No Right Answer: Is Clickbait Good or Bad?

[Nurb]

It pretty much killed Cracked.

 

[thisbymaster]

Click bait is bad, because it is placing lies as links. If you had good links, you wouldn't need to lie.

 

[Rob Gustafson]

I would say (and I wish the video would have before they dithered away into justifying their own promotions) this article wanted to address the distinction between clickbait (which is dishonest, implicit in the word "bait") and topical promotions and market analysis. One is dishonest and therefore, "bad", and the other is good business sense. If your article or video actually contains the content you advertise, rather than bait-and-switch into something completely different, you're fine with me.

 

[Lilani]

I absolutely abhor clickbait.

"5 Things Women Under 25 Need To Know. #3 is SO TRUE!"

"This video will change your life. I cried at 2 minutes."

Fuck the fuck off you fucking transparently manipulative fucks.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

You guys want click bait? Try Cracked.com. They use adjectives like "Surprising, Terrifying, Baffling, Creepy," and "...You Won't Believe." Their article titles change at least twice a day and the commenters rightly call them out on it!

Cracked has always loved hyperbole in their titles, and the "Baffling Use of Adjectives" thing is practically a joke at this point. It's not really clickbait as they don't seem to usually intend to mislead people, unless a title that only mentions movies for an article that talks about movies AND tv shows is misleading.

The changing titles is becoming a problem, though. It's not every article and it's not every day, but they switch some of them around for no good reason.

Question: Is this video clickbait? From the title (and knowledge of the show), one would expect a debate about the good and bad of clickbait. Instead, it was a defense of various people on the website who use sensationalist titles for their stuff, and there was no real debate on whether or not they should be doing so (Both Chris and Kyle were in agreement, which isn't really a debate).

I have to admit, by about the halfway point of the video I was thinking the same thing. I'm still trying to decide whether that was intentional as a joke or just a result of the show's usual one-side-or-the-other structure being sorta shoehorned into the title.

It was more of a discussion on the overuse of the term, what the true definition would be, and if click bait can be good. Yes, the title was as close to the content as we could get in the space we had.

The original title, which was vetoed, was penisboobmoneysjw show!

Damn it, Tito, that title was gold! Heck, make Penisboobmoneysjw Show a weekly thing and I might finally join the Pub Club.

 

[Varis]

I think the whole episode could have been summarized by a single downward pointing arrow, which pointed at the "From the web ads" or whatever you would like to call them. Mostly screaming "TOP 5 SNAPCHAT FAILS OF ALL TIME" and whatever. That's clickbait. Content, no substance. But then again. We all want free content. Or what at least feels free. That is the reason I've got adblock allowing Escapist, because I want all the contributors and the site itself with all it's personnel get their fee. Clickbait is just when you give zero effort for maximum pay-off. Which isn't cool.

 

[marurder]

I've never really had issue with these videos by anyone mentioned being click-bait. MY ire comes from when a news article is portrayed in such a manner. Which is happening more on escapistmagazine.

An example from this week;

The Sims 4 Release Day Deals
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137210-Release-Day-Deals-for-The-Sims-4

Less about the Sims 4 and more a catalog about everything else. But I don't fault The Escapist so much for this. It is clear that dealzon is a rep for sales. But it is portrayed as news.

Comparing this site to others (such as yahoo which is total tripe) The Escapist is much better. But it is gradually lowering the bar of its news articles and 'journalism'.

 

[weirdee]

Yeah, side note on some recent articles: they seem more like they were written by people paid to write about those particular games by the companies that made them. Probably not the case, but it makes my back scar itch whenever somebody starts talking like an ad.

 

[Darth_Payn]

You guys want click bait? Try Cracked.com. They use adjectives like "Surprising, Terrifying, Baffling, Creepy," and "...You Won't Believe." Their article titles change at least twice a day and the commenters rightly call them out on it!

Cracked has always loved hyperbole in their titles, and the "Baffling Use of Adjectives" thing is practically a joke at this point. It's not really clickbait as they don't seem to usually intend to mislead people, unless a title that only mentions movies for an article that talks about movies AND tv shows is misleading.

The changing titles is becoming a problem, though. It's not every article and it's not every day, but they switch some of them around for no good reason.

I know, right?! It's insultingly obvious when the URL is different from what the title really says! Although the "clickbait" accusations get thrown around over there to, mainly in articles that wind up not being very funny or well researched.
Also, you're on Cracked, right? I'm sure I've seen your comments in their articles (and yours are hilarious).

 

[goothrie]

Yeah- I was hoping for a debate at least- rather than what boiled down to "don't accuse this website of clickbait pLease"

I think Jim is mostly accused of clickbait because his job is to talk about controversial stuff, so I can give him a bit of a pass. Bob on the other hand, seems to purposely want to rile people-and, if you check his twitter, you can see him pitch a huge fit anytime people disagree with him.... but thats another issue, I suppose.

