Why would everyday visitors go to the front page? I have the New Main and New Discussion pages bookmarked, if I need to get to another page I can always follow internal links.
24% of front page traffic is new visitors to the site; 76% are returning visitors. (This doesn’t mean we don’t maximise community growth by optimising the front page for the new visitors.)
The very few occasions you recommend the site to everyday visitors spawn interesting conversations but very little website traffic. Your site recommendations to new visitors are much more relevant to this discussion.
I’m not sure where the communication disconnect is—I recommend Less Wrong to people who generally haven’t heard of it before. They are potential new visitors.
They are potential new visitors, and they will likely go to the front page. The front page should cater for them. billswift seems to me to be arguing that “everyday visitors” (which I interpret to mean frequent users of the site) should bookmark or remember other site locations or other ways of consuming site content (eg. the many RSS feeds available), so shouldn’t be much concerned for the usability of the front page to them.
If billswift is right, the front page should be optimised for new visitors (the group you seem to be talking about), and not for returning visitors.
Why would everyday visitors go to the front page? I have the New Main and New Discussion pages bookmarked, if I need to get to another page I can always follow internal links.
24% of front page traffic is new visitors to the site; 76% are returning visitors.
(This doesn’t mean we don’t maximise community growth by optimising the front page for the new visitors.)
When I recommend the site, I just say LessWrong.com.
The very few occasions you recommend the site to everyday visitors spawn interesting conversations but very little website traffic. Your site recommendations to new visitors are much more relevant to this discussion.
I’m not sure where the communication disconnect is—I recommend Less Wrong to people who generally haven’t heard of it before. They are potential new visitors.
They are potential new visitors, and they will likely go to the front page. The front page should cater for them.
billswift seems to me to be arguing that “everyday visitors” (which I interpret to mean frequent users of the site) should bookmark or remember other site locations or other ways of consuming site content (eg. the many RSS feeds available), so shouldn’t be much concerned for the usability of the front page to them.
If billswift is right, the front page should be optimised for new visitors (the group you seem to be talking about), and not for returning visitors.