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I notice all articles on here now...
end with an ellipsis. It's clickbait for the advertisers, I get it; forum is free, I get it.
But it's fairly annoying...looks like my 7th grader texting her friends.
Comments
I agree. But I didn't really feel like I was in position to complain about it either.
It's the off season. At least I'm not talking politics... 😉
@Chopper .... it's not clickbait --- ellipses are used to let the reader know that there was more that followed that was omitted.
Sometimes in a quote, a coach will make a salient point, get sidetracked, and circle back to it.
It may look like this. "We played really good defense for a half before things went haywire (coach lists plays, situations not germane to point, ellipses inserted) .... we have to learn to finish."
Other times ellipses are intentional, to provide or suggest the reader finish the thought ....
Such as above, or in this instance, "Georgia has led Alabama at halftime each of the last three meetings, but ..... "
I hope this explanation helps. "Clickbait" is an insulting term to any journalist.
Do we want our headlines and ledes to draw interest? Or course.
But we don't ever want to mislead or not deliver on the headline.
In the case of the ellipses on all the headlines here, it's because there's not room enough in the headline field to fit them in, I believe..
Not a big deal dude...just noticed. It's the off season.
@Chopper -- It's never the offseason on the job. We work hard to do well for our readers.
It shows. Love your Finebaum segments BTW. Nice break from Bama, Bama, Bama, Saban, Bama, repeat.
I don't have strong feelings about any of this, but "California" would fit just fine in the available space, so I think OP's point is probably valid.
@AnotherDawg It would -- but we don't control the computer layout -- it's programmed.
Look at all of the headlines and you will see the same breakpoint.
There are times ellipses are used for effect, but they are rare, and no one is trying to do anything unethical to draw interest.
Thanks for the follow-up Mike.
If the layout of the site has been re-programmed to create headlines with ellipses as a general rule, then you've confirmed the validity of the OP. He simply noticed the change and pointed out that it looks and feels like clickbait (which is true, whether that was the intention or not.)
I don't think anyone questions your ethics or that of any of the DN writers. I imagine this was a corporate decision by a VP at Cox who's job it is to maximize revenue from the site. Even there, I don't think ethics necessarily enter into it. It's purely a business decision. Whether or not it was a good one remains to be seen.
Business decisions don't have ethical elements/consequences ?
Of course they do, sometimes.