Anyone else sick of hyperbolic OP headlines - lots of capital letters,

[NewHendoLib]

Statements like this or that repub was "EMBARRASSED" or "OBLITERATED"?


This is not a poke at DUers - I am sure this is copy and paste of the actual video or article titles, format and all.

This is my exhaustion with our current hyperbolic, ineffective media and the political processes that allow the crimes to continue to happen.

I confess I no longer clock on or read them - we've seen too much of the right wing, the TFG cult, have no ability to be embarrassed, obliterated, or discredited. When I see the capital letters or over the top words, it hurts my eyes!

[XanaDUer2]

1. No, but I hate OPs titles like THIS nt

[NewHendoLib]

3. Don't you tire of the BS?

[XanaDUer2]

8. What? Nt

[XanaDUer2]

9. Oh maybe I'm not clear

I meant ops that start with a title This and give no other information other than a word like THIS.

[MiHale]

32. +1

[Amaryllis]

67. +2

[BunnyMcGee]

76. Yes, definite

no idea what the subject is, or worth clicking on.

[Martin68]

77. Thanks for clarifying. I thought you were referring to this post rather than the monosyllabic

headline. it's lazy, uninformative, and unimaginative

[SCantiGOP]

119. Agree, you beat me to it

I was going to post the same thing.

[Pinback]

120. This!

That! …and The Other!

Right there with you. About as bad as “Tweet of the Day” or “(Somebody) for the Win.” Sure-fire way to get me to ignore a thread.

[Croney]

10. If you mean posts with just the word THIS as the title,

yes.

[XanaDUer2]

12. Yes

Or posts that just have a link in the body. I like some hint of what I'm going to click

[MiHale]

33. +1 again

[question everything]

48. second and third your comment

I don't even open them. And don't let me start on "twit of the evening" etc.

[ShazzieB]

121. If you mean original posts with just the word THIS as the title, I don't think I've ever seen one.

You don't mean replies, do you? Sometimes I type "This!" as a reply to indicate hearty agreement with a post. I don't know where I picked that up, but I definutely didn't invent it.

My own pet peeve is posts that seem to be commenting on what someone said or did with little or no context, so I have absolutely no idea what they're referring to. Like DU is some kind of hive mind and we're all supposed to know what everyone else is viewing or reading at any given moment. If that's the case, I need to know where to go to get my implant, because I never got that notification!

[grumpyduck]

2. I just ignore them.

I also ignore the ones that mention a meltdown. That's almost a cliche by now.

[dalton99a]

4. Yes, they have been TOTALLY DESTROYED.

GONE

No longer seen or heard from

[blm]

31. ✔️

[Magoo48]

54. I'm surprised anyone is still standing after all the bombshells.

[Ocelot II]

5. We see that mostly on clickbait videos produced by semi-amateur vloggers

who are hoping to attract attention and traffic to their videos with hysterical headlines. I never watch them any more because they always turn out to be some ho-hum 30-second item in which nobody gets EMBARRASSED or OBLITERATED or DESTROYED, but the perpetrator of the video gets to bloviate about it for 15 minutes and he gets clicks and traffic and likes or whatever. Raw Story, which is somewhat more mainstream, is another offender, and even though they are on "our side" I don't like their tendentious headlines either; their articles are usually just summaries of some other publication's work, so unless there's a firewall, why not just link to the original and skip RS's clickbait altogether.

[GoCubsGo]

17. Meidas Touch is another offender.

They do this crap on pretty much EVERY YouTube. I have become leery of watching anything they put out, because of the hyperbolic crap. Got burned one time too many.

[LakeArenal]

23. I can no longer watch Ben Meisel. Although he's not the only one

Besides the 15 minutes on a 30 second clip, what’s with the tiny cowboy hat on the mantle.

[usaf-vet]

43. Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! I find myself going to DU less and less. I won't watch OP with unknowns.....

..... that talk for five minutes. Show a 30-second clip, then talk for another 5 minutes.

And I'm tired of the "THIS IS the ONE that is putting Trump in jail."