Every week a gaming website writes "WILL NINTENDO GO BANKRUPT IN 2015?", you click on it, and its "-Well, uh, probably not." Seriously- that example repeats constantly.
I think all these "An end to all those filthy gamer idiots!" articles coming out now are clickbait purposely trying to offend their readers- but again- inside it's "We mean the sexist ones." or something of the sort.
Take a look at half the articles on Kotaku for more great examples. They're particularly bad about it. They make escapist look much better by comparison.

I would consider this video to be clickbait, since really, nobody but journalists seem to defend this Readers are mostly sick and tired of it. Clickbait shows a disregard for integrity and an obsession with pleasing advertisers.

I mean, I see where these two are coming from, but I just have pretty strict standardson this.

 

[Verlander]

I mean, it wasn't really discussing clickbait, it was determining that what Bob and co do isn't click bait.

Those guys provide content, be it articles or videos. Clickbait is the promise of something that it then fails to deliver. If Bob wrote titles like "DC reveal Wonder Woman's outfit, and you'll never guess what part of her body it shows...!", then that would be clickbait. It's irrelevant to the film, it's hinting as a scandal that doesn't exist, and it's something that could have easily been addressed in the title. Instead we're more likely to get the title "Controversy over skimpy Wonder Woman costume", which isn't clickbait - it's addressed the problem in the title, it's given you information as to why it's a relevant thing to read (the "controversy"), and it's not given a false sense of urgency in clicking on the link.

This makes me happy.

You've basically hit the nail on the head here. My problem with clickbait is just that. It assumes you'll react a certain way by hinting at something much worse than it really is, and by putting that expectation in your head, you are inevitably disappointed when you realise it's yet another cheap way to get views.

By simply making the title about why it's controversial, it gives you a reason to click the link to investigate more, it's informed you. That's how it's been for years, if it ain't broke then don't fix it.

It's just good practice really. The Escapist's facebook toes the line sometimes, but when you're on the site it's usually a pretty good standard

 

[tzimize]

The dinosaur pic was pretty funny.

Also, clickbait is fucking annoying. I deliberately avoid articles like that like the plague. My little contribution towards a better humanity.

 

[BakedSardine]

Clickbait is simply an extension of the "teaser" on every 11 o'clock local news show that gets some people to stay around until the end of the broadcast - only it's less annoying because you don't have to wait a half hour.

Top of the hour - "What did this guy find in his basement that made him a boatload of money? Maybe you have one in your basement too - coming up on News at 11."
Story of local murder/rape
Man on the street
Weather
Sports
30 minutes later - "He bought a $10 painting at a garage sale that turned out to be a Picasso."

 

[Shjade]

It was more of a discussion on the overuse of the term, what the true definition would be, and if click bait can be good. Yes, the title was as close to the content as we could get in the space we had.

That's pretty much what I thought. That said, possible alternative suggestion:

No Right Answer: Provocative or Clickbait?

Since that's basically what the discussion was determining - whether a title is misleading clickbait or simply a provocative/topical subject.

 

[endtherapture]

The issue with Jim and Spiderman is that it's fine if he does a couple of videos on why he doesn't like Spiderman/Batman/Man of Steel, but he brings up those films in near enough every single one of his videos so it just becomes incredibly annoying. We get it, you don't like those films, shut up about it, I'm watching a review of a different film, I don't want to be reminded of your hate for the film I know you hate.

And it goes on for months until another film he hates strongly comes out.

 

[Strazdas]

clicbait is bad. that is, real clickbait. then again i NEVER saw opinion called clickbait. Is there clicbait on the escapist? yes, a lot. like news articles where title contradicts the content. or even your own videos for most people.

There is a right answer here - dont do clickbait. Also your defence against Adblock is hilariuos but rules here dont allow me to explain why.

It was more of a discussion on the overuse of the term, what the true definition would be, and if click bait can be good. Yes, the title was as close to the content as we could get in the space we had.

The original title, which was vetoed, was penisboobmoneysjw show!

Its not, nor did you make a discussion. What you did is you tried to defend clickbait by showing that sometimes people can be wrong about the definition, then continued to defend clickbair by building strawmen. this wasnt a discussion, but then, this show rarely is (nor i think it was intended to be as you said previuosly).

Your title was bait and switch as well, because it implies weighing whether clickbair is good or bad, but the content inside was all "clickbait is good your filthy readers".

The issue with Jim and Spiderman is that it's fine if he does a couple of videos on why he doesn't like Spiderman/Batman/Man of Steel, but he brings up those films in near enough every single one of his videos so it just becomes incredibly annoying. We get it, you don't like those films, shut up about it, I'm watching a review of a different film, I don't want to be reminded of your hate for the film I know you hate.

I think you mean Bob and Spiderman there, Jim does other things.

 

[goothrie]

Also- those faux-intellectual articles about how gaza relates to video games? That's definitely clickbait.