Clickbait

I have noticed a huge amount of clickbait posts lately. I am reporting them as I see them, but what would make life easier on the mods here? If I just reported one clickbait post per user, or if I reported all of a users posts that I see that are clickbait?

I don't want to flood you guys with too many reports, but when it is one person making multiple posts, how do you want people to handle that? just one post or all? I will continue to repost individual users as they come up.

a reply to: calstorm

What is your definition of clickbait, and what measure do you apply to a thread in order to classify it as a clickbait thread?

a reply to: TrueBrit

Most of the ones I have reported today are still up, but here are two from the same thread.
www.abovetopsecret.com... There are two, near identical posts made by two different users.

poster 1 here has 19 posts

dont want to look like a spammer, but just in case someone might need it: I met her at one of the dating sites (*** URL removed ***). Maybe this will be helpful for you, guys, as it was for me.

Poster 2 has only one post, this one.

Because you never had a girlfriend and you don't know what is care and love. If you are already tired to be alone, you can easily find the love of your life on the site *** URL removed *** . A very friendly user interface and the ability to communicate immediately after registration.

The posts were back to back. In other posts that I have determined to be click bait, the same user posted the same link on multiple old threads that were brought back by the spammer.

I am unlikely to report a single instance of a questionable link, or even multiple links on multiple threads by an established poster. Hope that clears things up Trubrit.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: calstorm

What is your definition of clickbait, and what measure do you apply to a thread in order to classify it as a clickbait thread?

really?

what constitutes porn.. dont tell me, we already know, clickbait is the same.

a reply to: calstorm
Getting back to your original question, I find a single report of a "marketing" poster is enough. I label it as such, the thing gets noticed, and fairly quickly (usually) action gets taken.

originally posted by: laminatedsoul
really?
what constitutes porn.. dont tell me, we already know, clickbait is the same.

TrueBrit asked a reasonable question.
Sensational or slightly misleading thread titles, for example, are sometimes criticised as "clickbait", so the word was ambiguous.

a reply to: calstorm

As always: we depend upon everyone to report things to to us, as there are simply not enough staff to read every thread and every post here on ATS.

We always take a look at every alert or complaint.

If we see someone spamming the boards with links, we normally remove the posts. Normally this is easy to spot as in many cases it's a new person spamming various threads with the same post.

Sometimes it is not that simple and we need to look at it and see if the person is being a spammer or not, and that may take some time before any (if any) action is taken.

What does not help is having the possible spam post quoted, as we then have to go in and edit someone's post.

If any think that someone else is posting as a spammer, alert us mods to the post, we'll take a look at it.

originally posted by: DISRAELI

originally posted by: laminatedsoul
really?
what constitutes porn.. dont tell me, we already know, clickbait is the same.

TrueBrit asked a reasonable question.
Sensational or slightly misleading thread titles, for example, are sometimes criticised as "clickbait", so the word was ambiguous.

Ahh.. I guess Im an unsure what clickbait is then.

To me it is content that need you to click on it and the leads you to a completely different thing.

not a misleading title.

a reply to: calstorm
I call those examples "spam". For clickbait I'd generally use this definition from urbandictionary:

Click-Bait
When a news article or link has a provocative title in order to get you to click on it.
Even though it's actually total sensationalism bull#.

originally posted by: calstorm
I have noticed a huge amount of clickbait posts lately. I am reporting them as I see them, but what would make life easier on the mods here? If I just reported one clickbait post per user, or if I reported all of a users posts that I see that are clickbait?

If you know there is more spam from the same poster, just ask the mods to review the spammer's other posts in your report of one example; you don't have to report all of them separately.

I have done this a couple of times and the mods took care of multiple spam posts from a single report.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Reposting this part from Erik…

What does not help is having the possible spam post quoted, as we then have to go in and edit someone's post.

If any think that someone else is posting as a spammer, alert us mods to the post, we'll take a look at it.

As in don't start a thread or link the spam, just alert staff.

You can do that in the drop down menu under the 'little green man' in every members avatar; "ALERT" is a direct pipeline to on duty staff.

a reply to: intrptr

Yes, my response to Truebrit was a dumb move, and I certainly wasn't thinking when I made that post. That said, my reason for the thread was not to alert staff but to learn what was the most convenient to them. I do apologise for that.

I know some people consider threads with sensational titles as clickbait. I don't it as such because everyone tries to get their thread noticed. I see clickbait as someone who posts a link with an ulterior motive otherthan to link to a source reference or beneficial material.


Since I didn't get an exact answer to my question from a mod, I am going to assume the mods agree with Arbitrageur?

a reply to: calstorm

No apologies, yah just alert staff, they love the help.

Good eye, by the way…

Spamvertising

a reply to: calstorm

"Clickbait" can be a somewhat ambiguous term, as can "spam", for that matter.

The examples you gave above are what I would refer to as "spamvertising", which involves posting links to client sites in as many places as possible to drive traffic to them.

The reasons for spamvertising vary, and usually involve profiting from inflated advertising impressions, but can also include phishing, distribution of malware and attempts to hijack computers for illicit purposes.

All of these endeavors run afoul of the AboveTopSecret.com Terms And Conditions Of Use, so please be sure to alert us when you see them on ATS.

Thanks for doing just that.