8
$\begingroup$

This SE meta post mentions a test of sticky vote controls. I couple of days back I remember that I had sticky vote controls for a short while but then it returned back to normal. The linked post mentions that the test is still active (for the test group that got it in the first place). Did MO opt out from this test or is there some other reason for it disappearing so quickly for me?

Can MO choose whether or not the change is implemented here (assuming it makes it past the test)? Do we want it here? (I realize that this last question is a bit premature at this point. And the question can be irrelevant, depending on the answer to the previous one.)

$\endgroup$
7
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ Poll: Yes, I want the new vote controls at MO. $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 10:16
  • 13
    $\begingroup$ Poll: No, I don't want the new vote controls at MO. $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 10:17
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Poll: I'm indifferent towards the change in voting. $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 10:17
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ To make a poll about this already seems very premature, and a bad idea to me. $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 10:54
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @quid, it could be. My main question is the first paragraph, but I couldn't resist the temptation to ask for first impressions about the sticky voting tools. I'll make a little edit. $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 11:07
  • $\begingroup$ What the hell are sticky votes? $\endgroup$
    – domotorp
    Commented Sep 21, 2016 at 6:56
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @domotorp, it means that the voting arrows stay in view when you scroll down a long question or answer. It allows you to vote easily when you have finished reading, without having to scroll back. $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Sep 21, 2016 at 7:21

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7
$\begingroup$

In the post towards the start (my emphasis) "We're running an A/B test on Stack Overflow only[...]"

I do not think this is tested right now on any site other than SO. If you saw it somewhere else this was likely an oversight when it was rolled out (or a change of mind mid-way, but rather the former).

As it is not very difficult to turn it on and off (there already were user scripts to have this for a while), it might be feasible to have this different over different sites. However, for core parts of the sites it has serious usability drawbacks when it differs over the sites.

On whether we want it: that enough or even a lot of voting happens was always a concern of a core part of this community, especially some of the moderators. The idea of the feature is to encourage more voting. In that sense the idea seems completely in line with goals that are/were important to relevant parts of this community.

To find out whether it works in practice is the goal of the ongoing test. I would thus wait until the test is over and results are available, before concluding if this is a good or a bad idea to have.

$\endgroup$
4
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ Thanks. I did notice that it was on SO only, but I was wondering why it made a brief appearance at MO as well. I thought there had been some kind of a change from the original plan. Encouraging voting is always a good idea, and I don't have anything against the proposed system -- as long as it is consistent across the SE network. $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 11:12
  • $\begingroup$ In general, I think SE tries to keep a consistent feel across the sites as much as possible. A reason why the testing might be restricted to SO is that the data is e meaningful that way. I continue to think that the poll is a bad idea. $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 13:43
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ @JoonasIlmavirta There was a brief time when the experiment was active on all sites - this was quickly changed to SO only. Sorry! $\endgroup$
    – Jarrod Dixon
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 20:27
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @JarrodDixon, no problem! Thanks for satisfying my curiosity! $\endgroup$
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Commented Jun 8, 2015 at 20:44

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .