Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

Post by mattkrause » Mon, Apr 23, 2018, 12:59 PM UTC

dmitriid wrote: post #35

panic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uhm, no. It just means that people are hovering over links with their mouse. It does not imply any opinion about the previews. When you evaluate features using engagement metrics, there are only two possibilities. If the metric is high, users love the feature. If the metric is low, users don't know the feature exists, and more alerts or "unread" badges must be added to help them learn.

> When you evaluate features using engagement metrics No-no-no. Stop right there. "Engagement metrics" are the worst kind of metrics. Engagement means next to nothing. It just means that a user interacted with something. Was it good? Was it bad? Was it intentional? Was it by mistake? "Engagement metrics" answer none of that. And yet... They are the easiest metrics to collect and too many companies use them as if they…

Post by jgtrosh » Mon, Apr 23, 2018, 1:19 PM UTC

fapjacks wrote: post #89

azeirah wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia's a minefield for people with ADD, yep. But oddly enough, I found that Stackoverflow's "hot questions" or whatever thing is equally distracting. I'm on a professional software developer network, and then I see a super interesting and legitimate question aaaaaannnddd... I'm in a rabbithole. Don't know if it's helpful or not for you, but I found an extension that limits the maximum amount of tabs you can have…

Oh, yes, SO's hot network questions is a hardcore distraction for me, too. Even for things I really don't care about! Like all those workplace drama questions (do so many people really think going to HR is going to do them any good at all?). The extension you linked is a very interesting concept, something I hadn't thought about using before. But I like the idea of paying a little bit of thought up front to help keep…

Post by lakechfoma » Mon, Apr 23, 2018, 1:26 PM UTC

sdoering wrote: post #18

Wow. Had just read that and then saw the feature first time while browsing over a list page. Was moving my curser down the list and when ever I wanted to click a link, the above link hat popped up the layer, highjacking my click and leading me to the wrong page. What a great way of destroying the user experience with a beautifully over-engineered feature that is utterly crap while actually trying to use the underlyin…

Post by samjbobb » Mon, Apr 23, 2018, 1:32 PM UTC

panic wrote: post #23

majewsky wrote: post #8

> People seem to like it — we are seeing 5,000 hits to our API a minute to serve those cards that show when you hover over any link. Uhm, no. It just means that people are hovering over links with their mouse. It does not imply any opinion about the previews. > The original idea was conceived four years ago When I was active at Wikipedia/Wikibooks 12 years ago, there was a user script floating around that did the sam…

> Uhm, no. It just means that people are hovering over links with their mouse. It does not imply any opinion about the previews. When you evaluate features using engagement metrics, there are only two possibilities. If the metric is high, users love the feature. If the metric is low, users don't know the feature exists, and more alerts or "unread" badges must be added to help them learn.

Post by freeone3000 » Mon, Apr 23, 2018, 1:34 PM UTC

rootlocus wrote: post #102

SeanMacConMara wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Uhm, no. It just means that people are hovering over links with their mouse. in my case every single time was by accident whilst moving the mouse around, off of other text I was trying to read. frankly, its bloody annoying it covered the text i was reading the search for yet another "disable" setting begins....

The popup has a little gear icon in the bottom right. You can disable it from there.