[mrsadm]

118. Yes! And I thought it was just me!

[aggiesal]

122. I thought I was the only one that can't stand Medias Touch ...

I don't mind Meidas Touch per se, but I don't like the 15 minute video when everything can be said in 2-5 minutes.

I've asked DU if there is a way to post the video length in the title, instead of playing the video to see the length.
Anything over 5 minutes I'd have to schedule time. Forget about 15 minutes.

[GoCubsGo]

127. I don't dislike them. Just their hyperbole.

That, and the stretching out of what can be said briefly. I actually find some of the longer discussions between the two lawyers to be fairly informative. But, yeah. Even those are too damn long.

[betsuni]

28. Occasionally I'll click on what I think is the original material, instead it's a boring guy

yammering on and on "explaining" a brief clip and I think: Who do you think you are? How did you get the idea you're interesting?

In the olden days you'd use a hairbrush as a microphone and admire yourself in the bathroom mirror as you pretended to be a star and "entertain" your audience. I think more people should go back to doing that and leave everybody else alone.

[stopdiggin]

47. +1. (plus 'tendentious' - for 50 extra points!) -(nt)-

[Hekate]

63. Ocelot, you've spotted my pet peeve. TY

[SunSeeker]

66. Yup, it always turns out to be clickbait. Nobody is ever "DESTROYED." nt

[Ocelot II]

86. They aren't even EMBARRASSED or HUMILIATED. Or, for that matter, ANNOYED.

[paleotn]

91. I totally agree.

[Croney]

6. Every time there's a post like yours, I join in,

agreeing. It does no good.

[ms liberty]

7. Yes. n/t

[TexasTowelie]

11. FWIW, the algorithms on YouTube promote the videos that have the clickbait titles

and thumbnails. The content providers have to play by those rules in order to reach the largest possible audience. I usually convert upper case titles to mixed case just to reduce the visual impact; however, I do tend to leave the same words so that it is easier to find duplicates and because I don't want to impact anything else that the content maker provided.

[Fiendish Thingy]

62. The algorithms promote videos with clickbait titles because they have already generated clicks

It’s actually the other way around from what you described- someone posts a video with a clickbait title, generates x number of clicks, which triggers the algorithms to promote it to the top of recommended videos, generating even more clicks.

Videos that attract clicks generate revenue for both YouTube and the video poster (or copyright holder, if that isn’t the poster).

[50 Shades Of Blue]

13. Very.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

14. A

A couple things I notice on this site....I'm not sick or angry about them. Just an observation:

1) Duplicate posts. I see this with regularity on this forum. I appreciate Malaise as I have seen her delete her duplicate posts.
2) Folks who don't read the responses to an OP. Many times, the OP gets debunked and members ignore that and keep posting nonetheless.

I consider these more quirks than anything else. Certainly nothing nefarious. It's more of a pet peeve of mine and a reflection of me than it is of DU.

[Effete Snob]

24. On #2

Sometime that is a consequence of the poster having previously ignored persons who are critical of “stuff found on social media”.

[judesedit]

35. I'm pretty much with you. I just don't open them if I see multiples

Other than that, I don't let this kind of stuff bother me. I make allowances for missed information by readers. There's sooo much out there, it's not possible to retain it all.

[BlackSkimmer]

15. Yes.

Very much so.

Here and elsewhere.

[The Magistrate]

16. I Am

[Effete Snob]

18. I'm INFURIATED and ready to EXPLODE!

Although I’m thinking that ignoring three posters might eliminate most of these sorts of posts.

[TheBlackAdder]

115. WHAAAAT?

.

.

[Shermann]

19. I'm SHOCKED by this! nt

[AndyS]

20. I am particularly tired of videos that tell me what to think about some

out of context video clip. 15 seconds of vid and 15 minutes of what I am supposed to think and take away from it.

All Caps, yellow lettering, hyperbolic text and no content.

It reminds me of the Gungeon.

Isn't that what FOX news does?

[stopdiggin]

45. +1. stop wasting my time.

give me the clip and the context - don't expect me to wade through 10 minutes of tedious 'opinion.' If I want talking heads, I'll go to the TV networks thanks.

