There comes a time in all of our lives when we visit what could arguably be characterized as a pretty dull internet to do one of two things.
First of all, you can visit a page adorned with quality verbal brilliance designed to liven up an otherwise dull internet. You’ll know you’ve hit the right place because the very first letter which introduces you to a whole new paradigm of thought is prominently featured as a big-ass, drop capital.
The other thing you can do is cast aside any hope of making your visit to the aforementioned dull internet more exciting by succumbing to the more salacious enticements scattered all over the web which are ultimately designed to direct web traffic and generate ad revenue.
If you’re not quite sure what I’m talking about, open up another tab in your browser and go to one of the websites for the more widely known news organizations. It doesn’t matter whether said organization leans heavily one way or the other in the political spectrum, as a whole bunch of them have what they refer to as Promoted or Sponsored Content.
It’s called Clickbait, y’all.
Remember back in the old days when infomercials reigned supreme across the airwaves? Remember how you could find yourself watching what you thought was a news program about some fabulous breakthrough around weight loss, strength training, or real estate? Remember how put off you were when you had the epiphany that you were just watching a commercial?
When you’re on what you consider to be a relatively reputable site and you click on what you think is a news story only to find that you’ve been directed elsewhere, know this. That gaping maw in which you’ve landed was designed to accumulate you and countless others as monetized data units. Its underlying algorithms possess nefarious machinations which will plant seeds around opinions you think are your own. It will analyze your browsing habits and tailor or personalize ads specifically for you that you’ll see on other websites later on. It might even try to get you to buy something.
In the grand scheme of things, I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time railing against Clickbait save for telling you what I think it’s designed to do. Nor am I going to suggest that Clickbait be deemed evil and illegal and call for its banishment.
After all, Clickbait and other advertising is necessary out here on the internet in order to mitigate the costs of having vast quantities of information at our disposal.
The only thing I can really tell you about letting the purveyors of the gaping maw set their hooks in you by clicking their ads is that it’s an act of stupidity.
As I’ve said before, acts of stupidity are available to us for a dime a dozen.
Stop chipping in the damn dimes.
So if I’m not here to gripe, bitch, and moan all Oxford comma style about Clickbait, you may be wondering why I even bothered taking time out of my lethargic Saturday morning when I spend my time sorting my delicates and consuming Everything Bagels slathered with copious amounts of whipped cream cheese.
There are two reasons for this ladies and gentlemen.
TharpSter.org has been up and running for nearly a decade now. In that time, I’ve dabbled on and off with advertising on this site in hopes of monetizing one of my hobbies. I made up a sponsor or two and I launched a campaign for an endorsement deal with another one. At one point, I signed up for a service where I would allow ads to be added to the site here. Early on in that process, I received a stern form letter from one of the head algorithms in charge that some of the content I had posted was a little too racy for the demographic the advertising was targeting. In response to their request to me to either alter my content or alter the profile for the types of ads appearing on the site, I conducted an immediate cost benefit analysis of the situation and came to the conclusion that the ad revenue was not sufficient enough to give them the time of day. I subsequently removed the advertising from the site and told them to go fly a kite.
A year or so ago, I pursued another program for advertising here. Around that time the company behind the program came under scrutiny for participating in the activity I discussed earlier. A follow up cost benefit analysis was conducted by the Master of Coin here within the organization, and the same conclusions were reached that had been reached a few years back. Add to that the fact that the advertising appeared at several points in line within my posts, bastardizing my glorious works of art beyond any level of third party modification that I could even consider being acceptable. In summary, the money wasn’t worth it and verbal brilliance was being uglified.
As such, the first reason I’m here to talk about Clickbait is to recommit to my beloved readership that you will not find promoted content here at the place where you visit for a livelier internet experience.
The other reason I’ve done this is pretty simple. Granted, I’m not going to put advertising on my beloved site unless the pay is right and my wordsmithery is not inhibited. That won’t keep me making some strategic placements of Clickbait here on TharpSter.org. Stay tuned y’all.
Save your dimes people.
