
A journey through internet garbage - Breadmaker
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/8/18537279/chum-box-weird-sponsored-links-gut-doctor
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ordu
Seems that the strategy is to trigger curiosity, then pull person by this
curiosity to show him a lot of ads. To trigger curiosity they pose some
artifically created question, by inventing an imaginary gut doctor with some
imaginary obscure opinion, and create a bunch of content that seems promising
on answering question, but never answers it actually. The answer is irrelevant
for their goals and all the scheme works while answer is not accessible
easily.

This scheme can be scaled by a lot of misterious clickbaity questions without
answers, because an attention of a person searching for answer for some
question can be redirected to another question, then to one more, and more...
It looks as a labyrinth where you could follow clickbaits and where you never
able to find answer for question bothering you. Moreover you a facing a lot of
other mysterious questions and if you got tired for the current one, then your
attention might get caught by another, and you might continue to run through
the labyrinth, clicking, clicking, clicking...

I guess what is the business model behind this. Showing ads? Skewing metrics?

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ducttape12
Stuff like this is why I don't feel bad about blocking ads. This garbage adds
no value and just exists to get clicks from tech illiterate people.

~~~
cpeterso
I don't mind ad-supported content, but I don't want to see this
Taboola/Outbrain garbage. So I created a short blocklist (compatible with
uBlock Origin and Adblock Plus) for these clickbait ad networks. Pull requests
are welcome! :)

[https://github.com/cpeterso/clickbait-
blocklist/](https://github.com/cpeterso/clickbait-blocklist/)

~~~
tempguy9999
Are YOU aware of this one weird blocklist? Advertisers HATE it! (may they all
rot)

[http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm](http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm)

~~~
dewey
They clearly said that they don't mind ads as long as it's not this click bait
crap. I guess it pays really well because every newspaper web site has it :(

~~~
karambahh
Anecdotal evidence: news source I read tend to switch from provider to
provider every six months or so.

Either they are offered a great deal by the new incumbent or management gets
fed up with poor revenue/poor targetting.

I've seen it happen 3 or 4 times in the last few years?

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burtonator
We're going to need laws around algorithmic news.

This makes me want to work on a bot to reword hacker news into all clickbait
links?

"Rust vs Python? You'll be amazed what this hacker recommends!"

"Uber lawsuit! They sued who?!"

~~~
skocznymroczny
That'd probably be a no-op bot, as most titles are clickbait nowadays anyway.

~~~
ihuman
Haven't articles always had attractive headlines? Newspapers had them for a
long time so people seeing the front page would want to buy that day's paper.
The only difference between then and now is that the article's content is more
likely to be low-quality.

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whalabi
This might be the most genuinely entertaining article I've read this year

The lengths the author goes to to discover what must be a highly questionable
answer, just from irresistible curiosity.

TL;DR? Looks like it's corn.

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camillomiller
Spoiler: the vegetables seems to be corn. Go read the piece though, it's very
funny.

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Lowkeyloki
I think the original article title should be used. "A mysterious gut doctor is
begging Americans to throw out “this vegetable” now. But, like, which?"

~~~
jfengel
Or at least some indication that this article is somehow different from every
other article about clickbait. Though I'll admit, having read it, that I'm
unclear on just what that is.

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loudandskittish
I'm more interested in the part where the answer to which vegetable to throw
out is found at the end of a 40 minute video...having come across similar
videos, have to ask, does this actually work?

~~~
Cthulhu_
You underestimate how many people watch mindless videos / watch videos
mindlessly.

I mean I've found myself half an hour into an hourlong ad once when I fell
asleep watching youtube on the tv.

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rcarrigan87
It does feel like most pure clickbait leads to some kind of supplement
pitch...

~~~
ForHackernews
Isn't this how Tim Ferris got his start? Hawking "brainQUICKEN"?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_4-Hour_Workweek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_4-Hour_Workweek)

~~~
mattkevan
Thought the 4-hour work week was an interesting pitch (less work, passive
income – yes please) until I realised he was financing himself via a
borderline-scam product like nutrition supplements...

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waingake
This very page loads chum at the end of the article ...

~~~
atomwaffel
Yes, and the author acknowledges that twice in the two very first paragraphs.
This objection comes up every time any news outlet writes about ad tech or
tracking, and it always comes down to the same thing: the people writing
articles are not the ones making economic decisions and they can criticise a
system even when they’re part of it.

~~~
smurv
I can confirm this as I used to work as a developer for a media company. We
basically begged our advertisment executive for permission to get rid of that
horrible box of semi- to unrelated content which appeared beneath every
article. His answer was "No, it genereates too much revenue".

~~~
ForHackernews
> genereates

This is how you know it's a C-level email.

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widescape
It's a trap!

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tbirrell
tl;dr - Vox is trying to figure out what that mysterious vegetable is that
some gut doctor has been going on about in every ad box ever. Their best guess
is that it's corn, but the doctor (or more specifically, his publicist) won't
confirm.

~~~
nerdile
Followed by a bunch of garbage outbrain ads, which, for me, were all weird
game of thrones links today.

