Done With Clickbait

[tetsujin1979]

I had an idea recently to write a script to rip the embedded content (tweets/facebook posts/instagram posts/etc) from the clickbait sites that have sprung up in Ireland over the last while (joe/sportsJoe/balls/etc) and publish it all elsewhere.

Been working on it on and off for a little while and you can see the results here: http://donewithclickbait.appspot.com/#/
Click on the headlines to expand and see what they have to used to justify an article. Might save you a few trips to joe.ie

There was a slight problem with the script for the last week where it wasn't updating for a few days, but I think I have it licked now

There's a few things left to do, the layout needs to be cleaned up for one thing, but it's more or less done. The site is updated a few times a day, and it all runs automatically from Google Scripts* The insults - "a waste of a journalism degree", "mouth breather", etc - are repeated so I need to think of a few more to make it seem less repetitive. Feel free to share the link to anyone you think would laugh at it.

I'm not the Irish Clickbait guy - https://twitter.com/IreClickbait - although you should follow him if you're on twitter. There is a twitter account for the site here - https://twitter.com/_stopclickbait_ - but I haven't done anything with it yet. Again, something to work on. Maybe tweet when the article is first linked by the site, and then a running total whenever they tweet again - "joe.ie wants you to click on new article", "joe.ie linked to this article for the second time today", etc -

I'm doing some data mining on the articles as well, for the few days the site's been running I can tell you an article link is tweeted five times on average by those sites, with balls posting the most articles per day, and joe posting the same link the most times

If there's enough interest I could have a look at doing something similar for clickbait sites based in the UK, but I'm not as familiar with them.

*read up here if you're interested: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/triggers/

[osarusan]

This man came up with a way to stop clickbait. What happened next will shock you.

[dahamsta]

9 Ways To Stop Clickbait. This Weird Trick Will Change Your Life.

[Real ale Madrid]

Expect to see a balls/joe/her article soon:

"Someone over at foot.ie, who values clicks more than credibility, has launched an attack on a new wave of successful Irish internet start-ups"

Amazing to see Dion Fanning go to joe.ie.

[tetsujin1979]

I know, I was shocked by that one myself. Says a lot about the money they're pulling in if they can attract someone like that.

[tetsujin1979]

A few people asked for a Facebook page, so here it is: https://www.facebook.com/donewithclickbait
It doesn't have all the content that the site does, but follows the same basic principle of sharing the content directly, instead of making you click through to another page

[BonnieShels]

When I see my gf FB feed I despair. It's so awful.

Made worse by reddit usage. Cos now I get to see stuff days/weeks in advance of virality.

[tetsujin1979]

The complaint with twitter has been resolved, and the twitter account for the site is live again - https://twitter.com/_stopclickbait_
The agreement was that I won't automatically reply to tweets from the sites I'm scanning for content, and I won't include their twitter handles (@joedotie, @ballsdotie, etc) in tweets. However, mentioning the site name (joe.ie, balls.ie, etc) is fine??!

While that was going on, I've had an argument with a journal.ie writer about clickbait - https://twitter.com/PTHosford/status/710957962882359297 - and added dailyedge.ie to the list of sites.

It's really made me aware how much dreck we're being forcefed on a daily basis, often the same link will be posted by multiple sites, even from the same company - joe.ie and her.ie are both owned by Maximum Media.

[BonnieShels]

Who is that clown? Unreal trying to defend clickbait like you're the problem.

[tetsujin1979]

no idea, he works for thejournal. Anyone who's even associated with DailyEdge hasn't a leg to stand on when discussing clickbait
He did have a legitimate point that the insults were unneeded, so I removed them.

[Real ale Madrid]

Should add rte TEN to that list.

Ctrl C , Ctrl V.

[tetsujin1979]

hmmm, maybe. It is part of the larger rte.ie website. You could level the same argument at the entertainment section of bbc.co.uk

I'm going to release the source code for this in a few weeks, right now I'm working on making it as straightforward as possible to add a new site for people

[SkStu]

Thought of you guys!

http://i.imgur.com/Vi6ximE.png

[tetsujin1979]

it's been a month since the site launched, so I looked at some of the numbers generated so far: http://donewithclickbait.blogspot.ie/2016/04/been-month.html

[tetsujin1979]

I was asked was there any piece of content that was shared by all six sites?
There wasn't, but there was a few tweets that was embedded by five of them, and four sites posted both the trailer for Batman v Superman, and the video of Ireland's end-to-end try against Italy: http://donewithclickbait.blogspot.ie/2016/04/most-shared-content.html

There's a link to the data in the blog post as well

[passinginterest]

I don't have any major issue with those sites myself but it's interesting to see the breakdown of how they work.

[BonnieShels]

I don't have any major issue with those sites myself but it's interesting to see the breakdown of how they work.

Would you say that you have a passing interest in them?

[tetsujin1979]

Been meaning to go through some of dailyedge's posts for a while, unsurprisingly there's a few things a lot of them have in common - numbers, county names, "the most WTF" and pride
Listed them all here http://donewithclickbait.blogspot.ie/2016/05/dailyedge-counties-pride-and-wtf.html