I think I mildly prefer the older landing page (sorry!).
The newer one feels more shiny, in a way that appeals to me a bit less. Trying to spell this out a bit more/ what it is that appeals to me less: - In terms of the vibe it feels more professionalismy, status signallingy, corporate, respectable or something. (I don’t think it’s entirely fair to describe the new website as these things, but it does at least feel like the new website is more in this direction relative to the old). - I’m remembering Sarah Constantin’s article on Ra as I write this, which I think gestures towards what I like less. - I feel a bit of an ick of the ‘featured in’ section (which has logos of eg. the BBC, NYT etc.). I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe because it feels like there’s a subtle implication of ‘if you respect these institutions/ brands, then you’ll like this effective altruism thing’. And I’m like ‘huh, I’m not sure how much I do respect these institutions/ brands’… idk. (also, featured in feels like a bit of an odd way to put it, as a bunch of these places have written things very unchartiable about EA). - From the new website, I get a bit more of a sense that someone is trying to sell something to me somehow. Like, it seems like the kind of website that I expect to see from a corporation that wants me to buy their product, and less like the kind of website that I expect to see from something that wants to provide me information or something. - It may just be that I am into boring websites. For example, my idea of a good time/ a good website is eg. Wikipedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Astral Codex Ten. I guess I’m just really into large walls of text. But doubling down on this, I think there is something good about the statement that large walls of text makes. It’s like ‘hey, what we’re about is like thinking carefully and passionately impassionate reasoning, and so we’re going to communicate with you via lots of words and explicit arguments and claims, and not with shiny images and vague associations with established institutions, because we think that in an ideal world people should be persuaded to get involved with a community/ philosophy on the basis of explicit arguments and claims, and not on the basis of shiny images etc.’ - I think the above comments might make it seem like I’m more anti the new website than I actually am. I think it’s like if there was a content-to-shiny scale for websites, with Wikipedia at 1 and idk the Adidas website at 10, then I’d put the new website at like a 5.5, and ideally I’d want it to be a 3.5. Maybe even a 3. But also if I were king then I’d want all websites to move a couple of points down on this scale. - I like the tagline change and other word changes! I also like that an essay to what EA is is linked early on and also highlighting actions that people have taken.
Thanks for your work on this!
I think I mildly prefer the older landing page (sorry!).
The newer one feels more shiny, in a way that appeals to me a bit less. Trying to spell this out a bit more/ what it is that appeals to me less:
- In terms of the vibe it feels more professionalismy, status signallingy, corporate, respectable or something. (I don’t think it’s entirely fair to describe the new website as these things, but it does at least feel like the new website is more in this direction relative to the old).
- I’m remembering Sarah Constantin’s article on Ra as I write this, which I think gestures towards what I like less.
- I feel a bit of an ick of the ‘featured in’ section (which has logos of eg. the BBC, NYT etc.). I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe because it feels like there’s a subtle implication of ‘if you respect these institutions/ brands, then you’ll like this effective altruism thing’. And I’m like ‘huh, I’m not sure how much I do respect these institutions/ brands’… idk. (also, featured in feels like a bit of an odd way to put it, as a bunch of these places have written things very unchartiable about EA).
- From the new website, I get a bit more of a sense that someone is trying to sell something to me somehow. Like, it seems like the kind of website that I expect to see from a corporation that wants me to buy their product, and less like the kind of website that I expect to see from something that wants to provide me information or something.
- It may just be that I am into boring websites. For example, my idea of a good time/ a good website is eg. Wikipedia, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and Astral Codex Ten. I guess I’m just really into large walls of text. But doubling down on this, I think there is something good about the statement that large walls of text makes. It’s like ‘hey, what we’re about is like thinking carefully and passionately impassionate reasoning, and so we’re going to communicate with you via lots of words and explicit arguments and claims, and not with shiny images and vague associations with established institutions, because we think that in an ideal world people should be persuaded to get involved with a community/ philosophy on the basis of explicit arguments and claims, and not on the basis of shiny images etc.’
- I think the above comments might make it seem like I’m more anti the new website than I actually am. I think it’s like if there was a content-to-shiny scale for websites, with Wikipedia at 1 and idk the Adidas website at 10, then I’d put the new website at like a 5.5, and ideally I’d want it to be a 3.5. Maybe even a 3. But also if I were king then I’d want all websites to move a couple of points down on this scale.
- I like the tagline change and other word changes! I also like that an essay to what EA is is linked early on and also highlighting actions that people have taken.
(Very much agree with the “Featured in” point!)