On Wed, Sep 2, 2015 at 12:13 PM, Oliver Keyes okeyes@wikimedia.org wrote:
And without any answer to my question about whether this was an actual A/B test, and whether you're measuring overall user utility rather than 'did they download it', this is also highly subjective and costly both in terms of time and emotional resources.
But you're missing...well, two important points. First, as Brandon says, these debates /have to happen/. Identifying that something is a *right* thing to do, an *ethical* thing to do, cannot happen after that thing has been done. And second: costly in terms of time? Costly in terms of emotional resources? This thread is costly on both, and it is also an inevitable consequence of not having the discussion in advance.
Even ignoring the "is it right and ethical" debate, there's a pretty large amount of research over the past 6 or so months that show this is a bad idea. I don't understand why there's even a need for a debate. People hate interstitials. I know the reasoning is "well, this isn't an interstitial", but if it walks and quacks like a duck...
Part of good research is using the results of already existing research.
- Ryan