A case against clickbait titles that linus uses

[maskmcgee]

I find I really don't watch anything this channel makes anymore, except for the WAN show after someone has posted timestamps. Just looked at the LMG clips channel titles and I'd be far more interested in watching anything on there than I would be an LTT video. 

[starsmine]

3 hours ago, FruitOfTheLum said:

I'm fine with 'clickbaity' titles and silly expressions on thumbnails to a point, if the data shows that it helps the channel. Lately, some of LTTs videos have been venturing too far into the "eh?" side of the spectrum, though. There needs to be a happy medium. The "Time's Up, Apple!" link I'm looking at in the right-side of this very website as I type this is a perfect example of taking it too far - if I didn't already know about the EU compelling Apple to use USB-C, both the title and thumbnail would be completely meaningless to me, and I'd scroll right on by.

 

I would also like to very, very strongly point out that from an accessibility point of view (I don't know whether you care about such things in Canada), you can't rely on thumbnails to fill-in the blanks for your obscure titles, as the thumbnails are essentially invisible to certain visually impaired users (who can still listen to your content even if they can't see it).

 

Well its tech linked, there isnt a point in being more exact, its a daily news round up and nothing is gone into depth. It is only relevent for the 2 days after it comes out. 
A date would be the valid way for that, but that kind of title would get anti clicks. So yea scroll right by for that kind of content is just fine. 

[Blue4130]

On 10/5/2022 at 6:29 AM, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

What is this about?

 

 

Because aside from having something to do with Intel, I have no ducking clue. I assume it's about ECC or something. And because I don't know, I don't care.

 

Now, allow me to bother, just this once, to click on it.

 

Wow, turns out it's about overclocking. Something I very much care about. Wish I had known that going in...

 

 

I see that this title has been changed recently. Is this a standard thing for their videos to be retitled?

[FruitOfTheLum]

31 minutes ago, starsmine said:

Well its tech linked, there isnt a point in being more exact, its a daily news round up and nothing is gone into depth. It is only relevent for the 2 days after it comes out. 
A date would be the valid way for that, but that kind of title would get anti clicks. So yea scroll right by for that kind of content is just fine. 

I disagree with the idea that news becomes useless over time, as we constantly refer back to news - historians especially. But I don't think that makes any difference to the idea that I should know what I'm clicking on, be it now or five years from now

[maskmcgee]

On 10/5/2022 at 1:30 AM, Watanabe said:

 

 

Marques' thumbnail and title look like this:

 

 

and Linus' look like this:

 

 

 

It does raise the question, what demographic are these channels targeting? Marques clearly is targeting people over... probably 16? So I guess Linus is targeting people under 15? He clearly isn't targeting anyone mature with that sort of thumbnail. Which would mean he's in violation of COPA for marking content made for kids as not made for kids? 

[AryA_65]

6 hours ago, Billbill said:

I just do not understand why someone would even take the time to complain about clickbait in the first place. Don't like the info then just don't read or watch it. 

Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t like the titles or thumbnails and since then I’ve unsubscribed. Let me give you one last example of bs: nvidia rtx 4080. They name it the 4080 even though it’s a 4070 or 4070 ti. Now you might say “nvidia is selling a product while lmg is making you watch a video” and you’re 100%, but don’t you think it’s both clickbait in some way. If you advertise something as something else, then people will be confused and certainly not happy.

[starsmine]

7 hours ago, FruitOfTheLum said:

I disagree with the idea that news becomes useless over time, as we constantly refer back to news - historians especially. But I don't think that makes any difference to the idea that I should know what I'm clicking on, be it now or five years from now

You are right, when you are talking about a story, but not the entire news broadcast or entire news paper.
I dont mean news is useless over time, but if and only if you are trying to look at the time line of a story do you go back. but keywords handle that, not the "Jan 7th edition of The Washington Post" or "Feb 12th PBS news hour broadcast"

[Dracarris]

On 10/7/2022 at 11:06 PM, Arika S said:

Because complaints is what changes things. It shows the company that there is something wrong. 

