Could This Kill Internet 'Journalism' As We Know It? (Probably Not)
June 5, 2014 3:51 PM Subscribe
@SavedYouAClick brings a new functionality to the 'joke twitter account' by retweeting click-baity headlines and spoiling them with well-under-140-character explanations:
...Sending text messages. RT @Upworthy: They could've waited till they got home. Doing it in a car is SO not OK.
...A piano. RT @HuffingtonPost: You won't believe what just washed up in the East River
...The article doesn't answer this. @alistdaily: How #Beyonce became a #marketing star
...Use 2005 as your baseline instead of 2014. RT @Slate: This one weird trick will help you cut carbon emissions overnight
...RT That's me! @jackshafer: New @ReutersOpinion: The guy who reads crap on the Web so you don’t have to
...Sending text messages. RT @Upworthy: They could've waited till they got home. Doing it in a car is SO not OK.
...A piano. RT @HuffingtonPost: You won't believe what just washed up in the East River
...The article doesn't answer this. @alistdaily: How #Beyonce became a #marketing star
...Use 2005 as your baseline instead of 2014. RT @Slate: This one weird trick will help you cut carbon emissions overnight
...RT That's me! @jackshafer: New @ReutersOpinion: The guy who reads crap on the Web so you don’t have to
Internet tabloids hate him!
posted by ryanrs at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2014 [20 favorites]
posted by ryanrs at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2014 [20 favorites]
*wipes away tear, starts slow clap*
*claps*
*claps*
*claps*
posted by Etrigan at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2014 [11 favorites]
*claps*
*claps*
*claps*
posted by Etrigan at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2014 [11 favorites]
Up until now I have been saving myself a click by reading something else without a baited headline.
posted by weston at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by weston at 3:55 PM on June 5, 2014 [7 favorites]
I thought long and hard before doing a FPP about a Twitter account... then, I stopped thinking long and hard because... this is the Internet!
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:56 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:56 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
to steal the format of @SavedYouAClick:
It was Nic Offer of the band named "!!!" My friend threw a piano in the east river in 2007. posted by josher71 at 3:54 PM Discussed here. posted by josher71 at 3:55PM
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:00 PM on June 5, 2014 [6 favorites]
It was Nic Offer of the band named "!!!" My friend threw a piano in the east river in 2007. posted by josher71 at 3:54 PM Discussed here. posted by josher71 at 3:55PM
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:00 PM on June 5, 2014 [6 favorites]
It’s a red panda. Cute, but not cutest ever. RT @Cosmopolitan: Is this the cutest GIF ~*eVeR?
This is sublime.
posted by graphnerd at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2014 [5 favorites]
This is sublime.
posted by graphnerd at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2014 [5 favorites]
I wasn't even being clickbaity! Just lazy!!!
posted by josher71 at 4:02 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by josher71 at 4:02 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
"25 Reasons Why..." - Clickbait
"Attached." - @SavedYouAClick
I want to see this for every list-based article everywhere.
posted by quiet earth at 4:03 PM on June 5, 2014 [3 favorites]
"Attached." - @SavedYouAClick
I want to see this for every list-based article everywhere.
posted by quiet earth at 4:03 PM on June 5, 2014 [3 favorites]
I absolutely love HuffPoSpoilers, but I'm not sure I'll add this one. There's only so much room in my brain for cruft.
I've had to mute posts from Upworthy and a few other glurge sites on my Facebook feed just to see what my actual family is actually doing.
Up until now I have been saving myself a click by reading something else without a baited headline.
I did, too, for a while, but it got too tiresome so I just let it go.
posted by lysdexic at 4:03 PM on June 5, 2014
I've had to mute posts from Upworthy and a few other glurge sites on my Facebook feed just to see what my actual family is actually doing.
Up until now I have been saving myself a click by reading something else without a baited headline.