[Diamond_Dog]

21. MTG EMBARRASSES/HUMILIATES HERSELF!

No. Those of her ilk have no shame.

That sad, I mostly ignore them, too.

[dalton99a]

26. +1. It is useless to talk about shame when it comes to Republicans

[MontanaMama]

38. +1

I ignore them for the most part. But they’re still annoying.

[madinmaryland]

22. CALL YOUR CONGRESSCRITTER RIGHT FUCKING NOW!

[Effete Snob]

25. Get out and knock on doors

Or ring the door buzzards.

[erronis]

27. Just don't get shot!

[Effete Snob]

78. That's what the door buzzard is for

[stage left]

114. Thanks.

I enjoy reminders of the famous door buzzard. I laughed at that thread until I was completely destroyed.

[treestar]

85. get into federal trouble!

[erronis]

30. While we're boaning and mitching, what's with the google search?

Once I click on "Search" it loses my browser's history. I can't go back to the page when I clicked on search.

I always need to open a new tab/window and do the search from there so I don't lose the history.

[question everything]

52. Use the Advance Search best feature of DU

[erronis]

58. Thanks, QE. I've been told to use it before and forgot. Unfortunately it is painfully slow and even

times out on a simple search.

If I search for "emptywheel" in thread titles, it take 20-30 seconds to complete. This is using Forum or Group: Main, and just the last month date range.

If I do the same search and include all posts it gives a gateway error - times out.

Pretty sure the back-end doesn't have full-text search turned on.

[EarlG]

34. I too find this rather exhausting

And I've pondered if there's anything that can be done about it, but it's a bit of a tough one. Problems:

• It's old-school Internet etiquette to generally try to avoid posting thread titles (and messages) in ALL CAPS, especially if the content of the post doesn't warrant it. However, these titles don't do that -- they just pick a couple of words to emphasize.

• The DUers who repost them here are only posting the titles exactly as they find them at the original source, which is a perfectly acceptable practice (we even enforce this as a policy in LBN). So it's not the posters' fault.

• There's no software solution. Well, actually there is, but it would be like using a sledgehammer where a scalpel would be more appropriate. I could easily make a change so that thread titles are forced into lower-case, with every word having an upper-case initial. However, this would cause more problems than it solves, because you'd end up with legit words and acronyms being displayed incorrectly -- like "Nasa," "Cnn," "Gop," "Maga," and even "Du." I don't think anyone would want that.

• Trying to create a policy to stop this would be quite confusing. Somehow I would have to communicate to anyone starting a thread that if you're sourcing content from somewhere else it's certainly good practice to use the exact title of the content, but at the same time please don't put words in all caps if they don't need to be. I'm not even sure how to word this, let alone how it could be easily communicated to people as part of the posting interface.

I've basically trained myself to just skim immediately past threads which contain titles like "Lauren Boebert HUMILIATED and DESTROYED at hearing". But it still feels annoying that I have to do this, so I understand people's frustration.

Currently the only suggestion I have is that you might find you can make a dent in reducing the number of these types of threads by using the Trash Keyword function to trash the word "Meidas". I'm open to other suggestions.

[erronis]

55. Thanks, EarlG. If you can't fix it nobody can!

Unfortunately the proliferation of click-bait titles and video capture images makes the whole video section a lot less useful.

And thanks for keeping DU (and us) together!

[dalton99a]

56. +1

[Hekate]

65. Thanks for your cogent response, EarlG

[Fiendish Thingy]

69. Unfortunately , I've had to put numerous clickbait posters on ignore

There are a few DUers whose posts are almost exclusively clickbait videos. By putting them on ignore, my “latest posts” feed is cleaned up considerably, actually showing legitimate news items and interesting topics of discussion, instead of long lists of mostly clickbait videos.

Earl, it might be heavy handed but it might possibly help if there were a limit to the number of videos a user could post in a day?

I’m sure you know there are some DUers who are using DU strictly to drive traffic to their videos and increase the revenue they generate. They post their videos and rarely engage in any follow up discussion- IMO, it’s no different than if I posted videos of my own songs, or hand made jewelry, or my eBay auctions, or any other commercial venture.

