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by joopxiv 3844 days ago
I've used Blendle and kind of like it, but I wonder what its effect on newspapers will be. The model of paying per article encourages clickbait. Their way of countering this is that you have the option to get a refund if you thought the article sucked, but that will probably only be effective against the most obvious forms. If it's a bit more subtle, this tactic can still be very effective.
3 comments
mtrimpe 3844 days ago
How will it not be effective? When I read an article on Blendle (Dutchie here) I don't like or think is worth its money I ask for a refund. They even ask you when you're asking for a refund so they know if the price is too high, article is too long or the content is too bad. It seems like, if anything, it would discourage clickbait...
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joopxiv 3843 days ago
As I said, I think it will only discourage the most obvious forms of clickbait. There's still an incentive to make your headlines a bit louder, try to appeal to more people by making false suggestions, etc.

If you're reading 'De Correspondent' you will see a lot of examples of this: the headlines are not necessary clickbait in the same way as BuzzFeed is, but they still over-promise and are often slightly misleading. Especially the ones they share via social media.

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mtrimpe 3843 days ago
I honestly don't see how that's any different from the age-old "tabloid" papers (like Telegraaf for example.)
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jagermo 3844 days ago
No, not really. At least in Germany you can return the article if you didn't like it - for example, if it was dirty clickbait garbage.

I use Blendle nearly every day, so far I only got good and interesting articles, a lot from newspapers I have not read before.

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makmanalp 3844 days ago
This is an interesting thought, but the same incentive exists in ad based revenue sites today, and I don't really see it getting worse. If anything, I'm going to be more careful to click on things I am more certain to find interesting - a bit more restraint will be involved.
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joopxiv 3843 days ago
... and I don't really see it getting worse

I think Internet 'journalism' is at an all time low.

I'm going to be more careful to click on things

So you are adapting to this state of horribleness by determining for every link if it's clickbait or not. I wish that wouldn't be necessary.

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