I'm Sick Of This

I'm sick of news posts that reveal something in the title, and in a quick excerpt, and then force you to expand that post to read the full story. Sometimes it's such trivial information, like: How the Weather is Going to Be the Next 3 Days. Why not just write: Three Days of Sunshine. Why do this to people? Why drag out the experience?

In a world where we want our information immediately this is very counter-productive, and yet it's an approach many online news magazines use. Sites like IDG, which I for a while used to visit frequently and almost idolized... till I realized they pretty much stole certain content from TorrentFreak. They snatch the news right out of their hands and re-typed it, and I wonder how many other smaller news sources they apply the same methods to? In fact, I wonder how few of these online news sites actually have original content?

And then IDG implemented their new design, with Disqusting comments, and with some form of Javascript protection that forces a user to click on individual articles rather than opening them in advance or batch (you can't right click/open a link - you can't even ctrl/click to open it in a new tab - without being redirected to said article). And with external sites they force them into a new window rather than letting you choose how to open them. Not to mention the place is showered with ads. That place used to be so rad, but then it gained power; went mad. This is turning to a rant entirely about IDG isnit...

As for titles that tempt but don't reveal the content, I suppose it's a tradition originally brought fourth by newspapers, but the difference between mediums is that in newspapers the tempting headlines were on the front page, and you could browse the paper freely to read these articles; both titles and content in the same location. Imagine if each title was presented on a separate page, with a luring invitation, and then you'd have to flip the page to read it. Wouldn't that be pretty silly?

I do realize this applies to online magazines as well as online blogs... and to pretty much all content forms online, but most content forms can't be wholly summarized, or revealed in advance. If you watch a video though, doesn't the description say "this is a video about ___", and if you click a link, doesn't the description say "this is a site about ___", or if you view an image, doesn't the caption say "this is ___". So why not introduce the same practice to titles, and whenever possible, tell as much of the content in advance as they can; leave those rare surprises as an intrigue rather than a general annoyance? That's my rant for the week.