by Frank Turk
Happy Wednesday. I spent the day yesterday working and raising kids and helping a couple in my care group at church decide to buy a house. I engaged in efforts to save my employer 10x my salary in the next 90 days, and it looks like it worked.
And: I was assaulted for accusing another blogger of participating in click bait for making the death of a celebrity into a reason to read his blog/magazine.
Let me say this about that:
More to follow on or around 15 September 2014.
And: I was assaulted for accusing another blogger of participating in click bait for making the death of a celebrity into a reason to read his blog/magazine.
Let me say this about that:
One Tweet for Robin Williams:
We must see in tragedy the necessary implication that there is something wrong with the world. Usually: Us.
— Frank Turk (@Frank_Turk) August 12, 2014
More to follow on or around 15 September 2014.
22 comments:
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Sounds like you had a full day. Keep up the good work. Do you have any link to the "assault" for those who didn't catch it?
Wow. "Assaulted." And there you are, alone, waiting for someone to have coffee with you and share...
I read the facebook back-and-forth. How many times can you say exactly what your point is and still have people miss it?
I guess it ranks right up there with how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop... the world may never know.
I'm not linking to click bait. Sorry. Anyone trying to will not make it out of moderation. I would in fact accuse them of a lack of moderation.
No problem. It is enough to say, "It was on Facebook." Which explains why I didn't see it because I'm all over your twitter, bro!
Have a great day.
I just updated my Google Avatar. Did it take?
oh sweet.
So you did both things that WERE ministry, and things LIKE ministry. At least you were only assaulted for the things you did that were LIKE ministry.
Until now, I had never heard the term "click bait." See how behind the times I am?
Joking aside, I hope I am finally beginning to learn the lesson that there are times when fewer words spoken more thoughtfully or no words at all would serve better. The way things go viral these days, especially when there is some huge controversy or emotional event, the effect seems more akin to throwing gasoline on a fire instead of encouraging calm, sober reflection. I'm not there yet, but I'm trying.
Frank, re the avatar, you could have done a parody of the photo of John McVie inside Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album. He's got a bottle IV'd into his arm. Coffee in your case, of course. ;)
Will you define click bait, for those of us who are unclear?
Michael --
I'm glad you asked.
In the old days of the internet, back around 2005, it was completely unsavory to mention or do anything which made reference to the fact that if you had a web site, you wanted people to read it, and therefore you wanted traffic. It was acceptable to post (but certainly not talk about) your hit counter and the statistics of your blog -- even though you had a counter, and if you were getting more than 500 hits per day, you were in the top 1% of all blogs everywhere.
Today, nobody has a hit counter on their front page because it is passe. In fact, every single post has a hit counter so it can be well-documented that not only has the blog as a whole gotten 10^X views, but this very post (like a YouTube video) has gotten 10^X views.
But: to drive that traffic, we're no longer talking about the long-term goals like credibility or sustained quality. You need a headline for each post that goes something like this: "This Dog looks like a goner, but you'll get poked in the Feels with what happens next."
Using a headline which makes incredible claims to drive traffic is click bait. It's not the only genus or specie, but it is click bait. Another kind would be to post an insult or an incredible charge as you headline, and make sure you have name-dropped in the body over and over regarding someone who is tint eh headlines today -- for example, a famous person who was found dead and is presumed to be a suicide.
Click Bait is that which is used to gin up traffic for your site when you don;t have quality or credibility on your side.
Before anyone says it, of course my returning to this blog is click bait.
Of course it is -- but we aren't standing on a suicide's body to re-awaken our audience. We know what kind of girls we are, and we are not negotiating the price.
I get it. Thanks.
That's ok Frank. You are my kind of girl.
"It feels strange to mourn for Robin Williams at a time when nations are being ripped apart by war, continents are succumbing to plagues, religious groups are being persecuted, cities are burning, and innocent men are being gunned down in the street.
But then again, it's kind of a reminder that the world needs laughter and cheer right now. Movies like "Hook," "Aladdin," and "Jumanji" make me feel nostalgic because of their childlike innocence and wonder, and Williams's portrayal of Dr. Maguire in "Good Will Hunting" was heartbreaking, human, and memorable. The world needs more of these things. . . . . . . . I just mean that the death of one comedian might seem very insignificant right now in light of all the other things going on."-a friend on FB of mine.
Thought he made a good statement about Robin.
Good to see you raising your kids, and helping others Cent. Your rewards in the next life, we will get to see, and then give all the glory to our Savior, of course.
Wow...I looked at the FB post and comments briefly last night and just caught up this morning. These tragedies should be an opportunity not to be exploited, but definitely to learn from and reflect upon. Ecclesiastes 7:2 offers us some wisdom in this regard. And when reflecting upon the life of Robin Williams, the following verse really gives us a lot to think about.
I hope that God used his struggles to open his heart and his eyes to the truth. I also hope that he became repentant and trusted in Jesus...because then he really is resting in peace. Even more than that, I hope that others can look at a man who had so much, yet struggled so mightily, and see how this world can not provide fulfillment...and that they find that they need peace with God through trusting in Jesus and repenting of their sins. That is a discussion worth having with people in the wake of this tragedy!
I can't believe this still hasn't been said, so:
Frank Turk is a menace who must be stopped.
There.
I would like if you could define "Facebook".
Brad - I'm glad you asked.
My father is 80 years old. I mean: 80. For him, a phone without wires is a miracle, a phone which doesn't have a base station (like a flip phone) is some sort of monstrous abomination, and a phone which can access the internet is a "witchbox." (He actually coined that term)
For him to imagine, for example, that you could write a book without a typewriter and no paper is some sort of oxymoron on the scale of a poison sandwich or a bitter fruit. A Kindle to him is not just a witchbox - it's an incomprehensible lie.
So blogging to my Dad is just a lesser form of the incomprehensible lie a Kindle represents.
For him, to turn on the computer (its own sort of miracle, but at least it has wires), open a bookmark (it's not a ribbon or a slice of paper - and there's no book here - why is is called a bookmark) to a page (is it numbered? Then why do you call it a page?) where all the brief updates appear from his closest Family and friends on a white space which seems to be an endless scroll only barely makes sense to him - but he can comprehend it.
That's what Facebook is.
Almost thou persuadest me to join Facebook. (KJV)
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