I just learned a new word in English. Clickbait.
Wikipedia defines it like this:
Click-bait is a web page link designed to entice users to go to a certain web-page or video. Click-bait headlines typically aim to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity" title="Curiosity" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Nimbus Sans L", Arial, "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; color: rgb(90, 54, 150); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);">curious</a>, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content.
What do you think about using this tactic to attract people? Giving a dramatic title to a discussion in order to attract some readers here on Italki? Do you use this tactic yourself? Are you in a desperate need of attention and any mean is handy?
It's an all too common tactic in almost all of the media outlets in Finland, even the one that doesn't need to turn a profit (our own "BBC", Yleisradio).
The reasons for clickbaits are typically in advertising, and the necessity to increase visits/reads to increase the profit from advertising. Even worse are those sites that list "Top 20 actors who ...." , and then spread out the content to exactly 20 pages, thus requiring the user to visit 20 individual pages with ads to see the full list/reach number one on the "countdown".
That said, I can't really understand what the purpose of clickbait would be here on iTalki.
