💾 Archived View for altesq.net › ~evenfire › posts › clickbait-on-gemini.gmi captured on 2023-05-24 at 18:05:15. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-01-29)
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Clickbait is encouraged in order to generate more revenue for websites, that are usually filled with ads or spyware. In other words, profit.
We've all seen how dire is the state of clickbait on the WWW. Articles are beginning to get written by neural networks just to automate clickbait, most of the titles are very exaggerated and you cannot find anything without stumbling upon some clickbait.
On Gemini however, clickbait isn't present, at least as of writing this, because there's no incentive to make profit. The restricted nature of the protocol makes it hard to monetize, in this case it's a good thing. We write here for fun, not to earn money.
Even if clickbait would exist on Gemini, it'd be interesting to imagine how it would look. Exaggerated gemlog titles? There are virtually no ways in which the protocol can be monetized, which is why Gemini is going strong without any corporate surveillance and is an another reason for why it won't end as badly as the web.
Although the rate of this happening is basically null, people don't only clickbait for money but for attention, and this is the case in any network of people on the internet. There will be people that will do "capitalize" on every read they can get, even if it's on Gemini, if it means attention. Attention-seeking behavior should not be encouraged on the Small Web, as it's detrimental to the spirit of a healthy community.