I did, too, for a while, but it got too tiresome so I just let it go.
posted by lysdexic at 4:03 PM on June 5, 2014
A friend of mine once registered the twitter handle @unhuffed with the goal of building a not to scrape the source links from Huffington post articles and tweeting them with the HuffPo headline. I don't think it went anywhere though.
posted by Itaxpica at 4:06 PM on June 5, 2014
posted by Itaxpica at 4:06 PM on June 5, 2014
I'm one of those boring people who deliberately avoids clickbait headlines now. That crappy marketing is a blessing, really, it's a hint that what's inside is not worth your time. I do well to just make it through reading The Economist every week, which while boring and non-viral is actually worth my time. Why waste more time on ad-driven nonsense? I'll save that for following Metafilter, and Reddit, and other more creative places.
posted by Nelson at 4:07 PM on June 5, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 4:07 PM on June 5, 2014 [10 favorites]
What's with the crazy formatting and text sizes? Is that the new profile thingie?
Anyway, it's cute, but not I've GOT TO ADD THIS cute. I do support this trend, though. I've had enough of "find out here" which takes three or four jumps to get me to the actual original article that I wanted to read.
Bring on Web 3.0: editors.
posted by lysdexic at 4:07 PM on June 5, 2014 [3 favorites]
Anyway, it's cute, but not I've GOT TO ADD THIS cute. I do support this trend, though. I've had enough of "find out here" which takes three or four jumps to get me to the actual original article that I wanted to read.
Bring on Web 3.0: editors.
posted by lysdexic at 4:07 PM on June 5, 2014 [3 favorites]
I've managed to delete enough stupid clickbait sites from my information stream that I'm not sure I need this guy's twitter, but I'm glad he's doing it and I hope he helps bring the practice to an early end.
posted by immlass at 4:12 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by immlass at 4:12 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
I like the idea, but there's something about nakedly predatory clickbait headlines that sets my teeth on edge. Reading so many of them at once actually makes me feel a little ill.
posted by figurant at 4:15 PM on June 5, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by figurant at 4:15 PM on June 5, 2014 [5 favorites]
Is there a @BetteridgeLaw feed that just tweets "No" over and over?
posted by neroli at 4:18 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by neroli at 4:18 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
Please!
posted by cjorgensen at 4:37 PM on June 5, 2014
posted by cjorgensen at 4:37 PM on June 5, 2014
I just thought of something. A browser extension 1) that picks up when a clickbait article shows up in your browsing, 2) checks to see if SavedYouAClick has a spoiler for it, and 3) overlays that spoiler into your browsing experience right there. Whether it's Facebook, email, twitter or anywhere else.
Let's get this going. We could do some serious damage to the whole model. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY.
posted by naju at 4:50 PM on June 5, 2014 [19 favorites]
Let's get this going. We could do some serious damage to the whole model. WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY.
posted by naju at 4:50 PM on June 5, 2014 [19 favorites]
I'm one of those boring people who deliberately avoids clickbait headlines now.
Believe me when I say you have this exactly inverted.
posted by dhartung at 5:07 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
Believe me when I say you have this exactly inverted.
posted by dhartung at 5:07 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
Next step: machine learning algorithm that pulls the details from the article so that zero humans have to read it.
That crappy marketing is a blessing, really, it's a hint that what's inside is not worth your time.
Although this is might be a more efficient approach.
posted by .holmes at 5:20 PM on June 5, 2014
That crappy marketing is a blessing, really, it's a hint that what's inside is not worth your time.
Although this is might be a more efficient approach.
posted by .holmes at 5:20 PM on June 5, 2014
Wonderful.
posted by dabug at 5:35 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dabug at 5:35 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
Worry less, say yes, eye contact, talk about yourself, be honest. MT @CNN: Here are 5 strategies to help you overcome social anxiety:
ah, problem solved! who knew it could be so easy?
posted by BungaDunga at 5:47 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
ah, problem solved! who knew it could be so easy?
posted by BungaDunga at 5:47 PM on June 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
I don't normally see most of that click-baity stuff because I don't follow the orgs that produce it.
Ironically one of the articles he did this to was actually interesting to me, but the only way I could find it was to Google for the text of the click-bait headline that he included in this tweet, which lead me to a Facebook post, which had the link to the original article.
That crappy marketing is a blessing, really, it's a hint that what's inside is not worth your time.
