You’re either with him or you’re with the SEO consultants.

• Do it for science.
• Do it for the tumbularity.
• Do it for the girls. (The U of Q ethics board won’t let him actually say it, but you can be pretty sure that participating will totally get you girls.)

scottjacksonx:

Hey, Tumblr.

I’m really interested in Like buttons. I think they’re a fascinating phenomenon. It’s something that’s not even five years old and yet it’s already become something that millions of people do every day. It’s something that we do without thinking, but can’t always explain. Long story short, I’m interested. So interested, in fact, that I decided that my undergrad research project at UQ should be about why we click Like buttons and how knowing that might be able to improve social recommendation systems. I need to gather some information from real live people, and I could really use your help — all you’d have to do is keep using Tumblr. Interested? Read on.

As part of my research, I’m investigating why people are Liking things online. To keep things simple, I’m focusing on users of one particular social network — in this case, Tumblr. I’m running a kind of diary study over the course of a week to find out why people are Liking things on Tumblr.

Here’s how it works. You download and install a browser extension (for Safari or Chrome). Then, for the next week, every time you Like a Tumblr post, a form pops up and asks you why you just Liked that post. You answer the question and submit the form, and then the form goes away. Too easy, right? Everything’s kept anonymous, and you can opt out at any time by just uninstalling the browser extension.

If you’d like to participate in the diary study (and boy would it be swell if you would), head over here, download the browser extension and get Liking!

Thanks for your time.