14 ms·

Wow, damninstersting.com! What a throwback. I remember loving the posts there back when digg was still popular. That being said, I have a hard time swallowing

Wow, damninstersting.com! What a throwback. I remember loving the posts there back when digg was still popular. That being said, I have a hard time swallowing the premise of the article. > When we ask them what caused the assumption of our demise, they invariably cite the fact that our posts disappeared from their Facebook news feeds. I would expect reddit to frequently link to damninteresting, but I can't recall seeing them on reddit since digg was still around, which to me points out that there is probably a larger problem than extortion for traffic. I distinctly remember a post from the owner of damn interesting explaining lack of content and/or shutting down at some point too.

lovingCranberry 4y ago
The article tries to make the reader feel bad about Facebook by pointing out how the site can create negative emotions. However, the author does not seem to be aware of the fact that he is doing the same thing.
- doctor_eval 4y ago
  Not at all the same. Most authors are deliberately trying to elicit emotion in their writing, and you can decide if you want to keep reading or not. Personally, I often get to a point where I realise my mood is being negatively affected by writing, and decide to move on. But that's part of the experience of reading in any media. The difference is that Facebook would be selective about what writing they would move you on to, in order to deliberately manipulate your emotional state over a long period of time. If you read the damninteresting post and felt bad, maybe you would decide to go check out xkcd or theoatmeal or something. But on Facebook, the next article would have a similar sentiment, so you didn't get the unicorn break you needed to maintain a good mood. The decision to move on was taken away from you, without your knowledge, in the interests of "research".
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    The important difference is that an author is just one person with a busy life who for a few hours a week writes to manipulate your emotional state. Facebook is a machine. It's a gargantuan, for-profit, always-on swarm of bots spread globally across multiple data centres all programmed to relentlessly manipulate your emotional state. When making moral comparisons people forget factors of scale and speed matter. Quantitative differences become qualitative differences.
    - doctor_eval 4y ago
      Yes, that really what I meant. Once you’re on Facebook it takes over your reading selection, and it does so to the benefit of Facebook. It’s been incredibly pernicious, and I remain astounded that we (Facebook users) allowed it to happen.
DamnInteresting 4y ago
Hello! I am Alan, owner of Damn Interesting. We have never actually shut the site down, nor announced intention to do so. There was a long hiatus while I ended a bad marriage and reassembled my life. And on another occasion we announced that we were going to pump the brakes on our exhausting posting schedule to stave off burnout. But we never quit, and have no plans to do so. I understand your skepticism regarding the premise of the article, but Facebook truly took over as the way people kept track of sites like ours. When Facebook introduced the "boosting" mechanism, and we didn't opt to pay them to regain access to our audience, our traffic tanked almost overnight. We were not the only content creators to notice this phenomenon[1]. [1]: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people
- hayst4ck 4y ago
  Hello Alan! I wasn't expecting a response! An article talking about author burnout sounds like what I remember. DamnInteresting always appeared organically in Stumble Upon, reddit or digg for me, so there was never any reason to "subscribe," then it just kind of disappeared, exactly like you said many people experienced. I have a distinct memory of reading the sex life of bananas article (https://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana/ https://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-...). After reading it, I have actively searched for unique types and varieties of fruits, particularly when traveling. It's habit formed after reading that article that has led me to novel experiences and made a small consistently positive impact on my life. Thank you for that! I remember reading the Galloping Gertie article and the Outer Space Exposure article and thinking "damn that was interesting!" afterwards too. Promises made were delivered. My default hypothesis was that long form articles are harder and harder to read given the dopamine flood gate that is TikTok/Reddit/YouTube etc. Algorithms that optimize for quick attention would prefer content that requires less investment, resulting in migration to primarily video/gif content. My gauge was that reddit's algorithm (which I still believe is mostly organic) hasn't picked up articles, so it would make sense that Facebook hasn't either. When DamnInteresting was showing up on my social media, Randall Monroe of XKCD was still contributing directly to reddit, and I haven't seen xkcd comics or himself for a long time either. I was kind of expecting an Eternal September situation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September) for social media, resulting in optimization for lowest common denominator content, which is not what DamnInteresting is. If it's happening to short form media as well, then it is sad to see that it appears to be direct extortion. If it's any small consolation, I have already quit Facebook myself and won't touch anything Meta, employment wise or otherwise.

