Updates and an announcement from LWN [LWN.net]

Updates and an announcement from LWN

Posted Jul 5, 2012 10:30 UTC (Thu) by aggelos (subscriber, #41752)
In reply to: Updates and an announcement from LWN by Cato
Parent article: Updates and an announcement from LWN

"On promoting the site - some of the standard things such as Facebook Like button, Google +1, 'Tweet this' etc would help a lot I think. Really just an evolution of the Post a Link feature, and could be hidden under a 'Share this article' so it's not too visually intrusive."

Oh, right. The blink tag of the 2010s, except, you know, *actually* harmful. Social issues aside, personally I wouldn't feel welcome on lwn.net any more if that came about. Probably wouldn't go so far as unsubscribe, though. So, given that there is a real (however small one might consider it) cost to carrying such buttons, is there any evidence that they actually help a technical site appear more appealing? Honest question.

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Updates and an announcement from LWN

Posted Jul 5, 2012 11:32 UTC (Thu) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

I saw a comment that one site got 25% of its traffic from social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc (I think it was Techcrunch but couldn't swear to it). So they do make quite a big difference in some cases.

If it's done carefully via a one or two click model, perhaps via separate page so that visitors/subscribers who hate this sort of thing are not tracked, it would let those who do use social media share LWN links more easily.

Updates and an announcement from LWN

Posted Jul 5, 2012 16:01 UTC (Thu) by fatrat (subscriber, #1518) [Link]

But the whole "only see it for free after a week" model breaks the +1/Like.

If I like this article today, my friends can't read it.

I'm not a fan.

But please, yes to a mobile site. I often read content on my phone or a table, and the current design doesn't work well there.

Updates and an announcement from LWN

Posted Jul 6, 2012 9:51 UTC (Fri) by bosyber (subscriber, #84963) [Link]

Given there's the "Send a free link" for articles that are not yet freely visible, I don't think that's really true. Using that link in a tweet works pretty well.

Updates and an announcement from LWN

Posted Jul 5, 2012 16:15 UTC (Thu) by aggelos (subscriber, #41752) [Link]

I saw a comment that one site got 25% of its traffic from social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc (I think it was Techcrunch but couldn't swear to it). So they do make quite a big difference in some cases.

Um, that does not imply that people wouldn't spread links around w/o the "social" buttons. It might make it easier for some, but clearly the 25% would be more like an upper bound.