It's worth noting that The Verge editor-in-chief complained about Save You A Click
back in 2014, which became a minor meme.
Nilay Patel said:
Arguing that it's not because the headline is phrased in the form of a question is reductive to the point of absurdity, just like arguing against lists or quizzes or gifs or any specific form of art is absurd.
When your classifying 'lists' as a 'form of art', I'm not sure you on the winning side of the debate.
In the article, Patel's main argument seems to be that SYAC somehow lessened the authors work by summarizing it down to a pithy tweet -- that SYAC is at fault here for taking the authors long-form article and reducing all of it to a simple 'no'.
Nowhere in there is any self-reflection, or any blame whatsoever as to The Verge's culpability in lessening the author's work.
Here's the thing: The Verge (be it the author, an editor, or a headline writer) was responsible for 99% in the reduction of a detailed, informative, and interactive article about The Sopranos to the point where 'no' could somehow be an outright and fatal assault on the piece.
They didn't title the 5,000 word feature "Reflections on The Sopranos by David Chase", or "We talked to David Chase about his feelings on The Sopranos all these years later" -- you know, something that at least hints at the depth and complexity of the work.
They titled it "Did Tony die at the end of The Sopranos?"
It's a good piece! But The Verge covered it in gasoline got bent out of shape when SYAC dared to light the match.
How did we get here? Well, The Internet ad business evolved to the point where all views are equal -- an ad impression on a quality think-piece pays the same as an ad impression on the listicle some intern wrote in 15 minutes.
This leads to marketing the well-written and quality output of an outlet the same as the poorly-written stuff.
Patel got angry that SYAC sniped their think-piece from 1,000 yards, as if it were some low-effort CNET mage gallery or something.
He didn't get angry at the ad market for highly misvaluing the ad impressions in the work, or at the editors at The Verge for dressing down the article to just the clickbait question -- he got pissy at someone just pointing out the obvious.
If your argument is "Waaaaa! The Internet Meanie won't let me get away with marketing my product using low-effort clickbait, which I need to do because the ad market severely misvaluing my work!!!!" -- maybe take a look at what the real problem is.
