If you want to get ideas, you could look at the history of the old about page and homepage on the wiki. Looking over the versions of those pages I wrote, here are some things I like about my versions better:
I don’t try to be super comprehensive. I link to an FAQ for reference. FAQs are nice because they’re indexed by the content the user wants to access.
There is just generally less text. Some of the stuff you’re writing doesn’t deliver a lot of value to the reader in my opinion. For example, you write: “We invite you to use this site for any number of reasons, including, but not limited to: learning valuable things, being entertained, sharing and getting feedback on your ideas, and participating in a community you like.” You’re basically describing how people use social media websites. It’s not delivering insight for the average reader and it’s going to cause peoples’ eyes to glaze over. Omit needless words. At most, this sentence should be a footnote or FAQ question “Can I use Less Wrong for things that aren’t rationality?” or a shorter sentence “Less Wrong isn’t just for rationality, everything is on topic in personal blogposts”. Remember that we’re trying to put our best foot forward with this page, which will be read by many people, so time spent wordsmithing is worthwhile. (Note: It’s fine to blather on in an obscure comment like I’m doing here.)
I place less emphasis on individuals. Compare: “The writings of Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman comprise the core readings of PhysicsMastery.com. Here are Albert’s writings, and here are Richard’s.”
I don’t try to sell people on reading long sequences of posts right away. I’d sprinkle a variety of interesting, important links I wish more people even outside the community would read, in kind of a clickbaity way, to give people a sense of what the site is about and why it’s interesting before getting them to invest in reading a book-length document.
I try to emphasize self-improvement benefits. It’s a good sales pitch (always start with benefit to the customer), and I think it draws the right sort of ambitious, driven people into the community. Upgrade your beliefs, habits, brain, etc. You do touch on this but you don’t lead with the benefits as much as you could. In sales, I think it’s better to present the problem before the solution. But you present the solution (“rationality”) before the problem.
I emphasize that the community is weird and has weird interests. If Less Wrong causes you to acquire some unusual opinions relative to your society or social circle, that’s a common side effect. Autodidactism, cryonics, artificial intelligence, effective altruism, transhumanism, etc. You could “show not tell” by saying: “Here’s a particular topic many users currently have a contrarian opinion about. But if you still disagree after reading our thoughts, we want to hear why!”
If I was writing the about page in today’s era, I would probably emphasize much more heavily that Less Wrong has a much higher standard of discussion than most of the internet, what that means (emphasis on curiosity/truthseeking/critical thinking/intellectual collaboration, long attention spans expected of readers), how we work to preserve it, etc. I might even make it the central thesis of the about page. I think this would help lay down the right culture if the site was to expand, and also attract good people and prime them to be on their best behavior.
I think I’d also lean on the word “rationality” somewhat less.
Thanks for the detailed response here. My initial thought re-reading your old about page was “Hmm, maybe we should just make this the new about the page.” I like a lot of things about it. I’m currently thinking through everything you’ve said and am deciding what seems, all things considered, the right approach.
“Here’s a particular topic many users currently have a contrarian opinion about. But if you still disagree after reading our thoughts, we want to hear why!”
If any such claim is made it should be backed by census numbers.
If you want to get ideas, you could look at the history of the old about page and homepage on the wiki. Looking over the versions of those pages I wrote, here are some things I like about my versions better:
I don’t try to be super comprehensive. I link to an FAQ for reference. FAQs are nice because they’re indexed by the content the user wants to access.
There is just generally less text. Some of the stuff you’re writing doesn’t deliver a lot of value to the reader in my opinion. For example, you write: “We invite you to use this site for any number of reasons, including, but not limited to: learning valuable things, being entertained, sharing and getting feedback on your ideas, and participating in a community you like.” You’re basically describing how people use social media websites. It’s not delivering insight for the average reader and it’s going to cause peoples’ eyes to glaze over. Omit needless words. At most, this sentence should be a footnote or FAQ question “Can I use Less Wrong for things that aren’t rationality?” or a shorter sentence “Less Wrong isn’t just for rationality, everything is on topic in personal blogposts”. Remember that we’re trying to put our best foot forward with this page, which will be read by many people, so time spent wordsmithing is worthwhile. (Note: It’s fine to blather on in an obscure comment like I’m doing here.)
I place less emphasis on individuals. Compare: “The writings of Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman comprise the core readings of PhysicsMastery.com. Here are Albert’s writings, and here are Richard’s.”
I don’t try to sell people on reading long sequences of posts right away. I’d sprinkle a variety of interesting, important links I wish more people even outside the community would read, in kind of a clickbaity way, to give people a sense of what the site is about and why it’s interesting before getting them to invest in reading a book-length document.
I try to emphasize self-improvement benefits. It’s a good sales pitch (always start with benefit to the customer), and I think it draws the right sort of ambitious, driven people into the community. Upgrade your beliefs, habits, brain, etc. You do touch on this but you don’t lead with the benefits as much as you could. In sales, I think it’s better to present the problem before the solution. But you present the solution (“rationality”) before the problem.
I emphasize that the community is weird and has weird interests. If Less Wrong causes you to acquire some unusual opinions relative to your society or social circle, that’s a common side effect. Autodidactism, cryonics, artificial intelligence, effective altruism, transhumanism, etc. You could “show not tell” by saying: “Here’s a particular topic many users currently have a contrarian opinion about. But if you still disagree after reading our thoughts, we want to hear why!”
If I was writing the about page in today’s era, I would probably emphasize much more heavily that Less Wrong has a much higher standard of discussion than most of the internet, what that means (emphasis on curiosity/truthseeking/critical thinking/intellectual collaboration, long attention spans expected of readers), how we work to preserve it, etc. I might even make it the central thesis of the about page. I think this would help lay down the right culture if the site was to expand, and also attract good people and prime them to be on their best behavior.
I think I’d also lean on the word “rationality” somewhat less.
Thanks for the detailed response here. My initial thought re-reading your old about page was “Hmm, maybe we should just make this the new about the page.” I like a lot of things about it. I’m currently thinking through everything you’ve said and am deciding what seems, all things considered, the right approach.
Good Strunkian advice.
If any such claim is made it should be backed by census numbers.