Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing

Posted by kyro on Friday October 23, 2009 @11:39AM
from the self-post dept.

I tend to not give much attention to the news items that are towards the bottom of the front/news pages, more so to the ones on the 'next' pages, and I think part of that might be due to the number rankings next to them. My mind attaches some sort of numbered value, which could color the way I view the submission quality-wise. I'd imagine others might be doing the same. Might be interesting to see if there's more user engagement with submissions if those numbers are completely removed.

( 15 comments | 11 points | on HN )

Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by pg on Friday October 23, 2009 @11:48AM (#898961)

I think I tried this when I was writing it, and without numbers the page seems too unstructured. You need something, and bullets don't do it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by jacquesm on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:04PM (#899010)

Funny how when you make something 'minimalist' the smallest changes can upset the balance because they are a large part of the whole.

One a 'bombastic' site such a small change would hardly be noticeable. HN is like a laboratory experiment.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by gbookman on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:59PM (#899137)

You could do an iTunes-esque stripe pattern, alternating between white and some other contrasting color.

This site does something similar: http://slickdeals.net/

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by mrfish on Friday October 23, 2009 @01:59PM (#899272)

Oh god. Please don't use zebra stripes. That's even harder to read.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by pg on Friday October 23, 2009 @02:13PM (#899299)

IIRC Reddit had those originally, and I learned from their example it was a bad idea.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by mrfish on Friday October 23, 2009 @02:00PM (#899275)

I read HN from google reader so it doesn't even affect me. I wonder how many people actually read the site instead of from their reader.

edit: I just realized that by doing it this way, I negate the point system. Oops.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by scott_s on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:03PM (#899004)

I didn't consciously notice that items have numbers next to them until a few days ago. The numbers communicate the same thing as the relative position. So I doubt it makes a difference for me.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by chaosprophet on Friday October 23, 2009 @02:35PM (#899344)

I thought it would be pretty interesting to view the listings without numerical rankings, so I whipped up a script which removed the rankings.

As of now, I haven't really noticed much impact on the way I use HN, but maybe it's going to take more time. I think it would make a more positive impact if the points score was removed for the titles.

The greasemonkey script is at: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/60421

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by petercooper on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:32PM (#899077)

I don't notice the numbers anymore - they're just bullets to me. But even when I deliberately look, I don't apply any importance to them. It feels kinda random to me - I've seen stories with < 10 points beating not-particularly-old stories with > 100 points. I know there's a formula but since I don't know what it is.. it's random to me :-)

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by makecheck on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:07PM (#899016)

I use the numbers mostly when browsing pages (with "More"), since there is no other indication of what page you're on.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by mbrubeck on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:04PM (#899009)

As I write this, #30 on the front page is yesterday's #1. Just remember that from time to time and you might not give the numbers so much significance.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by mattj on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:04PM (#899006)

How about just randomizing the order on the front page? That's a more standard approach to testing something like this...

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by HeyLaughingBoy on Friday October 23, 2009 @01:16PM (#899176)

How about just leaving it alone? I like the numbers.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by pg on Friday October 23, 2009 @02:14PM (#899304)

The ranking of the news is also news.

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Re:Experiment HN: Remove Numbered Listing by BrianB on Friday October 23, 2009 @12:54PM (#899126)

..Or a way to retrieve a random article. Maybe with some point threshold qualifier. HN fortunes.

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