10 signs you're a buzzfeed clone

April 16, 2014 8:09 AM

What if buzzfeed was aimed at a different population?
posted by garlic (47 comments total)

found via naju.
posted by garlic at 8:09 AM on April 16, 2014

God, even when I don't understand all the references, buzzfeed's formula works on me. I immediately clicked to find out what Indian celebrity I should date.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:11 AM on April 16, 2014 [15 favorites]

Wow it's in English, but I have no idea what it means!
posted by zscore at 8:18 AM on April 16, 2014

Clickbait as urtext. It's interesting to see how these techniques work when they're divorced from your immediately relatable life (assuming you're not desi or keep up with Bollywood culture, etc.)
posted by naju at 8:19 AM on April 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

Topito is the French version of Buzzfeed.
posted by desjardins at 8:21 AM on April 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

Weirdly, it had never even occurred to me that Buzzfeed had a homepage.
posted by bicyclefish at 8:28 AM on April 16, 2014 [17 favorites]

Metafilter: Wow, it's in English, but I have no idea what it means!
posted by Fizz at 8:29 AM on April 16, 2014 [9 favorites]

scoopwhoop is a better clone.
posted by mysticreferee at 8:33 AM on April 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

i was sidetracked by the '17 mouthwatering dishes you must eat' and i didn't regret it, except now my stomach's hurting and i need to fill it up
posted by maiamaia at 8:41 AM on April 16, 2014 [7 favorites]

Huh, thought it was a spoof at first.

It's actually very useful to me as I work with a ton of Indians and knowing bite sized chunks of Indian fluff will help me follow hallway conversations.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:42 AM on April 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

I got Ahmedabad, guys, what about you?
posted by Diablevert at 8:43 AM on April 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

Is this something I'd need to watch more Bollywood to understand? But if I do that I'll be disappointed that more of my meetings don't spontaneously break out into elaborate musical dance numbers.
posted by vuron at 8:44 AM on April 16, 2014

What if buzzfeed was aimed at a different population?

The set up makes it sound like a parody, which is weird. I thought it would be something like, "which type of dentures are you?" or "some young whippersnapper broke this man's reading glasses. What the gentleman did next will amaze you."
posted by sweetkid at 8:52 AM on April 16, 2014 [19 favorites]

Is this something I'd need to watch more Bollywood to understand?

A lot of it just seems based on Indian middle class culture.
posted by sweetkid at 8:53 AM on April 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

I got Lucknow, and I had to listen to five different Indian songs I had not previously heard of to get the answer, but I did it anyway, because my zeal for online quizzes is great.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 8:54 AM on April 16, 2014 [7 favorites]

I was also Ahmedabad, but I have never had my cooking gas run out so I may have answered that one inaccurately.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:02 AM on April 16, 2014

I got Sonam Kapoor.
posted by univac at 9:27 AM on April 16, 2014

I got Bangalore, and I think pizza and Youtube is a highly respectable dinner.
posted by capricorn at 9:30 AM on April 16, 2014

Isn't this more a ripoff of Upworthy (heartwarming! Inspirational! Orange font!) than Buzzfeed?

Funny that one of their posts is a list of Bollywood posters ripping off Hollywood.
posted by divabat at 9:33 AM on April 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

And strangely enough, one Mad Magazine Cover...
posted by Naberius at 9:41 AM on April 16, 2014

God, even when I don't understand all the references, buzzfeed's formula works on me.

I found that I was largely immune to the site's article headlines and felt no urge to click through. But I could attribute that to differences in culture, so I went to buzzfeed's home page and looked at the lead stories. I was tempted by the hippos vs. crocodiles one, but all the others didn't even ping on my click-o-meter. Whatever Buzzfeed's formula is, I seem to have developed antibodies to it.
posted by JHarris at 10:08 AM on April 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

17 Mouthwatering Dishes That Will Tempt You To Visit Northeast India

um yes please

i would read the hell out of a buzzfeed clone that was just lists of different regional foods.
posted by Pizzarina Sbarro at 10:27 AM on April 16, 2014 [11 favorites]

Infinite scrolling + a footer = moronic web designer.
posted by bashos_frog at 10:44 AM on April 16, 2014 [3 favorites]

I just had to click through to this:

Modi, Rahul & Kejriwal Walked Into A Restaurant. Can You Guess What Happened Next?

But the clip was in Indian, so I missed all the jokes. I was sorta hoping for a quick punchline, rather than a video.
posted by marienbad at 11:06 AM on April 16, 2014

In Indian?
posted by sweetkid at 11:09 AM on April 16, 2014 [7 favorites]

In Indian?

"Indian" actually isn't a bad identifier. There are god knows how many local languages in India and expecting people to identify them is a tad bit unrealistic. "In some Indian language" would be more usual though.

Infinite scrolling + a footer = moronic web designer.

I saw that. WTF?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:31 AM on April 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

There are god knows how many local languages in India

Wow. Even more than I thought.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:33 AM on April 16, 2014

Derail, but I have never heard anyone call all Indian languages "In Indian." It's annoying, just say "in an Indian language" if you don't know.