[Effete Snob]

79. +1

[NewHendoLib]

110. Thanks, EarlG. You got my point perfectly. I appreciate your response.

[Effete Snob]

116. If the video forum was not an auto include for "latest"

That would be most of it.

[Celerity]

117. there is a easy solution to the all caps, just copy the all caps title and google search it

that almost always yields a non all caps version, so then you can just copy and paste that in DU title field

[Cherokee100]

36. Sad

It's sad to see DU, go the route of least resistance. More adds, no response from the the administrators. After all these years, what a same..

[blogslug]

46. Look up

The reply above is from one of the administrators

[question everything]

50. You can become a star member and not see any ads

https://www.democraticunderground.com/star

[moonscape]

64. It costs real $$ to keep the site going. That's

made possible via star membership (a nominal contribution/month, less than a single cup of coffee) or ads. We do have a choice.

[Kali]

70. LOL

[Skittles]

124. pony up a few bucks and you won't see any ads

ya know?

[Indykatie]

126. My Pet Peeve is People Bitching About DU Who Don't Invest in a Membership

[judesedit]

37. I don't understand why it bothers you so much?

Apparently, the poster thought it warranted it.

[Effete Snob]

84. .

[judesedit]

96. I like it

[jmbar2]

39. A lot of it is "eliminationist" rhetoric, borrowed from the right, or wrestling

Last edited Sat Apr 29, 2023, 05:32 PM - Edit history (1)

I enjoy imaginative and articulate debunking of rightwing talking points. But I'm not interested in obliterating, crushing, demolishing, or destroying anyone. I skip those posts.

For those who post vids like that, please pull out and post the prize so that we don't have to sit through the videos.

[Beastly Boy]

40. Yes, prety sick. And let me add my own pet peeve: abbreviating phrases or even entire sentences.

There is no reason to do this: DU doesn't limit the number of characters one can use in a post, and it doesn't save much time to spell the words out. It takes longer to look up what each abbreviation might mean.

Besides, "What the fuck" has a much nicer ring to it than "WTF", don't you think?

[BeerBarrelPolka]

42. Yes!!!!

The abbreviations can get ridiculous. It's become where I rarely ever know what they stand for.

[stopdiggin]

41. well past tired (and disillusioned)

(you're correct in that much stems from posting the heading as it appears in the clip/content - and that is apparently proper procedure)

But, yes - it's over the top and intentionally hyperbolic - and an embarrassing reflection of what the new media environment is. Sad - but true.

Talk about dumbing down ... Ain't only happenin' in the school room and/or textbooks folks ...

[blogslug]

44. I get it. It is exhausting.

I can remember when all three networks used to shut off at midnight. These days I think there's too much news. It doesn't help that there's a bajillion media outlets fighting for our eyes and clicks. At the same time, news departments are being gutted across the country. It's bleak.

[barbtries]

49. just one thing. Meidas Touch

they are definitely guilty, but after a year or so of avoiding them, I am finding them to be the best political channel out there. They really lay out the current state of affairs. Ben Meicelas and i think his brothers are lawyers. They explain what's going on in the court cases. This video is so worth the watch.

it is tiresome. I wish they didn't do that, but i hope you'll give Meidas Touch a look.

[rickford66]

57. Tedious, but education sometimes is.

I like how Ben explains the tiny details. Don't watch if you don't have time. He is also involved in several endeavors we here at DU would support. PS. His rants are funny also.

[barbtries]

59. I've become a big fan.

and learned so much. He does really go into detail. He reads all the filings and discusses them and I can't think of anyone else that provides that kind of detail. I watch a lot of the other content as well and enjoy most of it. This one that I just posted in my post is infuriating but it reveals the dirty tricks and total bullshit that stephen miller, mark meadows, and others are doing as we speak, and getting paid for it by us! Rachel Maddow would be the only other person I can think of who might bring this travesty to light, and I just don't watch cable news anymore.

and yes his rants. he gets it.