In the case of LMG, if they started to notice views were dropping, I doubt they would say "I guess our titles and thumbnails are driving people away", no, it's more likely they would double down to get more clicks and views and get back to where they were. 

 

I dislike the whole "don't complain, just don't use/watch x" because it shuts down any critique and is low effort. 

Sure hope you never have issues with something, because you're not allowed to complain about it, just stop using it. 

„There was a problem reacting to this content“

Is that how I find out if people put me on ignore?

 

[Dracarris]

On 10/8/2022 at 12:45 AM, Blue4130 said:

I see that this title has been changed recently. Is this a standard thing for their videos to be retitled?

Yes, again for views optimization.

[Arika]

1 minute ago, Dracarris said:

„There was a problem reacting to this content“

Is that how I find out if people put me on ignore?

 

pretty sure you can still react to people who are ignoring you

 

(also this is confirmation, that you are not on my list :P)

[Tajl3r]

'' A case against making money on forum he owns with 80 ppl hired ''

 

ayyyyyyyyyy

[Arika]

9 minutes ago, Billbill said:

It's not low effort. People just like to waste their own time. 

It is low effort because, again, you're shutting down critique and using it as a defensive wall to slap down anyone that complains about it, instead of putting your own opinions forward.

 

I can enjoy some LTT content and absolutely hate their titles and thumbnails. they don't ruin the video, but it's still frustrating.

 

 

[Sauron]

On 10/8/2022 at 12:45 AM, Blue4130 said:

I see that this title has been changed recently. Is this a standard thing for their videos to be retitled?

Yes, because otherwise they'd be impossible to search for - imagine trying to find that video 3 months from now if they kept the original title...

On 10/5/2022 at 7:36 PM, Billbill said:

If you don't like the video just stop watching it. 

Problem is we might like the video but there's no way of telling from the title or thumbnail.

[Avocado Diaboli]

1 hour ago, Billbill said:

Yeah, I understand that but back in the day there wasn't anything like Youtube or other sites. You had to download the video to even watch it. 

Back in the day you also had to do a lot of other stuff differently. Why should it matter how we did it back in the day? There's a reason people moved on from those methods. And there's no reason to stop demanding better, especially from someone who likes to claim objectivity (as discussed in the recent WAN show). Descriptive video titles and representative thumbnails are objectively better for the audience than clickbait.

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

On 10/6/2022 at 9:11 PM, AryA_65 said:

It’s like getting a book, but the cover page and it’s title are on a different league compared to the story.

False. I'm not upset that the content does not match the title/thumbnail. I think I speak for many on this. To the extent that I'm upset, which is barely enough to right this down, I'm upset that I can't find the content I care about based on the title/thumbnail. 

 

If we're going with a book metaphor, then it's like there's 100 books on the shelf. 90 of them suck, 6 aren't bad, 3 are pretty good and 1 is the best damn book you'll ever read. But you can't tell which are which until you get through a few chapters because none of them have meaningful titles or covers that have anything to do with the content. You read a few of them at random, and the ones you read suck, so you assume maybe they all suck. Having wasted your time, you move on to another author and never find nor experience those diamonds in the rough.

[NF-A12x25]

12 hours ago, Billbill said:

But this is my opinion. Not critique needed for what I feel.  

Having an opinion != being immune to critique. If you don’t want your opinions to be critiqued, don’t share them in a public forum. 

 

Your posts in this thread read like either an obsessed fanboy or a troll. Please, do something other than simping for Linus’ video titles.

[Sauron]

16 hours ago, Billbill said:

Yeah, I understand that but back in the day there wasn't anything like Youtube or other sites. You had to download the video to even watch it. 

ok... and?

[Just that Mario]

On 10/4/2022 at 5:30 PM, Watanabe said:

Which one would you click on if you heard that Apple launched a new phone and you want to find out if it's worth buying?

LTT's title is so bad I am surprised it hasn't been flagged at threatening one's life. In some cases LTT has got to a point where it's the last channel whose video I will watch or if there's nothing else to watch I'll be like "alright, let's see what the Canadians are up to".

