In light of some of the more "Click Bait" video titles....

[george graves]

(Sorry Dave, but someone needs to call you out on a few of your recent video titles - just say what it's about!  For the love of Pete!)

I found this!  It's a "Linkbait Title Generator" - And the results are funny enough I thought even Dave might get a kick out of them.

http://www.contentrow.com/tools/link-bait-title-generator

8 unbelievable things you never knew about the eevblog
the most boring article about the eevblog you'll ever read
the rise of the eevblog and how to make it stop
the most incredible article about the eevblog you'll ever read
the eevblog die/s every minute you don't read this article
13 amazing facts about the eevblog
why you should give up sex and devote your life to the eevblog
the connection between the eevblog and sex
6 reasons to be addicted to the eevblog
12 reasons the eevblog is/are the end of the world as we know it
why you should forget everything you learned about the eevblog
10 ways the eevblog can suck the life out of you
9 reasons you can blame the recession on the eevblog
why the eevblog suck/s
8 deadly uses for the eevblog
7 things lady gaga has in common with the eevblog
guns don't kill people -- the eevblog kills people
10 ways marketers are making you addicted to the eevblog
8 things the media hasn't told you about the eevblog
101 unusual uses of the eevblog
11 ways investing in the eevblog can make you a millionaire
why the eevblog is/are destroying america
10 ways the eevblog can help you live to 100
what the government doesn't want you to know about the eevblog
8 reasons the eevblog will change the way you think about everything

[EEVblog]

(Sorry Dave, but someone needs to call you out on a few of your recent video titles - just say what it's about!  For the love of Pete!)

No, someone doesn't, because it's not true. 100% demonstrably untrue, except in your mind which seems to have a bizarre obsession with continually trolling me.
It's sad really. Seek help, there is plenty of professional psychological professionals available near you.

[German_EE]

He forgot:

EEVBlog Causes Cancer

and

Is EEVBlog A New Cure For Cancer?

 

[Electro Detective]

He also forgot:
"Will the BLUE EEVblog Meter become the new standard for getting instant access to job sites?

Will Fluke pride flashers      be told to "move along, nothing to measure here.."   

[Moshly]

It makes more sense if you change it to ->

8 unbelievable things you never knew about the Trump
the most boring article about the Trump you'll ever read
the rise of the Trump and how to make it stop
the most incredible article about the Trump you'll ever read
the Trump die/s every minute you don't read this article
13 amazing facts about the Trump
why you should give up sex and devote your life to the Trump
the connection between the Trump and sex
6 reasons to be addicted to the Trump
12 reasons the Trump is the end of the world as we know it
why you should forget everything you learned about the Trump
10 ways the Trump can suck the life out of you
9 reasons you can blame the recession on the Trump
why the Trump suck/s
8 deadly uses for the Trump
7 things lady gaga has in common with the Trump
guns don't kill people -- the Trump kills people
10 ways marketers are making you addicted to the Trump
8 things the media hasn't told you about the Trump
101 unusual uses of the Trump
11 ways investing in the Trump can make you a millionaire
why the Trump is destroying America
10 ways the Trump can help you live to 100
what the government doesn't want you to know about the Trump
8 reasons the Trump will change the way you think about everything

 

[Electro Detective]

Dang, I just got click baited on  "7 things lady gaga has in common with.."   

oh well, another format and re-install of Vista..   

[george graves]

No, someone doesn't, because it's not true. 100% demonstrably untrue

Then maybe it's just me? Am I totally out of the loop? I guess this is youtube's new normal and I'm all messed up?

"EEVblog #983 - A Shocking Oscilloscope Problem! "  - That's click bait if there ever was a title.

"EEVblog #984 - World's Best Dumpster Find! ($300k!)"  - totally faked -  and a few other give always other than April 1st, where you claim to "found it in the dumpster" - and people believed it too. Just saying.

"EEVblog #959 - How Much I Make On Youtube REVEALED! " 

eevRANT: Lily Drones Folds. A $45M FAIL!

Even the thumbnails are getting more and more like a pudiepie(Spelling?)

[RGB255_0_0]

I'll agree that the "shocking oscilloscope problem" one was overblown, perhaps clickbait. I don't see the problem with the others.

At best you could argue the thumbnails are a obnoxious, but Linus did a video why they use thumbnails like that: they work.

Should Dave stoop down to that level? In my opinion he shouldn't need to but it's not my call and I couldn't care less what is in the picture as long as the content is decent. (Which has gone downhill.)

