Some Clickbait Websites Call Themselves 'News Aggregators"

[MineralMan]

In reality, most of them are just "News Aggravators." They take news reported by legitimate news sources, like the New York Times or the Washington Post, and then create sensational headlines that attract clicks and alter the stories to make them seem more spectacular. Little concern is given to the actual truth of what goes on their websites.

Why do they do that? Just look at the ads on the right side of the screen. That's why. More visitors; more money. I won't list websites that are clickbait sites. There are far too many of them to list. If you click links, though, you'll see the ads and know that they are clickbait.

Usually, they tell you where they got the story. Go there, instead, and read some actual news.

Eschew Clickbait!

[Towlie]

1. The worst clickbait on DU are the posts that contain only "Link to tweet".

 
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What could be a more egregious example of clickbait than a link posted on this forum that does nothing but lure you away to Twitter? In many cases all the tweet features is a link to an actual news article. Why not link to the article instead?

I don't know why the DU administration tolerates it.

[MineralMan]

2. Hmm...Well, I Use Twitter.

The only time I see the link, rather than the actual tweet is when the tweet is no longer on Twitter.

Some people don't see the tweets. Either Twitter is blocked where they work or for some other reason.

You never need to click any link in any post, actually. Most people never lick the links in posts. Instead, they just read the post title and maybe the first sentence of the post's body.

Me? I see the tweet itself, if the tweet exists.

[Towlie]

3. I didn't know that. I guess everyone on DU is expected to be logged onto Twitter.

 
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I have no use for it myself.

[MineralMan]

4. You needn't be logged into Twitter to see tweets in threads.

At least as far as I know. I see the tweets in posts on my phone in Chrome. I have only one tab open at a time on my phone in Chrome. On my desktop, I have Twitter open in a tab all the time. If I close that tab, though, I still see the tweets within the posts, unless is is no longer on Twitter.

If you're not seeing actual tweets, there's some reason for that, but I don't have time to figure that out for you.

One thing, though: You are not required to click links in threads. That is a voluntary act.

[Towlie]

11. I'm sorry if my concern about Internet privacy offends you.

 
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Yes, the tweets show if you open the DU page with an unprotected browser. I didn't know that either. Before, I was just opening the link to the tweet in an unprotected browser.

So I tried opening the DU page instead. I used an unprotected "incognito" instance of Chrome and then searched through the obscene maze of ads (What were you saying about clickbait?) to see what the tweet was about, then I closed Chrome to immediately delete the multitude of cookies that were set and then retreat to my NoScript-protected Firefox application. I'll have to decide which way is better.

[MineralMan]

12. Get a star, Towlie. Support DU with a contribution of any size.

Nobody who does that sees any ads here.

Sorry, but I have zero sympathy.

[TwilightZone]

9. I've never been logged into Twitter and I can see them just fine.

The tweets should be embedded in the posts, even if you're not on Twitter.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10138150

[ProfessorGAC]

17. I See The Embedded Tweets, Towlie

And I don't even have a Twitter account.
Maybe you could peruse your settings & see if something needs be on, that isn't.
I'm not positive about that, because I've always seen them. I never even had to look into it.
But, I see 99.9% of the tweets linked here, right in the DU post.
Maybe the computer support group has folks that can figure out what you could do.

[DBoon]

16. It takes almost no effort to cut-and-paste the twitter text

and put it in the DU post along with the link

Blindly clicking a link is a very poor security practice. DU should not be encouraging this

[FakeNoose]

5. The aggregators do perform a service

None of us have time to read every newspaper, magazine or website every single day. I certainly couldn't do it, and I can't afford subscriptions to all of them either. The little summaries that the "Buzzfeed" type places write up and send out, those are the headlines so I can decide if I want to pursue and read the story. Maybe I'll find the story on DU or somewhere else, it all depends.

So clickbait happens when the aggregator interferes with my opportunity to read the story. They popup in front, or put up a banner, or whatever. Some of them might actually block me from reading until I click on something, or until I enable their ads. Yes that is annoying, and there are many clickbait-y places that I will avoid if I can. The point I'm making is that they notify me of a potential story that I might be interested in, and I can decide if I want to read past the headline.

[MineralMan]

6. There are enough people who post stories from

legitimate news sites that I don't click on clickbait sites. I might click through to a post on DU, but if it originates at a clickbait website, like Buzzfeed, I ignore it or go to whatever site Buzzfeed stole the story from to read the actual news.

I do click through to real news sites, though, if I'm interested in a story sourced from one of those. I just hate clickbait "News Aggravator" sites enough never to click on them. I just refuse to be used by such websites as an audience for their ads.


Worse, clickbait headlines are almost always sensationalized and do not represent the actual story.

[JonLP24]

13. Buzzfeed has actually been doing great reporting on Russia

This won a Pulitzer.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/from-russia-with-blood-14-suspected-hits-on-british-soil

https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-buzzfeed-news

They have also filed a lot of FOIA requests related to the Mueller investigation and publishing what they can.

[Miigwech]

7. I like this site ... is this click bate?

https://www.memeorandum.com/

[Towlie]

8. Now it is.

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[MineralMan]

10. It doesn't look like it to me.

For each story, it shows links to legitimate news sites. It also has no ads on the screen. So, no, it's probably not a clickbait site. I had never seen it before.

[Miigwech]

14. I check it every day just as a source.

[Miigwech]

15. This too

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

[LeftInTX]

18. I don't mind these sites as much as everyone's reaction to the headline!

If I click Raw Story, I usually find the Real Story, which isn't half as sensational as the headline!

It seems people just read the headline and react to that...