2 ms·

> I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like 50% of Ars headlines are completely misleading. I believe they are doing A/B testing on these. Ah yes, I rememb

> I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like 50% of Ars headlines are completely misleading. I believe they are doing A/B testing on these. Ah yes, I remember correctly for once: https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/why-do-front-page-articles-titles-change.1380015/ https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/why-do-front-page-arti... TL;DR: They are doing mandatory A/B testing since 2015.

bombcar 8mo ago
A/B headline testing is just scientific clickbait.
- bayindirh 8mo ago
  I didn't argue that it isn't?
  - bombcar 8mo ago
    I was agreeing; anyone who admits to using A/B headline testing is just admitting to be a clickbait factory.
    - pixl97 8mo ago
      You ever ask the question why they would want to be a clickbait factory? Because it pays the bills, unfortunately. Google has sucked up all the advertising dollars that used to pay for media and the rest of the world is now doing card tricks to earn scraps to pay the bills.
- oneeyedpigeon 8mo ago
  I disagree. You could A/B test two good, accurate, well-written headlines and stay clear of clickbait altogether. Sure, you're still optimising for the most popular, but "clickbait" doesn't just mean "well performing", there's also an implication of duplicity. I have a modicum of experience here. I write for another online media company and, although we produce our own headlines, we are 'strongly encouraged' to write clickbait headlines, to the extent where we are asked to remove instances of specific product names (etc.) in order to be mysterious and not give the game away too early. (Yes, in case it wasn't clear, I hate this!)
  - bombcar 8mo ago
    Sure, you can be above board (and perhaps they even try) but that recent “WiFi is broken wide open” headline that turned out to be something about device-to-device and not wargaming told me where their hearts lay (in being paid, understandably).

bombcar 8mo ago

A/B headline testing is just scientific clickbait.

bayindirh 8mo ago
I didn't argue that it isn't?
- bombcar 8mo ago
  I was agreeing; anyone who admits to using A/B headline testing is just admitting to be a clickbait factory.
  - pixl97 8mo ago
    You ever ask the question why they would want to be a clickbait factory? Because it pays the bills, unfortunately. Google has sucked up all the advertising dollars that used to pay for media and the rest of the world is now doing card tricks to earn scraps to pay the bills.
oneeyedpigeon 8mo ago
I disagree. You could A/B test two good, accurate, well-written headlines and stay clear of clickbait altogether. Sure, you're still optimising for the most popular, but "clickbait" doesn't just mean "well performing", there's also an implication of duplicity. I have a modicum of experience here. I write for another online media company and, although we produce our own headlines, we are 'strongly encouraged' to write clickbait headlines, to the extent where we are asked to remove instances of specific product names (etc.) in order to be mysterious and not give the game away too early. (Yes, in case it wasn't clear, I hate this!)
- bombcar 8mo ago
  Sure, you can be above board (and perhaps they even try) but that recent “WiFi is broken wide open” headline that turned out to be something about device-to-device and not wargaming told me where their hearts lay (in being paid, understandably).