5 ms·

Is every intriguing headline called clickbait now? It's not like they said "9 great traps all Americans fall into. Number 3 will blow your mind!"

by Haul4ss 10y ago

raldi 10y ago
The headline was clearly written to get people to say, "Hmm, a great trap? And it affects all Americans? I wonder what this trap is. Some kind of alligator, maybe? My brain will not allow me to get any work done until I find out the nature of said trap."
- leoc 10y ago
  Literary-journal article titles have been clickbait of this nature since before the Web existed. Buzzfeed has nothing to teach the NYRB.
  - raldi 10y ago
    This is true; before it was bait for clicks, it was bait to get you to pull the magazine off the rack. Different technology, same user-hostile purpose.
    - sotojuan 10y ago
      I wonder what the line between "user hostile" and just regular writing is. In English class I'm pretty sure we were told to do things similar to this (get the reader's attention).
      - cmdrfred 10y ago
        Hemingway didn't spend a lot of time trying to get the readers attention as far as I can tell.
      - TeMPOraL 10y ago
        There's a difference between not boring your user after he decided to read your piece, and tricking your user into reading your piece.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
parent5446 10y ago
Agreed. This is definitely not a clickbait title. An article title doesn't have to recap the entire contents; it should be a hook to get the reader interested. Clickbait is something more than that.
- ZoF 10y ago
  >This is definitely not a clickbait title That's subjectively defined so I'm not sure how you can be authoritative judge here. I think it is clickbait, and I think the people here are pretty smart and completely understand why this is relevant given current events. (By relevant I do not mean accurate)
cooper12 10y ago
To be honest, most people on HN/reddit focus wayyyy too much on titles these days, so much so that the only comments in this thread so far are about whether it is clickbait. Yes clickbait is a problem, but I also think we should make exceptions of the sort for known reputable sites. If every website was forced to use a dry and descriptive title, I'm not sure the reader would be better off. (I always found old-style titles to be peculiar: "A, or a B on C in the D of E for a F of G") I think it's only fair to make accusations of clickbait after reading the article and concluding that the substance doesn't match. "5 best horror movies of all time" tells you exactly what you're going to get, while maybe "you won't expect what happens next!" might not. I understand that titles might not give you all the information necessary for a persn to decide if they should click a link, but the comments help to give some of that context. (though they also lead to people commenting without reading based off other's conclusions, and a hivemind mentality)
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  I wouldn't consider "5 Best Horror Movies" to be a clickbait title - it tells you exactly what you're going to get. The title of this article is a pure clickbait, IMO - it's designed to arouse curiosity and does not reveal what the article is about. I guess it depends on what you believe article titles are for. I believe they should first and foremost be a tool for readers to decide whether or not to look at the article at all - therefore they need to accurately tell what the article is about. Sadly, most publishers consider headlines to be a marketing tool (with implicit assumption that the article is interesting for everyone).

Is every intriguing headline called clickbait now? It's not like they said "9 great traps all Americans fall into. Number 3 will blow your mind!"

by Haul4ss 10y ago

Is every intriguing headline called clickbait now? It's not like they said "9 great traps all Americans fall into. Number 3 will blow your mind!"

raldi 10y ago

The headline was clearly written to get people to say, "Hmm, a great trap? And it affects all Americans? I wonder what this trap is. Some kind of alligator, maybe? My brain will not allow me to get any work done until I find out the nature of said trap."

leoc 10y ago
Literary-journal article titles have been clickbait of this nature since before the Web existed. Buzzfeed has nothing to teach the NYRB.
- raldi 10y ago
  This is true; before it was bait for clicks, it was bait to get you to pull the magazine off the rack. Different technology, same user-hostile purpose.
  - sotojuan 10y ago
    I wonder what the line between "user hostile" and just regular writing is. In English class I'm pretty sure we were told to do things similar to this (get the reader's attention).
    - cmdrfred 10y ago
      Hemingway didn't spend a lot of time trying to get the readers attention as far as I can tell.
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      There's a difference between not boring your user after he decided to read your piece, and tricking your user into reading your piece.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

parent5446 10y ago

Agreed. This is definitely not a clickbait title. An article title doesn't have to recap the entire contents; it should be a hook to get the reader interested. Clickbait is something more than that.

ZoF 10y ago
>This is definitely not a clickbait title That's subjectively defined so I'm not sure how you can be authoritative judge here. I think it is clickbait, and I think the people here are pretty smart and completely understand why this is relevant given current events. (By relevant I do not mean accurate)

cooper12 10y ago

To be honest, most people on HN/reddit focus wayyyy too much on titles these days, so much so that the only comments in this thread so far are about whether it is clickbait. Yes clickbait is a problem, but I also think we should make exceptions of the sort for known reputable sites. If every website was forced to use a dry and descriptive title, I'm not sure the reader would be better off. (I always found old-style titles to be peculiar: "A, or a B on C in the D of E for a F of G") I think it's only fair to make accusations of clickbait after reading the article and concluding that the substance doesn't match. "5 best horror movies of all time" tells you exactly what you're going to get, while maybe "you won't expect what happens next!" might not. I understand that titles might not give you all the information necessary for a persn to decide if they should click a link, but the comments help to give some of that context. (though they also lead to people commenting without reading based off other's conclusions, and a hivemind mentality)

TeMPOraL 10y ago
I wouldn't consider "5 Best Horror Movies" to be a clickbait title - it tells you exactly what you're going to get. The title of this article is a pure clickbait, IMO - it's designed to arouse curiosity and does not reveal what the article is about. I guess it depends on what you believe article titles are for. I believe they should first and foremost be a tool for readers to decide whether or not to look at the article at all - therefore they need to accurately tell what the article is about. Sadly, most publishers consider headlines to be a marketing tool (with implicit assumption that the article is interesting for everyone).