[RegEx]

> I've seen a few cases where a post title used profanity in a way that's arguably unnecessary

I think that's pretty much what he means, but you can't blame the author since it seems to work. People here are passionate, especially when it comes to articles related to the human side of software development. Profanity can tap into that emotion fairly well.

[coderdude]

"but you can't blame the author since it seems to work" -> "Profanity can tap into that emotion fairly well."

So a formula for getting knee-jerk clicks and votes is to "bait" the user by using language that elicits an emotional response. :)

[RegEx]

Exactly, I was agreeing with you.

[coderdude]

Ahh, so you were. For some reason I got the impression that you were justifying the use of swearing because of the response it generates while not making the connection between that and outright baiting.