It's like saying, "in European." It's weird.
posted by sweetkid at 11:36 AM on April 16, 2014 [14 favorites]

Don't angry me!
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 11:41 AM on April 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

"Do you speak Indian?" is also something of a sore spot for South Asians.

On a different note: this is worth an FPP.

It's kind of unfortunate that the framing in this FPP is all about how they're copying Upworthy/Buzzfeed/et al, because there are a lot of gems about Indian culture that are shared here. It kind of feels like taking, say, the Times of India website and calling it "what if news sites existed for a different population! LOL!".

It's just localised material (which Buzzfeed does too, for UK and Australia), not some exotic beast.
posted by divabat at 11:54 AM on April 16, 2014 [16 favorites]

It kind of feels like taking, say, the Times of India website and calling it "what if news sites existed for a different population! LOL!".


Agreed.
posted by sweetkid at 11:58 AM on April 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I was feeling weird the whole time I read it, because it just looked...mediumly interesting and kind of fine? The setup made me think it'd be a joke site.
posted by corb at 12:01 PM on April 16, 2014 [5 favorites]

Derail, but I have never heard anyone call all Indian languages "In Indian."

I've seen it from time to time.

On the other hand something I see *constantly* is "In Chinese".
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:27 PM on April 16, 2014

Ha ha, it's funny because they're not my cohort!
posted by blue_beetle at 12:37 PM on April 16, 2014 [5 favorites]

I wasn't trying to poke fun really, I just thought it was interesting seeing the clickbait titled articles aimed at a different audience then I'm a part of.
posted by garlic at 12:43 PM on April 16, 2014

Yeah, at least when I shared it on twitter, the point wasn't "look at this exotic beast," it was "look at the clickbait model when it's stripped of the context that is directly designed to appeal to your demographic." Kind of an uncanny valley moment where you can see the machine for what it is, so to speak.
posted by naju at 12:49 PM on April 16, 2014 [1 favorite]

How to I juice the Which Indian Celebrity Should You Date quiz to get Aamir Khan?
posted by vespabelle at 3:15 PM on April 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

vespabelle: I got that result, possibly by choosing a women's hairstyle for myself and a cocktail dress for what I wish my date would wear.
posted by divabat at 3:24 PM on April 16, 2014

When I saw "aimed at a different population", I expected to see a FoxNewsNation version with every other article "10 More Good Americans Screwed Over By Obamacare" or "15 More Ways Putin Is Laughing at US". If Breitbart were alive today...
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:42 PM on April 16, 2014

It kind of feels like taking, say, the Times of India website and calling it "what if news sites existed for a different population! LOL!".

Also agreed.

In other news: Pune?! No.
posted by Ragini at 3:52 PM on April 16, 2014

Somewhere out there, there's a Buzzfeed clone where when I take that quiz about what my signature drink should be, it doesn't think I'm a goddamned craft beer no matter how many times I re-take the quiz and try to get a beverage I actually drink. But in the meantime, I should evidently live in Pune--which I think sounds like a better fit than most of the Buzzfeed quizzes I've ever taken, and also possibly a better fit than the Cleveland area, although there's still some pesky gay rights stuff to worry about in either place. But let me know when they have a quiz that will finally tell me I'm a freaking gin and tonic.
posted by Sequence at 6:15 PM on April 16, 2014

"It's just localised material (which Buzzfeed does too, for UK and Australia)"

British Buzzfeed is mostly the same as American Buzzfeed, but with some of the Kardashians replaced by horrifying infographics about London house prices.

Every so often an American will manage to fall into British Buzzfeed without realising it and will kick off in the comments section demanding to know why Buzzfeed is writing pop culture articles about something which is clearly not real pop culture, because if it were, they'd have heard of it.

This is never not funny.

In other news, apparently the easy access to top talent, good infrastructure, and public transport means I should be living in Chennai.
posted by the latin mouse at 1:25 PM on April 17, 2014 [3 favorites]

Australian Buzzfeed is mostly jokes about beaches, Vegemite, koalas, and making fun of Conservative politicians. It works surprisingly well in among the Which '90s Riot Grrl Band Are You? quizes. (L7 if I recall).

I'm curious about the Indian rip-off posters. Several look like they could be localised versions of American films, but with more dancing.

This is also the second time this week I have seen Yo Yo Honey Singh referenced, which given I had not heard of him before is impressive.
posted by Mezentian at 12:55 AM on April 18, 2014

I have never heard anyone call all Indian languages "In Indian."

"I don't speak Hindu" is an oldie-but-goodie.
posted by psoas at 2:25 PM on April 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

MeTa
posted by mlis at 3:50 PM on April 18, 2014

Pizzarina Sbarro: Buzzfood, then? (i don't know if that exists, but it should.)

I remember some time ago there was these set of websites that looked like a fancy version of Pinterest but were managed by one person. NoCo? One of the subsites was just pictures of food.
posted by divabat at 11:30 AM on April 19, 2014

NOTCOT!

Here's the food site I was referring to.
posted by divabat at 1:27 PM on April 19, 2014