3 ms·

If this doesn't read as clear, absolute, 100%, not-at-all-up-for-debate clickbait as explained by AdmiralAsshat then the media has done a great job of manipulat

If this doesn't read as clear, absolute, 100%, not-at-all-up-for-debate clickbait as explained by AdmiralAsshat then the media has done a great job of manipulating your expectations. The title intentionally replaces the primary subject of the article (baby found in freezer) with withholding and vague language ("her secret") in order to force readers to click through to learn what the primary subject is. They are baiting you into clicking. This is clickbait.

jakobegger 7y ago
The author really tried hard to build up the suspense before the reveal, so it would be very odd if they gave it away in the title. I even think they gave away too much, since my first thought was "baby" when I read "in the freezer". I think this kind of story is one of the rare cases where I would have preferred a less revealing title. Some people enjoy reading stories without knowing the end beforehand.
lemmsjid 7y ago
You’re missing the bait part of clickbait. Baiting a fish is tricking them into thinking they’ll get a meal, when they won’t. Clickbait is for things like “You won’t believe the shocking thing Harrison Ford did this morning!!” —and it turns out he buttered his toast. All too common, when media companies actually do not have a story, or the funds to go deep on a story, so instead mislead the reader into thinking a story is there when it isn’t. In other words, bait. This article delivers what it promises, which is unveiling the mystery and the context around it in a well written and researched fashion. I would be very sad if all headlines had to be so reductionistically explicit that there was no room for narrative. For example in this case the presence of the box was hanging over the family for years. Leaving that mystery to the reader does make a tantalizing headline, but also allows for increased identification with the family itself. That will not be true for all readers, but let’s please separate clickbait from anticipation and suspense.
- ramphastidae 7y ago
  > You’re missing the bait part of clickbait. It's not missing at all. The bait is the phrase "her secret in the freezer". The article may be high quality but the title is clickbait, plain and simple. Do you believe the author chose that title themselves? Or was it the editors who have marketing-set quotas to reach? Why do you think the top voted comment in this thread is the explanation of what "her secret in the freezer" is? Why do you think the top replying comment to that is the primary HN mod acknowledging it is clickbait?
  - lemmsjid 7y ago
    This is probably a pointless argument, because I will heartily agree this is all about semantics that are not locked into the language :). But I believe a quite acceptable distinction between 'clickbait' and a 'lead-in' or what-have-you is that the article A) does tell you what the secret is that was promised by the headline, and B) the secret is to the point of the article and not overly sensationalized by the title. I'll borrow Wikipedia's definition: "Clickbait is a form of false advertisement which uses hyperlink text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, with a defining characteristic of being deceptive, typically sensationalized or misleading." What I'm focusing on is what wikipedia calls the 'defining characteristic', which is what separates it from headlines intended to build suspense. In other words, a title is not clickbait if it tries to entice you with tantalizingly withheld information, it is clickbait if it lures you into an article that does not provide the information thusly withheld, or it turns out the information was inaccurately implied by the title. In the same way, a piece of food that entices a fish is only bait if it will not provide a meal but instead put the fish in a situation they did not intend on being in (getting caught). If you extend clickbait to situations like this article, there isn't really a word left for the ones that are actively misleading. For example there's a newspaper that keeps getting me to click on its stuff in Google News because it tells me an asteroid almost blew up Earth, when in fact the asteroid had an infintesimal chance of doing so. That is clickbait. Having worked in content recommendations quite a bit, I can say it's quite a painful situation. What would make the above article title clickbait would have been if it turned out he found spoiled milk in the freezer, or some other pedestrian product. Which happens quite a bit in Internet syndicated media.
kube-system 7y ago
That may be your opinion, but the word is not universally used in such a liberal manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait#Definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait#Definition

jakobegger 7y ago

The author really tried hard to build up the suspense before the reveal, so it would be very odd if they gave it away in the title. I even think they gave away too much, since my first thought was "baby" when I read "in the freezer". I think this kind of story is one of the rare cases where I would have preferred a less revealing title. Some people enjoy reading stories without knowing the end beforehand.

lemmsjid 7y ago

You’re missing the bait part of clickbait. Baiting a fish is tricking them into thinking they’ll get a meal, when they won’t. Clickbait is for things like “You won’t believe the shocking thing Harrison Ford did this morning!!” —and it turns out he buttered his toast. All too common, when media companies actually do not have a story, or the funds to go deep on a story, so instead mislead the reader into thinking a story is there when it isn’t. In other words, bait. This article delivers what it promises, which is unveiling the mystery and the context around it in a well written and researched fashion. I would be very sad if all headlines had to be so reductionistically explicit that there was no room for narrative. For example in this case the presence of the box was hanging over the family for years. Leaving that mystery to the reader does make a tantalizing headline, but also allows for increased identification with the family itself. That will not be true for all readers, but let’s please separate clickbait from anticipation and suspense.

ramphastidae 7y ago
> You’re missing the bait part of clickbait. It's not missing at all. The bait is the phrase "her secret in the freezer". The article may be high quality but the title is clickbait, plain and simple. Do you believe the author chose that title themselves? Or was it the editors who have marketing-set quotas to reach? Why do you think the top voted comment in this thread is the explanation of what "her secret in the freezer" is? Why do you think the top replying comment to that is the primary HN mod acknowledging it is clickbait?
- lemmsjid 7y ago
  This is probably a pointless argument, because I will heartily agree this is all about semantics that are not locked into the language :). But I believe a quite acceptable distinction between 'clickbait' and a 'lead-in' or what-have-you is that the article A) does tell you what the secret is that was promised by the headline, and B) the secret is to the point of the article and not overly sensationalized by the title. I'll borrow Wikipedia's definition: "Clickbait is a form of false advertisement which uses hyperlink text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, with a defining characteristic of being deceptive, typically sensationalized or misleading." What I'm focusing on is what wikipedia calls the 'defining characteristic', which is what separates it from headlines intended to build suspense. In other words, a title is not clickbait if it tries to entice you with tantalizingly withheld information, it is clickbait if it lures you into an article that does not provide the information thusly withheld, or it turns out the information was inaccurately implied by the title. In the same way, a piece of food that entices a fish is only bait if it will not provide a meal but instead put the fish in a situation they did not intend on being in (getting caught). If you extend clickbait to situations like this article, there isn't really a word left for the ones that are actively misleading. For example there's a newspaper that keeps getting me to click on its stuff in Google News because it tells me an asteroid almost blew up Earth, when in fact the asteroid had an infintesimal chance of doing so. That is clickbait. Having worked in content recommendations quite a bit, I can say it's quite a painful situation. What would make the above article title clickbait would have been if it turned out he found spoiled milk in the freezer, or some other pedestrian product. Which happens quite a bit in Internet syndicated media.

kube-system 7y ago

That may be your opinion, but the word is not universally used in such a liberal manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait#Definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait#Definition