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Mad offtopic unimportant nitpick here. I'm so extremely put off when an author spends three paragraphs building up to an exciting climax, hits enter enter and

Mad offtopic unimportant nitpick here. I'm so extremely put off when an author spends three paragraphs building up to an exciting climax, hits enter enter and then writes "Michael Larson was born in the small town of Lebanon, Ohio in 1949". I had to skim half the article to find out how the story continued. Anecdotally, this strikes me as a uniquely American thing to do (or, at least, I've not read a single Dutch article pulling this trick), is there any point to it? Is it just something about eyeballs and ads? Do they teach this stuff in journalism school? Maybe Americans are immune to it because of the enormous amounts of "build up, build up, build up, almost there..... Let's continue after the messages! ^_^" on childhood TV?

rriepe 6y ago
Articles occasionally get made into movies, and therefore have a huge incentive to be movie-like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_magazine_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_magazin...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
runawaybottle 6y ago
People write drunk bro, or on speed, especially Americans.
gfxgirl 6y ago
On many mobile sites (amp?) an ad is inserted every screenful of text so the longer the text the more ads. Not sure this is related but go look at english recipe sites. 10-15 screens of fluff to get to the recipe. It's clearly some kind of SEO or ad optimizing formula
- progre 6y ago
  I was complaining to my wife about this exact thing yesterday. Her reply: You do know we own like 20 printed cookbooks right? No ads in those...
FatalLogic 6y ago
Would you prefer the article to begin "Michael Larson was born in the small town of Lebanon, Ohio in 1949. Although he was generally regarded as creative and intelligent, he had an inexplicable preference for shady enterprises over gainful employment. One of his earliest exploits was in middle school ..."? No, you probably would stop reading after two lines of that. Because who cares about this ordinary-sounding guy? We have to know why he's interesting, first. Or would you prefer to not know about Larson's background, and just get the exciting part of the story? Maybe you would, but many people would be left feeling dissatisfied by that and halfway through they would be asking, "So, who is this guy Larson, where did he come from? What's the context behind all this crazy stuff he did?" Organizing a narrative is a difficult logistical challenge. Could you do it better?
- dimeatree 6y ago
  Yes. It's to the point.
- skrebbel 6y ago
  I would prefer they at least tell us whether he cheated or got lucky. It's an awful cliffhanger that serves no purpose. This isn't a Dan Brown novel.
- throwaway2245 6y ago
  I don't know where (for example) Mark Zuckerberg was born, nor when, and nor do I care. I know the parts which are relevant to Zuckerberg's story: that he was likely born in the US, and was likely around 20 when he founded Facebook. A journalistic interpretation of Larson's childhood is speculative non-sense. The journalist was not there, and does not even cite who thought Larson was "creative and intelligent". It doesn't add anything (for me), except that the journalist presenting themself as an omniscient narrator makes the article read as a fictional story.
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    Zuckerberg was a child of privilege raised in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the US and attended an extremely elite private high school. That's relevant.
kd5bjo 6y ago
From what I can tell, the problem is that those first three paragraphs are a perfectly good introduction to a different article. Larson is obviously going to be a main character in this story, but there are strong signals that the article won't be primarily about Larson. Instead, it seems to be building up to a story about how the show went wrong and what the wider effects were. In particular, it's promising themes of themes of shock and incredulity. The next four paragraphs deliver none of this, opting instead to make a study of Larson's character. The show itself, another major character, doesn't makes an appearance again until paragraph 8. The first hint at the foreshadowed themes doesn't show up until the end of paragraph 10, where "Bob Edwards was uneasy about Larson." and then not again until paragraph 14, where "Host Peter Tomarken became increasingly flabbergasted..." From that point on, the article seems to match the tone of the introduction. The correct fix is probably to rework the introduction to include some of the themes present in the first half of the article. Maybe focus on themes of escalation, as the whole article is built as a slow, constant build-up of intensity.
JW_00000 6y ago
This seems to be a typical feature of "long-form journalism" [1]. This might be a typically American format? (As a Belgian, I also see this type of articles less often in our media.) I've grown to dislike it because it feels pseudo-intellectual: making articles longer with the implication that they must be of higher quality (especially in contrast to clickbait), but in reality, it often feels like the journalist is just fluffing up the text with irrelevant information. I think these articles are supposed to be read like a short story, but nonfictional, rather than as a factual account of what happened. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism
yepthatsreality 6y ago
Journalism school has been removed from the equation for most American (and probably beyond those borders) bloggers.
kodt 6y ago
This format is very common in long form journalism. New Yorker articles are a good example of this format. First they have the hook, then they go back and tell the persons entire life story. I think the point is for you to get somewhat emotionally invested in the story, almost like reading a novel or short story instead of just reporting the facts. Some people find it more enjoyable to read, or may find it easier to retain information in this format as you begin to get invested in the story.
DamnInteresting 6y ago
Author of the article here. It's definitely not about ads. On principle, we don't host ads on Damn Interesting, and we never have. We aim for narrative non-fiction, to tell a true story that keeps the reader intrigued throughout. We've found over the years that stories with a good "hook" or "teaser" seem to be best received by readers. We've also found that people want some background on the people/places they are reading about, and this often requires us to jump back in time after the teaser to fill in the relevant information. If your goal is just to extract the basic bones of the story rather than to be entertained for a while, you probably won't like this article, nor the others in our catalog. Our approach to storytelling is not for everybody. And that's okay with us--trying to please everyone is the short road to clickbait town.
- JKCalhoun 6y ago
  Thank you, author. I actually like the style - it is entertaining. And in fact, the guys back story was almost the highlight really. Laying himself off to collect unemployment ... what a piece of work.
- oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
  FWIW, I thought it was a highly entertaining read and well written. This style of introduction followed by a 'rewind to the beginning' is pretty common in my experience, particularly in magazine articles including longform newspaper pieces, here in the UK. I don't know why anyone would associate it with clickbait - I find that strange. If I were being hyper critical, I'd suggest maybe some kind of visual section break, like one of those stylised wavy lines - I have no idea what they're called!