[CatWoman]

94. plus one

[Fiendish Thingy]

51. Clickbait language

Those OP’s headlines are often pasted from, and include, outrage farmer clickbait YouTube videos that use all caps, emotionally charged words like “BOMBSHELL!” or “EVICERATED!” to get folks to click on them, thus generating revenue.

Without exception, I skip any OP with clickbait language.

[Abigail_Adams]

89. I agree.

Such headlines do not make me want to view the video they allude to.

[Roy Rolling]

53. Absolute Worst Offender

BLOCKBUSTER

[orthoclad]

60. "Bombshell!" weekly for 7 years

and all the other meaningless clickbait.
Yes, I can't stand listen to Meidas touch themselves to climax over fragments of content. But then, I hate googletube video yammering.

Still waiting after years for one of these bombshells to go off.

[quaint]

61. https://convertcase.net/

Example using their Sentence case option: MTG EMBARRASSES/HUMILIATES HERSELF!
Returned as: Mtg embarrasses/humiliates herself!
I change Mtg to MTG if I feel like it.

[Luck Counts]

68. Hyperbolic wishing

It seems like the authors of the hyperbolic language are wishing for the stated outcome. The actual result often does not reach that level of hyperbole.

[NBachers]

71. I'm STUNNED and SHOCKED by the hyperbolic use of these SENSATIONAL OUTRAGES!

[nolabear]

72. No, but I worry about this kind of divisive OP

We need one another. We don’t need to jump on one another for habits, mistakes, even disagreements. Talk? Yes. Argue? Sure. But using one another’s foibles to divide us is not in our best interest.

[JanLip]

88. Yes

This ☝️

Jan

[dameatball]

90. Yup. Considering the state of the world and the country this is much ado about nothing.

[JanLip]

95. You know

I’m starting to feel unwelcome on this website. When I read a post that I totally agree with I might post yes or this. Why should I repeat what the poster wrote. If that’s being lazy so be it. I agree with you about this being about nothing. I’ve been jumped on more than once lately by a poster who shall be nameless. I’ve been a member since 2004. I haven’t posted that much but I read what others post. I’ve learned so much from most of the people here. I’ve enjoyed reading them but seems like this site has taken a turn I don’t feel comfortable with. Sorry I vented as a reply to you.

Jan

[Scrivener7]

101. XanaDuer was pretty clear that her objection to the "This" posts was not posts

within a thread. It was OP's where the title is "THIS" which gives us no context or information. It's click bait and I agree with her.

I say "this" all the time when I agree with a poster within a thread.

[JanLip]

103. Thanks

I stand corrected.

Jan

[dameatball]

111. No problem and hang in there. Still the best place around imo.

[judesedit]

97. That's my point, too

[judesedit]

98. I thought we were supposed to be supporting each other here

[Scrivener7]

102. I don't think someone expressing a dislike for clickbait amounts to us being unsupportive of

each other.

Sometimes we will disagree. Sometimes people will not like the things others post. That is not a bad thing. If it didn't happen, that would mean we were MAGAs who slavishly follow a company line.

[judesedit]

106. I guess you're right

[Scrivener7]

107. .

I disagree with the company line a lot here. Sometimes a poster will come back at me with a need to "win." A need to prove me wrong, a need to shut me up. I always find that sad. And very tiresome. Nothing is ever gained in those conversations other than me feeling sorry for those posters' spouses.

But then there are the posters here where we can say to each other, "I disagree with you" and we both recognize we are still allies, still people voting for the same people. Those are the best conversations.

[judesedit]

108. Very true

[dameatball]

112. Yeah. This is also true. It all comes down to being on the same side in the end.

[Effete Snob]

130. It's Cathartic

[Hekate]

73. I avoid them like the plague. I know it's the title of the vid (usually a vid) but it's like ...

…the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and I’ve been tricked too often. All our enemies are still out there doing what they do and not feeling an iota of embarrassment, much less humiliation or the sense of being destroyed.

High on my list of other things I refuse to read is the flood of similarly-construed begging e-mails from politicians I donated to because I like and support them. Very shortly I’m going to unsubscribe from Reuben Gallego until I’m damn good and ready to donate again.