[MK14]

"EEVblog #984 - World's Best Dumpster Find! ($300k!)"  - totally faked -  and a few other give aways where you claim to "found it in the dumpster" - and people believed it too. Just saying.

My understanding is that it was an April 1st fools day gag. So it would be unfair to claim an April 1st fools gag is "fake", since that is the whole idea. I.e. it was an April 1st joke.

[RGB255_0_0]

At best you could argue the thumbnails are a obnoxious, but Linus did a video why they use thumbnails like that: they work.

Do you also find on YT generally that obnoxious thumbnails correlate with suboptimal content quality? I wouldn't expect it to change anytime soon. Content providers seem to have worked out that trawling the shallow end of the gene pool of available YT viewers gets results.  Channels surely can't retain loyal viewers with indifferent half-baked videos, deceptive titles and misleading thumbnails. But, they don't need to so you may as well get used to it.

I don't know whether you can correlate it for every channel. You'd hope that a channel like Dave's wouldn't want to attract viewers that look at thumbnails and titles just for a few views and subscribers.

But hey, I recall Dave talking about it so he has his reasons.

[FloFo]

I'll agree that the "shocking oscilloscope problem" one was overblown, perhaps clickbait. I don't see the problem with the others.

I think this title is playing with the word (the problem is caused by mechanical shocks) which not everyone got :/

[Brumby]

I think this title is playing with the word (the problem is caused by mechanical shocks) which not everyone got :/

Absolutely.

I believe the negative "click bait" assertion comes from excessive use of the word "shocking" all over the place.  The word seems to have survived the risk of losing it's impact from overuse - but has taken on the negative flavour.

Dave's use was, indeed, more of a journalistic play on words than it was click-bait.

[elmo]

In the spirit of being honest I thought that the shocking oscilloscope problem headline was a bit cheesy at first. But it is relevant in regards to the problem at hand, mechanical shock. It is just a word play as pointed out.
The others from the examples is just normal head lines, but by emphasizing certain keywords you have made them click bait-ish, george graves. They are relevant and is informative to what is to come.

[mtdoc]

Personally, I find the use of large font bright color titles splashed across the screen distasteful. I associate that with clickbait and low quality content.  I've been dissappointed to see Dave adopt it since, in general, I don't think his content falls into that category. Just my view of course.

[mdszy]

Here's the thing... a couple channels I like have gotten slightly "clickbaity", including channels like LinusTechTips and some of Dave's thumbnails are a bit... exciting too. However! I honestly couldn't care less. I'm not watching a video for the thumbnail or for the title, I'm watching it for the content. The content of LTT and Dave's videos hasn't changed in a way that I don't like, so I continue to watch their videos. As long as the title isn't blatantly *lying* about the content of the video, I couldn't care less about it or the thumbnail.

[tablatronix]

Puns and cheesy titles != clickbait

[X]

Personally, I find the use of large font bright color titles splashed across the screen distasteful. I associate that with clickbait and low quality content.  I've been dissappointed to see Dave adopt it since, in general, I don't think his content falls into that category. Just my view of course.

DON'T FORGET THE TITLES THAT ARE WRITTEN ALL IN CAPS LOCK! ALSO CAN I HAVE A LOZENGE?!

With all the time YouTube wastes on copyright and content ID algorithms, silly mass-flag campaigns (YouTube Heroes), and "restricted mode", they could be much better spent in giving such clickbait traits lower rankings. This might improve the clickbait situation.

[EEVblog]

"EEVblog #984 - World's Best Dumpster Find! ($300k!)"  - totally faked -  and a few other give aways where you claim to "found it in the dumpster" - and people believed it too. Just saying.

My understanding is that it was an April 1st fools day gag. So it would be unfair to claim an April 1st fools gag is "fake", since that is the whole idea. I.e. it was an April 1st joke.

Bingo.
George likes to troll me, he seems to be obsessed with it.

[EEVblog]

I'll agree that the "shocking oscilloscope problem" one was overblown, perhaps clickbait. I don't see the problem with the others.

I think this title is playing with the word (the problem is caused by mechanical shocks) which not everyone got :/

Bingo, it's a pun. I thought it was quite clever and fun.

[EEVblog]

Personally, I find the use of large font bright color titles splashed across the screen distasteful. I associate that with clickbait and low quality content.  I've been dissappointed to see Dave adopt it since, in general, I don't think his content falls into that category. Just my view of course.

