there was an article (not This One but another) that went into detail on this.
While there may be downsides to facebook viewing, I would like to point out it can be negated reasonably. (Or unreasonably in my example:) Just by having a cookie on that facebook link so that if a non-member clicks it, it transparently prevents them from signing up for a week.
As many people from facebook will immediately like the article before posting a reply, many of the ‘quick responders’ will be eliminated… unless they come back in a weeks time.
Alternatively, just manage the facebook like to only go to an article without comments, this prevents the ‘easy’ facebookers from signing up and continuing, while those with a little more wit can parse back the URL to go to the main site.
Lesswrong has the brainpower to come up with some ideas to manage this, and I think it’d make a great community project to sort out how to do so.
I think the question is more which posts are good introductions and screens. So even if that is the best one to share on wikipediabook+ or whatever it is, others would also be worthy. The question is which ones are good enough, not which one is best.
Different posts would be appropriate for different places, simple ones linked to on facebook might be too accessible—I’m thinking of “Are Your Enemies Innately Evil.” The last thing we need is for everyone on facebook to read that post one September 11th. “Mundane Magic” might be too complicated for many people on facebook, and serve as a good screen—I’m not really sure.
I agree that your choice is good and also suggest the following:
Am I the only one who thinks that linking this site to Facebook (or any other similar site) is a really bad idea? It sounds like a recipe for an Eternal September.
Also, it gives Facebook full access to personalized LessWrong-browsing patterns.
To add to that, there are also significant privacy concerns (this too) with loading anything from the Facebook servers (including the “Like” buttons).
Well, in Germany one site (www.heise.de) made some nifty code to circumvent the specific problems of the like-buttons; it is open source and here available. It uses a two-click-solution; first you click on a button similar to the FB-ike-button; then you are forwarded to a second page with the real button.
Facebook tried to argue that doing this violates its ToS (not doing this would violate law in many countries).
http://cyberghostvpn.com/blog/2011/09/newsflash-facebook-doesnât-like-privacy-2/
Using a distinct button for first click seems to be OK.
Ah, that’s pretty neat.
Although, I guess that’d be a trivial inconvenience, and so there would be far less point in having the buttons in the first place.
I respectfully disagree. Because we have no major advertising campaign or other entry point most sharing of articles and getting people interested in the community is ‘peer-to-peer’ i.e. someone shares an interesting article with their friends or sends a friend a specific article they may be interested in. Facebook is an ideal medium for doing this as people of all social groups use it and it is a recognised format.
I personally have introduced many friends to LW via this method, and it is the primary way that people of college age communicate and pass on information. I don’t think I’m particularly unusual in that my friends share, re-post and discuss articles on political and scientific topics with great frequency.
Even if we don’t use the ‘like’ button, there are some changes that would make it easier to share. Aesthetically, currently if I post an article link I get an ugly text preview of less wrong tagline, rather than a summary/beginning of the article or a logo. This leaves us with a credibility gap when compared to other ‘mainstream’ news sites. [If someone can make the necessary changes to fix this issue I offer 100 of my karma]
Hi, I believe this site is for the improvement of all mankind.
Facebook may currently be a less than intelligent social networking website. But are we not here to Raise the Sanity Waterline? I can’t remember which article of Lesswrong indicated that it may be prudent not to enhance the upper reaches of Rationality, but to improve the lower end so that there are more people available to enhance the upper end. ( I believe there was an article (not This One but another) that went into detail on this.
While there may be downsides to facebook viewing, I would like to point out it can be negated reasonably. (Or unreasonably in my example:) Just by having a cookie on that facebook link so that if a non-member clicks it, it transparently prevents them from signing up for a week. As many people from facebook will immediately like the article before posting a reply, many of the ‘quick responders’ will be eliminated… unless they come back in a weeks time.
Alternatively, just manage the facebook like to only go to an article without comments, this prevents the ‘easy’ facebookers from signing up and continuing, while those with a little more wit can parse back the URL to go to the main site.
Lesswrong has the brainpower to come up with some ideas to manage this, and I think it’d make a great community project to sort out how to do so.
Channels to particular articles would be a good idea.
Too bad there’s not a Facebook that is only open to scientists and mathematicians!
To what extent is there a network of frequent wikipedia editors?
Can we send them to “Knowing about biases can hurt people” first?
I think the question is more which posts are good introductions and screens. So even if that is the best one to share on wikipediabook+ or whatever it is, others would also be worthy. The question is which ones are good enough, not which one is best.
Different posts would be appropriate for different places, simple ones linked to on facebook might be too accessible—I’m thinking of “Are Your Enemies Innately Evil.” The last thing we need is for everyone on facebook to read that post one September 11th. “Mundane Magic” might be too complicated for many people on facebook, and serve as a good screen—I’m not really sure.
I agree that your choice is good and also suggest the following:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/uy/dark_side_epistemology/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/2as/diseased_thinking_dissolving_questions_about/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/j3/science_as_curiositystopper/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/h1/the_scales_of_justice_the_notebook_of_rationality/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/hu/the_third_alternative/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/gz/policy_debates_should_not_appear_onesided/
Google+ seems to still have better demographics than Facebook.
That would be an anti-social network.