It’s not his personal fault — it’s some kind of widespread disease cooked up in a political advertising lab — and we can’t even blame Wuhan for it. The last straw for me was when Joe Biden’s campaign advertisers started telling me he was out of money and I was the only Democrat left in Goleta who had not yet donated to help him defeat Trump.

A. I had already donated over a hundred bucks to Joe back then, and could read in the newspapers for myself that his campaign chest was, if not overflowing, certainly not scraping the bottom. B. That was an obsolete location. C. What ad agency idiot told all our Dem politicians that this ploy would work? D. What kind of country do we live in where it does work?

[Ferrets are Cool]

74. Not really

[Martin68]

75. Both all caps and the same old cliche hyperbole - demolished, killed, ruined - have the opposite of

the effect I think is intended. I either don't read the post or I read it in spite of the absurd headlines.

[TeamProg]

80. Nearly half of these are posts of Brian Taylor Cohen's BRILLIANT and AWESOME TAKES DOWNS

of whoever he's talking about.


Yeah, I'm sick of it.

[dlk]

81. The endless drama...

Making up for lack of substance, maybe?

[treestar]

82. yes. nothing ever increases or decreases

it soars or plummets. Always has to be the most dramatic word possible.

[demmiblue]

83. I just went through three pages of GD, and really didn't see what you are seeing to any great extent

I guess I am missing something.

[Effete Snob]

99. If your go-to is the "Latest" tab

That’s where they are unavoidable.

[Scrivener7]

105. I was so shocked when I was told that not everyone starts with the "Latest" tab.

It turns out that everyone has a different way to read DU.

Blew my mind!

[BlackSkimmer]

100. The OP actually made sure to express that he was NOT talking about DU.

Not sure why so many missed that.

[NewHendoLib]

109. Careful reading is severely lacking these days

[relayerbob]

87. Yep, 99% of the time, it's nowhere near the hype

[paleotn]

92. The only capital letter title I want to see is....CONVICTED and SENTENCED.

Everything else is hyperbole. Reich wingers don't give a shit about being "embarrassed" or "obliterated" in our eyes. Otherwise, they would have shut the hell up a long time ago.

[Scrivener7]

104. Ha! Exactly!!!

[H2O Man]

93. I'm not, but

I don't read those. I can appreciate that many others do -- some are definitely popular OP/threads. I would prefer if that energy was invested in building the foundation for next year's elections. Just my opinion, based on my preference for the actions which result from rational thought rather than outbursts of emotion.

[stage left]

113. K&R

Yes. If I read a title that says Trump Got Totally Obliterated Last Night, I want to read that he has been completely wiped from the face of the earth and nothing was left of him.

I want to know how it happened and all the details. How was he identified? Are the police sure? When you are totally obliterated there is nothing much left. Were there catsup stains on the walls? Did they extract DNA from the remains of his shattered teeth? And what did it? Did a vulture drop a bomb on Mar-a-lago? A My Pillow blew up? Jewish space lasers?

I don't want to find out that someone embarrassed him. Not that he's capable of embarrassment. Or any other human emotion. At least let him stroke out per Niyad's often expressed admonition to him. Please hyperbolic You Tubers. Quit disappointing me.

[caraher]

123. Yes

"Watch as so-and-so EVISCERATES bad person"

I also have some DU pet peeves - utterly uninformative OP titles like "THIS!" or "Let me make this pellucidly clear" or "Tiedrich FTW." Often the content of those is worthwhile but there's no way to tell.

[Javaman]

125. This is right up there with YouTube videos that will

BLOW YOUR MIND!!!

Yeah, next.

[GoCubsGo]

128. Yes, especially the ones described as "hacks"

that are actually just simple tips.

I have watched a few "BLOW YOUR MIND!!!" videos. My mind remains unblown.

[Effete Snob]

129. Just put an egg in the soup...

…you’ll be amazed.

Also, “I ate an egg in my soup every day for a month!”

[LAS14]

131. I scrolled down the whole first page...

... of DU and found only 3 posts that contained caps other than acronyms. Then just single words, BREAKING was one. NEED was another. Can't remember the 3rd. So, no, I'm not tired of those OPs.