lovingCranberry 4y ago

The article tries to make the reader feel bad about Facebook by pointing out how the site can create negative emotions. However, the author does not seem to be aware of the fact that he is doing the same thing.

doctor_eval 4y ago
Not at all the same. Most authors are deliberately trying to elicit emotion in their writing, and you can decide if you want to keep reading or not. Personally, I often get to a point where I realise my mood is being negatively affected by writing, and decide to move on. But that's part of the experience of reading in any media. The difference is that Facebook would be selective about what writing they would move you on to, in order to deliberately manipulate your emotional state over a long period of time. If you read the damninteresting post and felt bad, maybe you would decide to go check out xkcd or theoatmeal or something. But on Facebook, the next article would have a similar sentiment, so you didn't get the unicorn break you needed to maintain a good mood. The decision to move on was taken away from you, without your knowledge, in the interests of "research".
- nonrandomstring 4y ago
  The important difference is that an author is just one person with a busy life who for a few hours a week writes to manipulate your emotional state. Facebook is a machine. It's a gargantuan, for-profit, always-on swarm of bots spread globally across multiple data centres all programmed to relentlessly manipulate your emotional state. When making moral comparisons people forget factors of scale and speed matter. Quantitative differences become qualitative differences.
  - doctor_eval 4y ago
    Yes, that really what I meant. Once you’re on Facebook it takes over your reading selection, and it does so to the benefit of Facebook. It’s been incredibly pernicious, and I remain astounded that we (Facebook users) allowed it to happen.

DamnInteresting 4y ago

Hello! I am Alan, owner of Damn Interesting. We have never actually shut the site down, nor announced intention to do so. There was a long hiatus while I ended a bad marriage and reassembled my life. And on another occasion we announced that we were going to pump the brakes on our exhausting posting schedule to stave off burnout. But we never quit, and have no plans to do so. I understand your skepticism regarding the premise of the article, but Facebook truly took over as the way people kept track of sites like ours. When Facebook introduced the "boosting" mechanism, and we didn't opt to pay them to regain access to our audience, our traffic tanked almost overnight. We were not the only content creators to notice this phenomenon[1]. [1]: https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people https://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people

hayst4ck 4y ago
Hello Alan! I wasn't expecting a response! An article talking about author burnout sounds like what I remember. DamnInteresting always appeared organically in Stumble Upon, reddit or digg for me, so there was never any reason to "subscribe," then it just kind of disappeared, exactly like you said many people experienced. I have a distinct memory of reading the sex life of bananas article (https://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-the-banana/ https://www.damninteresting.com/the-unfortunate-sex-life-of-...). After reading it, I have actively searched for unique types and varieties of fruits, particularly when traveling. It's habit formed after reading that article that has led me to novel experiences and made a small consistently positive impact on my life. Thank you for that! I remember reading the Galloping Gertie article and the Outer Space Exposure article and thinking "damn that was interesting!" afterwards too. Promises made were delivered. My default hypothesis was that long form articles are harder and harder to read given the dopamine flood gate that is TikTok/Reddit/YouTube etc. Algorithms that optimize for quick attention would prefer content that requires less investment, resulting in migration to primarily video/gif content. My gauge was that reddit's algorithm (which I still believe is mostly organic) hasn't picked up articles, so it would make sense that Facebook hasn't either. When DamnInteresting was showing up on my social media, Randall Monroe of XKCD was still contributing directly to reddit, and I haven't seen xkcd comics or himself for a long time either. I was kind of expecting an Eternal September situation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September) for social media, resulting in optimization for lowest common denominator content, which is not what DamnInteresting is. If it's happening to short form media as well, then it is sad to see that it appears to be direct extortion. If it's any small consolation, I have already quit Facebook myself and won't touch anything Meta, employment wise or otherwise.