The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’ • Hacker News Board

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#31

Post by moron4hire » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 5:27 PM UTC

aristus wrote: post #23

superk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientifically proven with a reading test based on the lengths of words, and metrics I just made up Actually they're using the Coleman-Liau Index, a computer readability formula going back to 1975.

The metric about adherence was made up and without explanation of how they categorized people. The Coleman-Liau Index is based on lengths of words, which proves... what, exactly? Many of the "most" religious people scored higher than the ones rated "meh". Also, agnostics are in the middle of the pack. So what does this chart predict? That certain self-selected religious categories in their dataset correlate with word…

I don't know if you've kept up with this OkCupid series, but there has always been an undercurrent of snide commentary towards Christians specifically and religious people in general.

I especially "enjoyed" the break down by race. They admit that the site is primarily American in demographic, but there is no accounting for language proficiency being a barrier to entry to the site for users from non-English speaking cultures. If you care enough to learn English as a second language to the point where you can use OkCupid, then I expect you will learn to to a greater degree than a minimally literate, native English speaker.

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#32

Post by oiuygtfrtghyju » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 5:28 PM UTC

ttdi wrote: post #26

I'm really surprised by how they didn't mention one of the most striking results from the data: Latinos on OKCupid are much more likely to have the word "stationed" in their profile than other demographics. Based on this, it looks like the military contains a large proportion of Latinos ("stationed in [location]"). What are the demographics of the military versus the general population?

According to http://www.armyg1.army.mil/HR/docs/demographics/FY05%20Army%...

Army: White 63.9%, Black 19.0%, Hispanic 10.3%, Asian 3.8%

USA: White 75%, Black 12%, Hispanic 15%, Asian 4%

So hispanic is underrepresented in the army and black over represented - of course you would have to balance these by age profile for each group and also consider US overseas territories that can join the army.

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#33

Post by patio11 » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 5:34 PM UTC

There's just so much that they execute well on that I hate to pick any bit of it, but one thing everybody with linkbait should probably do is create something spiritually similar to the bar which pops up when you're done with the article. It is a force multiplier for all pillar content you write, it increases the viral factor, and the way it grabs someone's attention just when their brain is known to be vacant is sixteen flavors of brilliant.

I did something very similar for a client today, and after I get a little better at manipulating code to do it, I'm probably going to try something similar for getting trial signups. ("Looks like you're done reading about it. Feeling confused about what to do next? WHAM, signup box.")

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#34

Post by steveklabnik » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 5:45 PM UTC

bmelton wrote: post #18

jbooth wrote: post #11

Yeah Sox!! I'm taking this as scientific evidence that liking the Red Sox makes people more attractive.

Considering this is based on profiles from users at a dating site, wouldn't the inverse be more likely?

While normally, I'd agree with you, OKC has a high poly and hookup population, so normal relationship scarcity constraints do not necessarily apply.

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#35

Post by steveklabnik » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 5:48 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #31

aristus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metric about adherence was made up and without explanation of how they categorized people. The Coleman-Liau Index is based on lengths of words, which proves... what, exactly? Many of the "most" religious people scored higher than the ones rated "meh". Also, agnostics are in the middle of the pack. So what does this chart predict? That certain self-selected religious categories in their dataset correlate with word…

I don't know if you've kept up with this OkCupid series, but there has always been an undercurrent of snide commentary towards Christians specifically and religious people in general. I especially "enjoyed" the break down by race. They admit that the site is primarily American in demographic, but there is no accounting for language proficiency being a barrier to entry to the site for users from non-English speaking c…

They also allow you to input the languages you speak (which include C++ and Lisp, btw) and how well you speak them and then write your profile in each of those languages, so they have extra data about it.

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#36

Post by theycallmemorty » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 5:59 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #33

There's just so much that they execute well on that I hate to pick any bit of it, but one thing everybody with linkbait should probably do is create something spiritually similar to the bar which pops up when you're done with the article. It is a force multiplier for all pillar content you write, it increases the viral factor, and the way it grabs someone's attention just when their brain is known to be vacant is six…

I too was intrigued by them and thought to myself just a week ago: "Those popup-at-the-bottom-of-the-page things are brilliant. I should email the Bingo guy and get him to A/B test them."

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#37

Post by aristus » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:07 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #31

aristus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The metric about adherence was made up and without explanation of how they categorized people. The Coleman-Liau Index is based on lengths of words, which proves... what, exactly? Many of the "most" religious people scored higher than the ones rated "meh". Also, agnostics are in the middle of the pack. So what does this chart predict? That certain self-selected religious categories in their dataset correlate with word…

I don't know if you've kept up with this OkCupid series, but there has always been an undercurrent of snide commentary towards Christians specifically and religious people in general. I especially "enjoyed" the break down by race. They admit that the site is primarily American in demographic, but there is no accounting for language proficiency being a barrier to entry to the site for users from non-English speaking c…

Si -- they should have corrected for second languages and proficiency, if they were serious. My big beef is the implication that word length obviously correlates with intelligence instead of, say, pretention.

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#38

Post by patio11 » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:22 PM UTC

theycallmemorty wrote: post #36

patio11 wrote: post #33

There's just so much that they execute well on that I hate to pick any bit of it, but one thing everybody with linkbait should probably do is create something spiritually similar to the bar which pops up when you're done with the article. It is a force multiplier for all pillar content you write, it increases the viral factor, and the way it grabs someone's attention just when their brain is known to be vacant is six…

I too was intrigued by them and thought to myself just a week ago: "Those popup-at-the-bottom-of-the-page things are brilliant. I should email the Bingo guy and get him to A/B test them."

I am rather more receptive to receiving that email than most companies would be, and if it comes with an offer to create MIT-licensed Javascript/CSS to make the UI happen, I'd probably have it live within an hour of receiving the code.

That same test has been on my agenda since at least April, but front end is my weakest skill, so I keep pushing it back. I've got two partial implementations where I tried to follow tutorials and they just blew up on me. (I just starting scheming and dreaming about hire #1 yesterday, and it will almost certainly be a front end guy.)

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#39

Post by haroldp » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:30 PM UTC

oiuygtfrtghyju wrote: post #32

ttdi wrote: post #26

I'm really surprised by how they didn't mention one of the most striking results from the data: Latinos on OKCupid are much more likely to have the word "stationed" in their profile than other demographics. Based on this, it looks like the military contains a large proportion of Latinos ("stationed in [location]"). What are the demographics of the military versus the general population?

According to http://www.armyg1.army.mil/HR/docs/demographics/FY05%20Army%... Army: White 63.9%, Black 19.0%, Hispanic 10.3%, Asian 3.8% USA: White 75%, Black 12%, Hispanic 15%, Asian 4% So hispanic is underrepresented in the army and black over represented - of course you would have to balance these by age profile for each group and also consider US overseas territories that can join the army.

Maybe we looked at the wrong service, since the latino profile also mentioned "marines":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HispanicMilitary.jpg

Re: The Real ‘Stuff White People Like’

#40

Post by Lukeas14 » Wed, Sep 08, 2010, 6:33 PM UTC

proemeth wrote: post #27

Judging by the stats (The Red Sox), we have strong US East Coast bias (due to user base).

I noticed this as well and came to the same conclusion considering I've never met a single Red Sox fan on the left coast. Although, it could be that east coasters all rally around one team, where as we're split between the Dodgers and the Giants, which would present a false bias.