I Can't Believe The Onion Would Publish This Article About Linkbait. I'm Shocked And Haven't Been Able To Sleep.
The funny thing about websites like BuzzFeed and ViralNova is that the linkbait headlines they use are hard to parody since the truth is already much stranger than the fiction.
It took me a good minute to see what they were really doing. Clickbait websites were definitely in need of some pushback and I'm glad that the Onion is behind it. Oh Onion, you clever bastards.
Well, it's like the Clickhole site - both. I hate artificial generational terms, but ironic contradiction is something that Millennials are comfortable with. (Ooh, I just did it there.) Blame it on the politicians they grew up with.
I think Facebook has tried to block them but they pop up all over the place. The latest one seems to be PetFlow, which is ostensibly some sort of pet site but it's churning out clickbait like mad.
In short, I don't think FB has been particularly effective, though I admire(d) the goal.
After the rise of these viral linkbait sites, Petflow started emulating the model to keep up. I'm sure this has helped them continue to grow and keep up with these rising competitors like Buzzfeed and Viral Nova, but I personally feel like it's hurting their brand.
So Alex and Joe (founders of Petflow), if you're listening, stop the bullshit and go back what you were doing. These viral linkbait sites are a fad and will eventually go away or get banned. I don't want you guys to go down the same road.
Ha, I actually did not. That was my coworker's pet project (but the writers drafted all the achievement names/text). Glad you like it, it was one of my favorite features.
I think it's our god-given duty, as citizens of these United States and of the Internet at large, to make Clickhole articles go more viral than articles from BuzzFeed, ViralNova, etc.
The truly sad, but ingenious thing about this? Most of the clickers won't know the difference.
The site looks very promising so far. The Onion has been running listicle-type articles for a while (in the form of captioned photo sets, bulleted lists, and more) so this seems like a natural extension. And the Buzzfeeds of the world certainly deserve the lampooning.
I love how there's a persistent click counter in the footer, which seems to be implemented with localStorage and also seems to be tied to some badge system.
It also resets after you get the top badge. I cheated and just kept running "jQuery("body").trigger("click");" in the browser console, and it triggered clicks. See: http://bluetide.pro/69vO/52JI0bMg
Linkbait/Clickbait self-referential title announcing the website: "This One Website Made a Fortune Just By Publishing Sensationalist Headlines - Truth Or Fiction?"
The funny thing about websites like BuzzFeed and ViralNova is that the linkbait headlines they use are hard to parody since the truth is already much stranger than the fiction.