rriepe 6y ago

Articles occasionally get made into movies, and therefore have a huge incentive to be movie-like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_magazine_articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_magazin...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

runawaybottle 6y ago

People write drunk bro, or on speed, especially Americans.

gfxgirl 6y ago

On many mobile sites (amp?) an ad is inserted every screenful of text so the longer the text the more ads. Not sure this is related but go look at english recipe sites. 10-15 screens of fluff to get to the recipe. It's clearly some kind of SEO or ad optimizing formula

progre 6y ago
I was complaining to my wife about this exact thing yesterday. Her reply: You do know we own like 20 printed cookbooks right? No ads in those...

FatalLogic 6y ago

Would you prefer the article to begin "Michael Larson was born in the small town of Lebanon, Ohio in 1949. Although he was generally regarded as creative and intelligent, he had an inexplicable preference for shady enterprises over gainful employment. One of his earliest exploits was in middle school ..."? No, you probably would stop reading after two lines of that. Because who cares about this ordinary-sounding guy? We have to know why he's interesting, first. Or would you prefer to not know about Larson's background, and just get the exciting part of the story? Maybe you would, but many people would be left feeling dissatisfied by that and halfway through they would be asking, "So, who is this guy Larson, where did he come from? What's the context behind all this crazy stuff he did?" Organizing a narrative is a difficult logistical challenge. Could you do it better?

dimeatree 6y ago
Yes. It's to the point.
skrebbel 6y ago
I would prefer they at least tell us whether he cheated or got lucky. It's an awful cliffhanger that serves no purpose. This isn't a Dan Brown novel.
throwaway2245 6y ago
I don't know where (for example) Mark Zuckerberg was born, nor when, and nor do I care. I know the parts which are relevant to Zuckerberg's story: that he was likely born in the US, and was likely around 20 when he founded Facebook. A journalistic interpretation of Larson's childhood is speculative non-sense. The journalist was not there, and does not even cite who thought Larson was "creative and intelligent". It doesn't add anything (for me), except that the journalist presenting themself as an omniscient narrator makes the article read as a fictional story.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Zuckerberg was a child of privilege raised in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the US and attended an extremely elite private high school. That's relevant.

kd5bjo 6y ago

From what I can tell, the problem is that those first three paragraphs are a perfectly good introduction to a different article. Larson is obviously going to be a main character in this story, but there are strong signals that the article won't be primarily about Larson. Instead, it seems to be building up to a story about how the show went wrong and what the wider effects were. In particular, it's promising themes of themes of shock and incredulity. The next four paragraphs deliver none of this, opting instead to make a study of Larson's character. The show itself, another major character, doesn't makes an appearance again until paragraph 8. The first hint at the foreshadowed themes doesn't show up until the end of paragraph 10, where "Bob Edwards was uneasy about Larson." and then not again until paragraph 14, where "Host Peter Tomarken became increasingly flabbergasted..." From that point on, the article seems to match the tone of the introduction. The correct fix is probably to rework the introduction to include some of the themes present in the first half of the article. Maybe focus on themes of escalation, as the whole article is built as a slow, constant build-up of intensity.

JW_00000 6y ago

This seems to be a typical feature of "long-form journalism" [1]. This might be a typically American format? (As a Belgian, I also see this type of articles less often in our media.) I've grown to dislike it because it feels pseudo-intellectual: making articles longer with the implication that they must be of higher quality (especially in contrast to clickbait), but in reality, it often feels like the journalist is just fluffing up the text with irrelevant information. I think these articles are supposed to be read like a short story, but nonfictional, rather than as a factual account of what happened. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-form_journalism

yepthatsreality 6y ago

Journalism school has been removed from the equation for most American (and probably beyond those borders) bloggers.

kodt 6y ago

This format is very common in long form journalism. New Yorker articles are a good example of this format. First they have the hook, then they go back and tell the persons entire life story. I think the point is for you to get somewhat emotionally invested in the story, almost like reading a novel or short story instead of just reporting the facts. Some people find it more enjoyable to read, or may find it easier to retain information in this format as you begin to get invested in the story.

DamnInteresting 6y ago

Author of the article here. It's definitely not about ads. On principle, we don't host ads on Damn Interesting, and we never have. We aim for narrative non-fiction, to tell a true story that keeps the reader intrigued throughout. We've found over the years that stories with a good "hook" or "teaser" seem to be best received by readers. We've also found that people want some background on the people/places they are reading about, and this often requires us to jump back in time after the teaser to fill in the relevant information. If your goal is just to extract the basic bones of the story rather than to be entertained for a while, you probably won't like this article, nor the others in our catalog. Our approach to storytelling is not for everybody. And that's okay with us--trying to please everyone is the short road to clickbait town.

JKCalhoun 6y ago
Thank you, author. I actually like the style - it is entertaining. And in fact, the guys back story was almost the highlight really. Laying himself off to collect unemployment ... what a piece of work.
oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
FWIW, I thought it was a highly entertaining read and well written. This style of introduction followed by a 'rewind to the beginning' is pretty common in my experience, particularly in magazine articles including longform newspaper pieces, here in the UK. I don't know why anyone would associate it with clickbait - I find that strange. If I were being hyper critical, I'd suggest maybe some kind of visual section break, like one of those stylised wavy lines - I have no idea what they're called!