I was the one that linked the Harry Potter fanfic on HackerNews, I definitely wasn’t expecting over 120 upvotes for it. I have linked other things there before and never gotten more than a handful of votes for them.
Added: for example, I also posted a link to A Different Spin on Ambiguity , which I thought was a lot more interesting than Harry Potter, but got not a single upvote.
I’m not sure about “a lot”, but I do think the ambiguity article deserved more interest. ;)
I suspect the title may have had something to do with it, and have accordingly retitled it “This is your brain on ambiguity”, which is somewhat more catchy.
I think the people who arrive from the HP fanfic (a) can’t always be identified as such (they might read the fanfic, leave, then search for Less Wrong on Google later), and (b) are much more likely to stick around than people who arrive via StumbleUpon.
I’ve seen our actual traffic data. Compete is using an outside tracking method that both underestimates our previous traffic and overestimates our current traffic.
It is the case that the new users coming through from HP fanfic are more “sticky” than other users… meaning they are much more likely to use the site more. And they are a very diverse crowd from more geographical areas, which I think is how compete is overcounting them.
I thought LW traffic was skyrocketing (there was a graph) because of the HP fanfic. Maybe not?
I was the one that linked the Harry Potter fanfic on HackerNews, I definitely wasn’t expecting over 120 upvotes for it. I have linked other things there before and never gotten more than a handful of votes for them.
Added: for example, I also posted a link to A Different Spin on Ambiguity , which I thought was a lot more interesting than Harry Potter, but got not a single upvote.
I’m not sure about “a lot”, but I do think the ambiguity article deserved more interest. ;)
I suspect the title may have had something to do with it, and have accordingly retitled it “This is your brain on ambiguity”, which is somewhat more catchy.
I think the people who arrive from the HP fanfic (a) can’t always be identified as such (they might read the fanfic, leave, then search for Less Wrong on Google later), and (b) are much more likely to stick around than people who arrive via StumbleUpon.
compete.com says so. Alexa is a little less clear. Not sure which is more reliable.
Compete is just wrong.
I’ve seen our actual traffic data. Compete is using an outside tracking method that both underestimates our previous traffic and overestimates our current traffic.
It is the case that the new users coming through from HP fanfic are more “sticky” than other users… meaning they are much more likely to use the site more. And they are a very diverse crowd from more geographical areas, which I think is how compete is overcounting them.