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Findings unsurprising, and a rather annoying, popup-in-your-face website.

by ljw1001 10y ago

robertwiblin 10y ago
No pop-ups --> 10% as many people join our newsletter --> we can't track whether we are having any impact --> no donations --> website disappears. I don't find the results that surprising, but many people do.
- Riseed 10y ago
  Regardless of whether your argument is correct [0], I can't imagine your target audience is more likely to sign up (vs. bounce) when hit with a second pop-up before reading half an article. [0] e.g. pop-ups --> less tech savy users 'dismiss' popup by signing up --> newsletter unread and/or marked as spam --> can't {accurately} track whether you're having any impact --> etc
  - robertwiblin 10y ago
    Yeah you are right, we may be over-doing it. Think we should drop the all-screen one from the first page view when we add a special appeal because of a HN spike? I'll bring that up with the team. :)
  - robertwiblin 10y ago
    Thanks for the suggestion. We have tested whether people who sign up to the newsletter from appeals read it or click on link, and they do at the same rate as everyone else. :)
dang 10y ago
This is a classically bad comment to post to Hacker News. Shallow, hand-waving dismissals of new work are basically peeing in the swimming pool (in full public view, no less), making this thread a worse place and this community a worse place for everyone. If you have knowledge about this field, you could take some time to share your knowledge so that we can all learn something. If you don't want to take the time to post a substantive comment, that's cool; but in that case please post nothing. Not all new work is good, of course, but the human bias (on HN as in life) is overwhelmingly to dismiss and trample on it. Here we want a culture that does the opposite: pauses, considers, and responds with respect for the effort involved, if not the surprisingness of the findings. If several people take months to review the entire literature on an important topic, and present what they found, that's a real service. This deserves respect, not internet snark. Please restrain yourself before commenting like this.

Findings unsurprising, and a rather annoying, popup-in-your-face website.

by ljw1001 10y ago

Findings unsurprising, and a rather annoying, popup-in-your-face website.

No pop-ups --> 10% as many people join our newsletter --> we can't track whether we are having any impact --> no donations --> website disappears. I don't find the results that surprising, but many people do.

Riseed 10y ago
Regardless of whether your argument is correct [0], I can't imagine your target audience is more likely to sign up (vs. bounce) when hit with a second pop-up before reading half an article. [0] e.g. pop-ups --> less tech savy users 'dismiss' popup by signing up --> newsletter unread and/or marked as spam --> can't {accurately} track whether you're having any impact --> etc
- robertwiblin 10y ago
  Yeah you are right, we may be over-doing it. Think we should drop the all-screen one from the first page view when we add a special appeal because of a HN spike? I'll bring that up with the team. :)
- robertwiblin 10y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion. We have tested whether people who sign up to the newsletter from appeals read it or click on link, and they do at the same rate as everyone else. :)

dang 10y ago

This is a classically bad comment to post to Hacker News. Shallow, hand-waving dismissals of new work are basically peeing in the swimming pool (in full public view, no less), making this thread a worse place and this community a worse place for everyone. If you have knowledge about this field, you could take some time to share your knowledge so that we can all learn something. If you don't want to take the time to post a substantive comment, that's cool; but in that case please post nothing. Not all new work is good, of course, but the human bias (on HN as in life) is overwhelmingly to dismiss and trample on it. Here we want a culture that does the opposite: pauses, considers, and responds with respect for the effort involved, if not the surprisingness of the findings. If several people take months to review the entire literature on an important topic, and present what they found, that's a real service. This deserves respect, not internet snark. Please restrain yourself before commenting like this.