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Many postings are suddenly HEADLINE ONLY, with no text or elaboration until you click. New trend?
February 1, 2019 | Lee Martell

Posted on 02/10/2019 10:53:41 AM PST by lee martell

Have you noticed it too? In the last three or four weeks, I'm seeing more Free/Rep postings showing only the Headline, not much else. There are still a few, that include two or three sentences of text from the author, but not the majority as it was until now.

The plus side is that you can squeeze maybe 35% more articles per page than before. The negative, is to paraphrase what Nancy Pelosi said, "You now have to Click it in order to find out what's really in it."

In a textural sense, it almost looks like a different website at first glance. I know there is no actual difference in totality, of course. I can deal with it if need be, but I will miss being able to do some 'Window Shopping' before clicking an article on.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Free Republic Policy/Q&A; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: anysoftwareupdates; clickbait; getoffmylawnwing; onlinetrends
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1 posted on 02/10/2019 10:53:41 AM PST by lee martell
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To: lee martell

Yes. I often get about a paragraph in the article before it whites out and an offer pops up to sell me access.


2 posted on 02/10/2019 10:57:14 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: lee martell

Make sure you are logged in an click on the little word ‘Text’ next to ‘Brevity: Headers’. Your beeber must have got stuned.


3 posted on 02/10/2019 10:58:22 AM PST by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: jjotto

I guess you’re making a joke.
Okay. It’s the Weekend. Everyone’s laid back.


4 posted on 02/10/2019 11:03:55 AM PST by lee martell
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To: lee martell
Commercial Photography
5 posted on 02/10/2019 11:13:10 AM PST by CaliforniaCraftBeer
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To: lee martell

Admittedly, I did not comprehend your point properly. :)

I thought you meant newspaper headlines.


6 posted on 02/10/2019 11:13:11 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: lee martell

All your headlines are belong to us.


7 posted on 02/10/2019 11:13:31 AM PST by nickedknack
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To: lee martell

It’s not a joke to click on “text”


8 posted on 02/10/2019 11:14:12 AM PST by Rusty0604
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To: Jonty30

I didn’t specify. It used to be so different, but I don’t think I have even touched a newspaper for reading purposes since Trump’s Inauguration. That was a special day I wanted to see in physical print, not just digital.

The ‘paper’ was a thin wisp of maybe twelve pages, all shrunken down to near Reader’s Digest size.
Oh, and the price? It cost $1.75 for the ‘privilege’ of reading an actual paper, sized down and all.
Most of it turned out to be advertisements anyway.


9 posted on 02/10/2019 11:25:03 AM PST by lee martell
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To: lee martell

Never waste time chasing after a title with no meat...


10 posted on 02/10/2019 11:27:09 AM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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To: Rusty0604

Rusty064,
You have SAVED THE DAY!

Turns out you were correct about clicking the Text button.
My reasoning was ‘Well, I never had to do that before!”
Sometimes you gotta go with the flow.
Now THIS looks like the Free Republic neighborhood I know.
Thanks.


11 posted on 02/10/2019 11:28:11 AM PST by lee martell
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To: lee martell

Not sure if this is it, but I have noticed quite a few “bloggers” posting like this to drive you to their html in order to improve their “hits”. Many of these turn out to be basically an opinion piece which really aren’t “News”.


12 posted on 02/10/2019 11:35:45 AM PST by ImpBill (Conservative little "l" libertarian)
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To: All

If I read the headline and look at the author/source I basically know the content of the article. Most articles are following the news by hours if not days while some others, NRO, Townhall and the Hill can pound sand :)


13 posted on 02/10/2019 11:37:11 AM PST by JonPreston
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To: ImpBill

That kind of baiting has been going on for a long time.
I’m not sure how I feel about it.

Most of us are here because we enjoy writing and sharing our thoughts with others who actually read we have posted.
Many of us are actively creative, involved in writing books, making videos, or helping to run charitable organizations.
Just picking one topic at random, the amount of Animal Lovers on this site alone could lead to many tributary personal Blogs. Not a big surprise.
I don’t do it, but I can see how others may wish to cultivate their own tiny group of posters who like one particular topic.

I’m not offended by it. Not even inconvenienced, because I don’t have to follow them to their blogs unless I decide to. If the day comes where these poster/bloggers
find a way to do Pop Up Ads here on F/R, that I would NOT like one bit.


14 posted on 02/10/2019 11:47:48 AM PST by lee martell
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To: lee martell

And 99% of that “newspaper” is anti-Trump, pro-insane liberal stuff. That’s why I quit wasting money on them.


15 posted on 02/10/2019 12:13:57 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: lee martell

I stay with FR for, among other reasons, it is not click bait. If click bait offends you, let the moderator know.


16 posted on 02/10/2019 12:49:03 PM PST by spintreebob
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To: lee martell

I stay with FR for, among other reasons, it is not click bait. If click bait offends you, let the moderator know.


17 posted on 02/10/2019 12:49:03 PM PST by spintreebob
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To: lee martell

Don’t disagree. But I might add these blog sites are not copyright protected so there is no reason to just provide a teaser and require opening a hyperlink to see the rest of the piece.

There is a special section for just these types of posts.

Bloggers & Personal

I just don’t like seeing them in News/Activism. But it is a matter of personal preference.

It would be interesting to see what JimRob’s opinion is since this is his house. :-)


18 posted on 02/10/2019 1:14:05 PM PST by ImpBill (Conservative little "l" libertarian)
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To: lee martell; All

Just caught one with a grammatical error which left out the possessive apostrophe followed by s out of a headline about the mayor of Tijuana. But what is of concern particularly when it’s a lefty source is the when the posting talks about pictures and it’s click bait. Or you get a posting with a pix and the person in it is unidentified.


19 posted on 02/10/2019 1:23:33 PM PST by mosesdapoet (mosesdapoet aka L,J,Keslin posting here for the record)
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To: lee martell

We have some guy here on Free Republic - I forget his handle - that is supposed to police those kind of postings. His job is to reply to the offending thread with some sort of abrasive remark. This is evidently intended to dissuade the poster from doing so again.


20 posted on 02/10/2019 1:31:18 PM PST by SamAdams76
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