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Hi, the author of the piece here. Definitely not a sponsored article. I heard the story over dinner at Mobile World Congress and thought it was interesting and

Hi, the author of the piece here. Definitely not a sponsored article. I heard the story over dinner at Mobile World Congress and thought it was interesting and worth sharing. If it had been sponsored it would be clearly marked as such.

Mithaldu 11y ago
Oh wow, a rare unicorn seen in the wild. I always wanted to ask someone like you some questions. The "trick" in question can be easily summarized in 4 words and would make for an even more compelling title: Man pretends to be a bot to find out what users really thought of his app It is laudable that you actually explain this in the first paragraph instead of waffling on for 3/4 of the paragraph before "revealing the trick" (collecting time for the ad scripts to register impressions). However: Why did you still choose such a click bait title, and even a particularly horrifying one as that? Are you aware of how horrible and manipulative your title is? How do you feel about yourself when writing such titles?
- hollerith 11y ago
  I think you're being too hard on the writer of the headline / title. It is less misleading than the median headline on a web site by a for-profit news organization IMHO. (((The headline on the OP and here on HN is currently "This man used a clever trick to find out what users really thought of his app".))) How, in your opinion, did the article fail to deliver on the promises in the title? Does the trick described fail to qualify as "clever"? Grandparent's author (martinbryant): thanks for the interesting story. I can't explain why 3 of the comments here are so critical of your headline.
  - Mithaldu 11y ago
    Honestly, good question. And i thank you for asking it instead of jumping out with assertions of how wrong i am. :) Clickbait is not necessarily "lie about the content". It is also "hide the main point of the article so the person must click to find out". Bait-and-switch can be involved in a clickbait title, but it is not a necessary component. This serves to increase clicks (and thus impressions on ads on the page) even by people who ordinarily would not be interested in the content if they already knew what the "trick" was when seeing the headline.
    - hollerith 11y ago
      OK, fair enough. As far as misbehavior by publishers on the web with advertising-supported business models goes, however, this particular example is on the mild side; wouldn't you say? Some sites for example intentionally break the back button (using Javascript) so that non-technical users will spend more time on the site.
      - Mithaldu 11y ago
        Misbehavior by publisher is low in this example, yes. On the other hand, "clever trick" ranks extremely high, at least for me personally, and should never be used in my opinion. This may be such because usually the words "clever trick" are used only by articles and ads who are peddling some of the worst frauds possible.

Mithaldu 11y ago

Oh wow, a rare unicorn seen in the wild. I always wanted to ask someone like you some questions. The "trick" in question can be easily summarized in 4 words and would make for an even more compelling title: Man pretends to be a bot to find out what users really thought of his app It is laudable that you actually explain this in the first paragraph instead of waffling on for 3/4 of the paragraph before "revealing the trick" (collecting time for the ad scripts to register impressions). However: Why did you still choose such a click bait title, and even a particularly horrifying one as that? Are you aware of how horrible and manipulative your title is? How do you feel about yourself when writing such titles?

hollerith 11y ago
I think you're being too hard on the writer of the headline / title. It is less misleading than the median headline on a web site by a for-profit news organization IMHO. (((The headline on the OP and here on HN is currently "This man used a clever trick to find out what users really thought of his app".))) How, in your opinion, did the article fail to deliver on the promises in the title? Does the trick described fail to qualify as "clever"? Grandparent's author (martinbryant): thanks for the interesting story. I can't explain why 3 of the comments here are so critical of your headline.
- Mithaldu 11y ago
  Honestly, good question. And i thank you for asking it instead of jumping out with assertions of how wrong i am. :) Clickbait is not necessarily "lie about the content". It is also "hide the main point of the article so the person must click to find out". Bait-and-switch can be involved in a clickbait title, but it is not a necessary component. This serves to increase clicks (and thus impressions on ads on the page) even by people who ordinarily would not be interested in the content if they already knew what the "trick" was when seeing the headline.
  - hollerith 11y ago
    OK, fair enough. As far as misbehavior by publishers on the web with advertising-supported business models goes, however, this particular example is on the mild side; wouldn't you say? Some sites for example intentionally break the back button (using Javascript) so that non-technical users will spend more time on the site.
    - Mithaldu 11y ago
      Misbehavior by publisher is low in this example, yes. On the other hand, "clever trick" ranks extremely high, at least for me personally, and should never be used in my opinion. This may be such because usually the words "clever trick" are used only by articles and ads who are peddling some of the worst frauds possible.