[Just that Mario]

On 10/8/2022 at 1:45 AM, Blue4130 said:

I see that this title has been changed recently. Is this a standard thing for their videos to be retitled?

Yeah, they do that sometimes.

 

 

To me video titles (and thumbnails, description) must give truthful factual information about the video. It's sort of like meta-data for a website or a widget. If you have done any research into this, you'd know all search engines are very strict over the data provided being accurate about the content. If you want your webpage, app or whatever to come out, it must provide real factual information about what your webpage or app is about. Same must apply to videos imo. If from months later I want to search for iPhone 14 reviews, I sure as hell won't remember LTT's video named "Buy the iPhone or die". Heck, if you search for iPhone 14 right now on YouTube, LTT wont come up. Top videos aren't even from big -Tubers like MKBHD. Also YouTube provides information on how the search matches and from quick reading it works exactly like Google robots for web apps.

 

Quote

To estimate relevance we look into many factors, such as how well the title, tags, description and video content match your search query.

[AryA_65]

16 hours ago, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

False. I'm not upset that the content does not match the title/thumbnail. I think I speak for many on this. To the extent that I'm upset, which is barely enough to right this down, I'm upset that I can't find the content I care about based on the title/thumbnail. 

 

If we're going with a book metaphor, then it's like there's 100 books on the shelf. 90 of them suck, 6 aren't bad, 3 are pretty good and 1 is the best damn book you'll ever read. But you can't tell which are which until you get through a few chapters because none of them have meaningful titles or covers that have anything to do with the content. You read a few of them at random, and the ones you read suck, so you assume maybe they all suck. Having wasted your time, you move on to another author and never find nor experience those diamonds in the rough.

Great analogy. There have been a lot of channels I’ve unsubscribed to because of the same thing. I just wish they prioritized quality over quantity.

[kumicota]

3 hours ago, Just that Mario said:

Same must apply to videos imo

This is one of the reasons I stopped watching LTT videos or wait LTT translator on twitter to de-clickbait it

[NF-A12x25]

7 minutes ago, Billbill said:

You seem to be the troll. 

 

[Totallycasual]

I unsubscribed from Linus Tech Tips some time ago now, the type of content i originally subbed to him for are kinda lost in all of the nonsense now so i have a better time with Dave2D, his titles are true and indicative of the videos content, as are the thumbnails, no clickbait or people pulling stupid faces.  

[Just that Mario]

To add to this topic, I found it incredibly ironic how Linus complained how product names have to describe what the heck the product is about (in CPU, GPU naming convention discussion). Meanwhile LTTs video titles are complete bamboozlement.

[Lurick]

On 10/11/2022 at 11:40 PM, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

False. I'm not upset that the content does not match the title/thumbnail. I think I speak for many on this. To the extent that I'm upset, which is barely enough to right this down, I'm upset that I can't find the content I care about based on the title/thumbnail. 

 

If we're going with a book metaphor, then it's like there's 100 books on the shelf. 90 of them suck, 6 aren't bad, 3 are pretty good and 1 is the best damn book you'll ever read. But you can't tell which are which until you get through a few chapters because none of them have meaningful titles or covers that have anything to do with the content. You read a few of them at random, and the ones you read suck, so you assume maybe they all suck. Having wasted your time, you move on to another author and never find nor experience those diamonds in the rough.

Jay (JayzTwoCents) gave a great explanation for this though. On any given video he'll see roughly the following breakdown:

Notification clicks to the video: 1%

Subscription clicks from the sub feed: 5%

Click-through (either another video or algorithm promoted): 80%

I wish I could find the timestamp, it was a couple weeks ago on the Friday podcast where he talked about it I believe but I can't scrub through to find it right now but when you look at the actual numbers creators see based on what generates the most eyeballs on a video then you'll realize why they're in the situation of creating stupid thumbnails and titles to get eyeballs on the videos.

 

Edit:

Right about here is where he starts to talk about growth and the breakdown of views on a video: (58:10 mark if the link doesn't work)