Thanks for this interesting exercise. Three things I want to say:
#1: For people unaware, pressing the red button means you cannot un-press it, though nothing bad will happen unless you enter a launch code.
After I read this page carefully, I thought it was going to be fine and harmless/reversible for me to press the red button, since I had not received a launch code. I have no intention of bringing the LessWrong site down, and don’t plan on entering any launch code, whether random or someone else’s, into the page. I also thought pressing the button would be anonymous, but entering launch codes would not be.
I was just curious at what the user interface/experience would be if I press the button, but not enter anything into it. Anyway, apparently pressing the button means you cannot “un-press” the button. So if you’re similarly as curious as me, here’s what it looks like after pressing the button:
It was only after I read this LessWrong postmortem about Petrov Day 2020 that pressing the red button, even without entering anything into it, will likely be known as done by you by the Forum/LW team, but probably not announced publicly. So I’m posting this ahead saying me pressing the button was out of curiosity, not out of some bad intention.
#2: I think the EA Forum/LW teams should not publicly name the people who enter random codes into either webpage.
In the same LW postmortem, I also found out that the name of someone entering random codes could be revealed. I think both the EA Forum and LW team should probably not do this. (I haven’t entered a random code, but maybe someone else would, without knowing they’d possibly be publicly named.)
You probably don’t know whether the person entering random codes had read this post and understood the exercise before doing so. And they might feel some distress about being publicly named as having entered a random code.
#3: The EA Forum/LW teams should not read in too much about the number of people who press the red button without entering a correct launch code.
I assume they probably won’t read into it, but I thought it would still be worth saying.
As seen in another comment here (which I assume is not a joke), someone accidentally pressed the button. And there’s probably others who didn’t understand what the exercise was about, and were just tempted to click a big red button when they first landed on the Forum today. And then there’s probably a few people like me who wanted to see what would happen if the button were pressed but no launch codes were entered.
You shouldn’t read too much into the amount of people pressing the button in terms of malice, but you can read into it in terms of negligence, lack of caution or impulsiveness. It’s how many people saw a big red button and pressed it without first checking what it does. It’s how many people took the chance that pressing it may do something bad even without the launch codes.
I was also curious what happens if you press the button and don’t enter the code, but didn’t check, because I view pressing the button as something you just don’t do—I wouldn’t do it even if a site admin specifically told me “you can press the button without any consequence”.
Though, having pressed the button, it was a good idea to publish how it looks, and you satisfied my curiosity.
I’d fairly strongly disagree with that take. I think it’s an extremely reasonable assumption that a somewhat cartoony red button someone put at the top of a website deliberately does not do harm to press. Someone deliberately chose to put it there, and most features on websites are optimised for user interaction. This only looks unreasonable within the strong frame of having cultural context about Petrov Day
Fair, though I still tend to check what things I press on do before I press them. If there’s no explanation I might still press them, but if it says “learn more” right there I will probably learn more before I do.
Thanks for this interesting exercise. Three things I want to say:
#1: For people unaware, pressing the red button means you cannot un-press it, though nothing bad will happen unless you enter a launch code.
After I read this page carefully, I thought it was going to be fine and harmless/reversible for me to press the red button, since I had not received a launch code. I have no intention of bringing the LessWrong site down, and don’t plan on entering any launch code, whether random or someone else’s, into the page. I also thought pressing the button would be anonymous, but entering launch codes would not be.
I was just curious at what the user interface/experience would be if I press the button, but not enter anything into it. Anyway, apparently pressing the button means you cannot “un-press” the button. So if you’re similarly as curious as me, here’s what it looks like after pressing the button:
It was only after I read this LessWrong postmortem about Petrov Day 2020 that pressing the red button, even without entering anything into it, will likely be known as done by you by the Forum/LW team, but probably not announced publicly. So I’m posting this ahead saying me pressing the button was out of curiosity, not out of some bad intention.
#2: I think the EA Forum/LW teams should not publicly name the people who enter random codes into either webpage.
In the same LW postmortem, I also found out that the name of someone entering random codes could be revealed. I think both the EA Forum and LW team should probably not do this. (I haven’t entered a random code, but maybe someone else would, without knowing they’d possibly be publicly named.)
You probably don’t know whether the person entering random codes had read this post and understood the exercise before doing so. And they might feel some distress about being publicly named as having entered a random code.
#3: The EA Forum/LW teams should not read in too much about the number of people who press the red button without entering a correct launch code.
I assume they probably won’t read into it, but I thought it would still be worth saying.
As seen in another comment here (which I assume is not a joke), someone accidentally pressed the button. And there’s probably others who didn’t understand what the exercise was about, and were just tempted to click a big red button when they first landed on the Forum today. And then there’s probably a few people like me who wanted to see what would happen if the button were pressed but no launch codes were entered.
Anyway, hopefully neither site gets taken down!
LessWrong mod speaking here. Just wanted to confirm that everything written here is correct.
To be clear, only the identities of the account that enters a valid code will be shared.
Great, thanks!
You shouldn’t read too much into the amount of people pressing the button in terms of malice, but you can read into it in terms of negligence, lack of caution or impulsiveness. It’s how many people saw a big red button and pressed it without first checking what it does. It’s how many people took the chance that pressing it may do something bad even without the launch codes.
I was also curious what happens if you press the button and don’t enter the code, but didn’t check, because I view pressing the button as something you just don’t do—I wouldn’t do it even if a site admin specifically told me “you can press the button without any consequence”.
Though, having pressed the button, it was a good idea to publish how it looks, and you satisfied my curiosity.
I’d fairly strongly disagree with that take. I think it’s an extremely reasonable assumption that a somewhat cartoony red button someone put at the top of a website deliberately does not do harm to press. Someone deliberately chose to put it there, and most features on websites are optimised for user interaction. This only looks unreasonable within the strong frame of having cultural context about Petrov Day
Fair, though I still tend to check what things I press on do before I press them. If there’s no explanation I might still press them, but if it says “learn more” right there I will probably learn more before I do.
Yeah I guess you can read into it in terms of negligence, lack of caution or impulsiveness.