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I immediately tested the premise in my newsreader, and saw that modern clickbait gives us headlines like "How many weeks till Blandars Gnob is released?", So I

I immediately tested the premise in my newsreader, and saw that modern clickbait gives us headlines like "How many weeks till Blandars Gnob is released?", So I added that it must be a binary question.

latexr 8mo ago
Either way, research suggests it’s not true. See the “Studies” section in the linked Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines#Studies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... > A 2016 study of a sample of academic journals (not news publications) (…) were more often answered "yes" in the body of the article rather than "no". > A 2018 study of 2,585 articles in four academic journals in the field of ecology (…). Of the yes/no questions, 44 percent were answered "yes", 34 percent "maybe", and only 22 percent were answered "no". > In 2015, a study of 26,000 articles from 13 news sites on the World Wide Web (…) divided into 20 percent "yes" answers, 17 percent "no" answers and 16 percent whose answers he could not determine.
- inanutshellus 8mo ago
  > research suggests it’s not true You misread. Betteridge's law says it can be "no"... I think though his "law" is referring to clickbait that imply a falsehood to get you to read it. "New Research asks - Can your baby live entirely off of kelp?!" ... "wow can she? that's nuts! lemme read! oh. no."
  - pinnochio 8mo ago
    Hm, not much of a law if we boil it down to a tautology.
    - 1718627440 8mo ago
      Every true statement boils down to resolving it to a tautology. In a mathematical proof you resolve definitions until only a tautology is left.
      - pinnochio 8mo ago
        > Every true statement boils down to resolving it to a tautology. Prove it.
  - latexr 8mo ago
    > You misread. Betteridge's law says it can be "no"... That doesn’t make sense. Of course Betteridge didn’t mean “it can be answered with “no”, but also “yes””. The point is that you can answer “no” instead of reading the article. Either way, I was responding to ultropolis’ assertion—not Betteridge’s—by citing the studies which already suggest it to be false.

latexr 8mo ago

Either way, research suggests it’s not true. See the “Studies” section in the linked Wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines#Studies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... > A 2016 study of a sample of academic journals (not news publications) (…) were more often answered "yes" in the body of the article rather than "no". > A 2018 study of 2,585 articles in four academic journals in the field of ecology (…). Of the yes/no questions, 44 percent were answered "yes", 34 percent "maybe", and only 22 percent were answered "no". > In 2015, a study of 26,000 articles from 13 news sites on the World Wide Web (…) divided into 20 percent "yes" answers, 17 percent "no" answers and 16 percent whose answers he could not determine.

inanutshellus 8mo ago
> research suggests it’s not true You misread. Betteridge's law says it can be "no"... I think though his "law" is referring to clickbait that imply a falsehood to get you to read it. "New Research asks - Can your baby live entirely off of kelp?!" ... "wow can she? that's nuts! lemme read! oh. no."
- pinnochio 8mo ago
  Hm, not much of a law if we boil it down to a tautology.
  - 1718627440 8mo ago
    Every true statement boils down to resolving it to a tautology. In a mathematical proof you resolve definitions until only a tautology is left.
    - pinnochio 8mo ago
      > Every true statement boils down to resolving it to a tautology. Prove it.
- latexr 8mo ago
  > You misread. Betteridge's law says it can be "no"... That doesn’t make sense. Of course Betteridge didn’t mean “it can be answered with “no”, but also “yes””. The point is that you can answer “no” instead of reading the article. Either way, I was responding to ultropolis’ assertion—not Betteridge’s—by citing the studies which already suggest it to be false.