Any Youtuber content producer with half a brain knows that the thumbnail makes a HUGE difference to the number of views, often double or more.
They also know that big bright bold colours work and help attract people's attention in search results, hence the common green or yellow text and big font.
They also know that an enticing title makes a huge difference in views as well.

What kind of business do people think Youtube content creators are in? Their job is to produce content and attract people to watch it. Only a fool does not put at least some effort into their thumbnails and title to achieve this. Where do you draw the line? Should we have no descriptive title at all.

Let's take the "A Shocking oscilloscope problem" title for argent's sake, that's got to be as "clickbaity" as my titles get.
The title serves four purposes:
1) It entices people to watch and see what the problem is.
2) It actually describes what the problem is (it does actually involve a physical shock response, *gasp* my title matches my material, what a shock!)
3) It a clever pun that once people see the video will hopefully chuckle and go "ok, I get it now".
4) It's descriptive of what some people might think after watching it. i.e. they might be shocked to realise such a problem exists.

If you want to call it click bait then knock yourself out. My content always delivers what the title says.

[EEVblog]

Personally, I find the use of large font bright color titles splashed across the screen distasteful. I associate that with clickbait and low quality content.  I've been dissappointed to see Dave adopt it since, in general, I don't think his content falls into that category. Just my view of course.

You mean like 5 years ago?

[mdszy]

Personally, I find the use of large font bright color titles splashed across the screen distasteful. I associate that with clickbait and low quality content.  I've been dissappointed to see Dave adopt it since, in general, I don't think his content falls into that category. Just my view of course.

You mean like 5 years ago?

Wow, what a clickbait thumbnail, I bet you didn't even mention KiCAD in the entire video! /s

[timb]

Personally, I find the use of large font bright color titles splashed across the screen distasteful. I associate that with clickbait and low quality content.  I've been dissappointed to see Dave adopt it since, in general, I don't think his content falls into that category. Just my view of course.

Any Youtuber content producer with half a brain knows that the thumbnail makes a HUGE difference to the number of views, often double or more.
They also know that big bright bold colours work and help attract people's attention in search results, hence the common green or yellow text and big font.

That's because it makes the thumbnail standout from the noise when a user scrolls through their YouTube feed. The problem comes when *everyone* starts adding bright colors and big fonts to their thumbnails. When that happens it loses effectiveness and becomes noise again.

So then you'll have to start adding boobs to the thumbnail, to make it standout. Before you know it, all YouTube thumbnails will be filled with 72pt neon fonts and hardcore pornography. It's a slippery slope man, a slippery slope. *Shakes head.*

[mtdoc]

Dave,

As I said - in my case it's just personal taste  and I was not accusing you of clickbait - that was the OP.

I also understand that you do it because on average it probably attracts more views than it repels.  If I didn't already know that your content was very good, it would in my case,  lead me to avoid your videos.   I'm just voicing my view as one of your subscribers and Patreon supporters. Is that not allowed?

And BTW - I didn't mean to imply that you never did it in the past - only that it has now become very frequent.

[EEVblog]

At best you could argue the thumbnails are a obnoxious, but Linus did a video why they use thumbnails like that: they work.

Do you also find on YT generally that obnoxious thumbnails correlate with suboptimal content quality? I wouldn't expect it to change anytime soon. Content providers seem to have worked out that trawling the shallow end of the gene pool of available YT viewers gets results.  Channels surely can't retain loyal viewers with indifferent half-baked videos, deceptive titles and misleading thumbnails. But, they don't need to so you may as well get used to it.

I don't know whether you can correlate it for every channel. You'd hope that a channel like Dave's wouldn't want to attract viewers that look at thumbnails and titles just for a few views and subscribers.

Let me explain why.

Half of my views come from searches, hence it is very important to stand out in search results. I have to compete with all the other videos in search results.
Colourful eye catching thumbnails work.
Good titles work.

For the other half of my views that come from my subscribers, I still have to compete with their overflowing inbox from other channels they subscribe to, and their available time.
Like every Youtuber I get less views than I have subscribers, a lot less.
Every time I make a video I am competing with my own audience for their view.
Once again, colourful eye catching thumbnails work. Good titles work.

I do this every day as a viewer of other channels that I subscribe to. When I get the email alerts I decide then and there if I am going to spend my time watching that video based on the title, the thumbnail, and the description text.

By all means call out genuine clickbait on titles and descriptions that are fraudulent, but do not blame your favourite content producer for having to fight for your attention with a well chosen thumbnail, overlay text or clever title.