The sad thing is that this is becoming such standard practice nowadays that even worthwhile articles quite often get this treatment as well.
posted by philipy at 6:06 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
Ironically one of the articles he did this to was actually interesting to me, but the only way I could find it was to Google for the text of the click-bait headline that he included in this tweet, which lead me to a Facebook post, which had the link to the original article.
That crappy marketing is a blessing, really, it's a hint that what's inside is not worth your time.
The sad thing is that this is becoming such standard practice nowadays that even worthwhile articles quite often get this treatment as well.
posted by philipy at 6:06 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
I just followed this the other day because click bait headlines make me roll my eyes. I love the idea of someone spoiling the click bait writer's melodramatic fun.
posted by chatongriffes at 6:47 PM on June 5, 2014
posted by chatongriffes at 6:47 PM on June 5, 2014
You know, I decided to read the article about the population-based cap on liquor licenses. I wouldn't have been interested if I didn't know what it was about.
posted by RobotHero at 9:27 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by RobotHero at 9:27 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
I thought long and hard before doing a FPP about a Twitter account
Hey, I'm glad you decided to go ahead with it. This Twitter account is awesome.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 10:27 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
Hey, I'm glad you decided to go ahead with it. This Twitter account is awesome.
posted by paleyellowwithorange at 10:27 PM on June 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
Worry less, say yes, eye contact, talk about yourself, be honest. MT @CNN: Here are 5 strategies to help you overcome social anxiety:
hahaha! I love that so much. How to overcome social anxiety? Step 1, don't be anxious!
How to lose weight? Don't be fat! How to save money? Don't be poor! Wanna be happier? Get moar happy!!!
posted by taz at 11:15 PM on June 5, 2014 [4 favorites]
hahaha! I love that so much. How to overcome social anxiety? Step 1, don't be anxious!
How to lose weight? Don't be fat! How to save money? Don't be poor! Wanna be happier? Get moar happy!!!
posted by taz at 11:15 PM on June 5, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm one of those boring people who deliberately avoids clickbait headlines now.
Believe me when I say you have this exactly inverted.
Errr... Clickbait headlines now deliberately avoid boring people?
posted by Pyrogenesis at 1:08 AM on June 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
Believe me when I say you have this exactly inverted.
Errr... Clickbait headlines now deliberately avoid boring people?
posted by Pyrogenesis at 1:08 AM on June 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
AHHH!!! RT @HuffingtonPost: This is what it's like to have an anxiety attack
Pretty much.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:36 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Pretty much.
posted by louche mustachio at 3:36 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm one of those boring people who deliberately avoids clickbait headlines now.
Believe me when I say you have this exactly inverted.
"I'm one of those NOT boring people who deliberately avoids BORING clickbait headlines now."
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:01 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Believe me when I say you have this exactly inverted.
"I'm one of those NOT boring people who deliberately avoids BORING clickbait headlines now."
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:01 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
AVOID CLICKBAIT WITH THIS ONE WEIRD TWITTER TRICK
posted by NoraReed at 4:34 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by NoraReed at 4:34 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
F'ing brilliant. Cheers.
Seconding the plugin idea. That guy's sitting on a gold mine.
posted by petebest at 5:27 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
Seconding the plugin idea. That guy's sitting on a gold mine.
posted by petebest at 5:27 AM on June 6, 2014 [1 favorite]
It's always the same piano.
posted by psoas at 6:59 AM on June 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by psoas at 6:59 AM on June 6, 2014 [3 favorites]
You know that annoying guy in the office who steps on all of your punch lines? Who deflates with a concise quip the shaggy dog stories you’re trying to tell? . . . Unlike the guy in your office, SavedYouAClick doesn’t annoy, he delights.
Lucille Ball had this caper covered 60 years ago:
"Wha'd you do, bite 'im?"
From I Love Lucy, "The Benefit". Rough video, but the only copy I could find online.
posted by Herodios at 10:33 AM on June 6, 2014
Lucille Ball had this caper covered 60 years ago:
"Wha'd you do, bite 'im?"
From I Love Lucy, "The Benefit". Rough video, but the only copy I could find online.
posted by Herodios at 10:33 AM on June 6, 2014
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posted by josher71 at 3:54 PM on June 5, 2014 [3 favorites]