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Where is the line between clickbait and attention grabbing headline. In the case of "You won't believe THIS simple trick to..." I'd definitely call it clickbait

Where is the line between clickbait and attention grabbing headline. In the case of "You won't believe THIS simple trick to..." I'd definitely call it clickbait - but in this instance, the title reflects exactly what the article is about, and while the modified title on HN does a far better representation of the contents, I personally don't see the harm in how Atlas Obscura worded the title. Or maybe I am just really susceptible to clickbait titles...

burkaman 9y ago
This is a very minor example, but compare the title to just "Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire". The word "this" naturally prompts the response "which one?", just like something saying "look at this" in real life. Again it's very minor, but the extra word adds nothing except a slight suggestion that this particular example is especially interesting and you should click to see it. Compare "Florida Man Escapes Prison" to "This Florida Man Escaped Prison". You'd scroll past the first, but you might not scroll past the second, because it seems like there must be something particularly interesting about this florida man, so you might as well take a second to click and see the picture.
- ptaipale 9y ago
  Yes, except that "This" in a title is a definite turn-off for me, and a sure way to make me avoid clicking. So sick of baiting.
  - netsharc 9y ago
    Reddit has a bot that summarizes articles. A browser extension that replaces each Buzz! Feed! Headline! with such a summary would be an interesting programming exercise. Or maybe not Buzzfeed, since even the summary will cause brain cancer.
- stcredzero 9y ago
  This pronoun makes your headlines attention getting, with one weird trick!
corysama 9y ago
A major clickbait technique is to set up an "information gap". The headline almost tells you something interesting, but leaves out the most critical bit. This makes you feel uncomfortable because you almost had something but ended up deprived and are just one click away from closure. So, the difference between "An IKEA bowl" and "This IKEA bowl" is that "a bowl" is a complete idea. "This bowl" stresses that it's talking about a specific bowl, but leaves out which bowl it is stressing.
- cr0sh 9y ago
  I was pretty certain I knew which bowl they were talking about before I clicked thru. While I didn't know the exact name of the bowl, I've been to Ikea enough to have an idea when I'm in the kitchenwares department. Something I like to do when I'm out shopping is to look at products and figure out how to repurpose them into something else; I've often looked at this bowl and said to myself "That would be an almost perfect solar concentrator". Usually, I'm looking to repurpose things for solar power usage or for robotics; Ikea actually has plenty of products to satisfy both.

burkaman 9y ago

This is a very minor example, but compare the title to just "Ikea Bowl Has Been Setting Things on Fire". The word "this" naturally prompts the response "which one?", just like something saying "look at this" in real life. Again it's very minor, but the extra word adds nothing except a slight suggestion that this particular example is especially interesting and you should click to see it. Compare "Florida Man Escapes Prison" to "This Florida Man Escaped Prison". You'd scroll past the first, but you might not scroll past the second, because it seems like there must be something particularly interesting about this florida man, so you might as well take a second to click and see the picture.

ptaipale 9y ago
Yes, except that "This" in a title is a definite turn-off for me, and a sure way to make me avoid clicking. So sick of baiting.
- netsharc 9y ago
  Reddit has a bot that summarizes articles. A browser extension that replaces each Buzz! Feed! Headline! with such a summary would be an interesting programming exercise. Or maybe not Buzzfeed, since even the summary will cause brain cancer.
stcredzero 9y ago
This pronoun makes your headlines attention getting, with one weird trick!

corysama 9y ago

A major clickbait technique is to set up an "information gap". The headline almost tells you something interesting, but leaves out the most critical bit. This makes you feel uncomfortable because you almost had something but ended up deprived and are just one click away from closure. So, the difference between "An IKEA bowl" and "This IKEA bowl" is that "a bowl" is a complete idea. "This bowl" stresses that it's talking about a specific bowl, but leaves out which bowl it is stressing.

cr0sh 9y ago
I was pretty certain I knew which bowl they were talking about before I clicked thru. While I didn't know the exact name of the bowl, I've been to Ikea enough to have an idea when I'm in the kitchenwares department. Something I like to do when I'm out shopping is to look at products and figure out how to repurpose them into something else; I've often looked at this bowl and said to myself "That would be an almost perfect solar concentrator". Usually, I'm looking to repurpose things for solar power usage or for robotics; Ikea actually has plenty of products to satisfy both.