[bmenrigh]

Can we stop it with "and the results are terrifying", "and you won't believe what I found", "the <x> situation is insane", etc.? The over-hyping of low quality, low effort content is making it hard to find actually interesting or informative things.

[SunshineTheCat]

Yea I was thinking the same thing.

When you reach for the most exaggerated, over-the-top word possible when describing something relatively mundane, what will you use when you talk about something that actually is "terrifying?"

[thfuran]

“The most terrifying thing you’ve ever heard”. You can even stick with that one as long as your subjects are monotonically scary.

[cheschire]

Find a better and more accessible solution than clickbait.

Please, do it.

[arcfour]

"Privacy concerns found in audit of popular dev tools" (or something along those lines) would work without feeling sensationalized.

[ranger_danger]

In this case I'd say the "clickbait" is justified... these results are downright horrific IMO.

[cheschire]

Yes this one time. I’m speaking generally in response to the general plea.

[thfuran]

I’m not sure what you mean. Not clickbait is the better alternative.

[cheschire]

If that were true, it wouldn’t be such a popular problem. Right? Clearly HN is falling into the same pattern of all the other sites. Engagement hacking blah blah blah.

[thfuran]

You have it backwards. If it weren’t true, clickbait wouldn’t be a problem.

[bmenrigh]

"better", "more accessible"? What the hell are you talking about? Clickbait doesn't make anything better or more accessible.

Instead, it makes it impossible to pre-select for interesting information. Instead of telling you what something is about, it tells you how you should feel about it. That's not improving accessibility.

[cheschire]

I meant from the author’s perspective. Clickbait is too easy, which is probably why it’s so popular.

[bmenrigh]

Oh completely. But my perspective is that we all should individually punish clickbait by not clicking. More broadly, we should strive to keep HN full of quality tech content rather than clickbait.