
Is Betteridge's law of headlines correct? - dundun
http://calmerthanyouare.org/2015/03/19/betteridges-law.html
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nirvanis
No.

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rflrob
> We’re going to go out on a limb here and guesstimate that the remaining
> “maybe” answers can, given enough time and effort, be turned into “yes” or
> “no” answers, and that these will be distributed similarly to the 20:17
> ratio of the fully answered headlines.

The OP does admit to going out on a limb, but I don't think this is a
justified assumption. Without having seen the headlines in question, I would
guess they are in the maybe category because they are dubious at best.

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matslina
Could be. You can have a look at the headline data here:
[https://gist.github.com/matslina/64601f39ef12bd653be6](https://gist.github.com/matslina/64601f39ef12bd653be6)

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codezero
The title sets us up for contradiction! If it's correct then the answer to
this post is Yes, which contradicts Betteridge's law, so the answer must be
No. :)

edit: I didn't think this was controversial or anything, it was meant to be
playful, sorry HN, I'll take my downvote lumps I guess.

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Vaskivo
But answering "no" doesn't mean that, sometimes, the answer to these
headline's question isn't "no". It simply means that Betteridge's law isn't
always correct. Which I agree because, citing another pop/internet culture
adage "only a Sith deals in absolutes".

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Karunamon
..which in itself, is an absolute.

We've come full circle, here :)

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desdiv
Wow, what a twist.

To think that Obi-Wan is secretly Ian Betteridge.

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et2o
I love this idea. 30s ago I just read an NYT headline "Are wearable devices
worse for you than cigarettes?"

No.

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ConfuciusSay
Now do one about Moore's law.

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Dewie
I don't get it. If you have a headline that forces you to actually read the
article to find out what it's talking about, or what the answer is, then
people complain about "click bait".

If you use some kind of predictable cliché for your title, then articles like
"Is X the new most dangerous thing?" isn't clickbait anymore - it's just "X is
not the most dangerous thing (contrary to whatever belief/myth/contemporary
opinion)". It's predictable and straightforward. And yet, that's apparently
yet another reason for people to complain.

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durzagott
I'm sure Betteridge's Law could be applied much more effectively to American
news headlines than anything else. For example, how many times do we see crazy
headlines on Fox News like "Is Obama a gay communist terrorist?"

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cratermoon
Indeed that is possibly the main driver for question-type headlines. Any
crazy, even libelous, statement can be slipped in if it's worded as a
question. The media outlets that rely on them are taking advantage of the
biases of their readers, who will, at best, gloss over the text that might say
"no", and simply fixate on the question as if it were a valid one. This
famously led to the Glenn Beck situation of "We're not saying he's guilty, but
he won't deny it!". [http://gawker.com/5355901/glenn-beck-pr-genius-spreads-
the-f...](http://gawker.com/5355901/glenn-beck-pr-genius-spreads-the-false-
rumor-he-raped-and-murdered-a-young-girl-in-1990)

