Getting sick of MacRumors click and bait articles

[DavidTheExpert]

Moderator Note: Content moved from the How to Add Reminders and View Your Daily Schedule on Apple Watch article.


Ohhhh this makes so much sense now!! I NEVER would have figured out how to do this on my own!!

I sincerely hope that MacRumors is making a ton of money off of these click-bait ads, er articles, because they are pissing me off to the point that I am getting sick of visiting MR every day. I have been visiting this site for years, but this is what's going to push me over the edge to stop returning.

 

[C DM]

Ohhhh this makes so much sense now!! I NEVER would have figured out how to do this on my own!!

I sincerely hope that MacRumors is making a ton of money off of these click-bait ads, er articles, because they are pissing me off to the point that I am getting sick of visiting MR every day. I have been visiting this site for years, but this is what's going to push me over the edge to stop returning.

And yet you keep finding the time to write comments on such things that are completely irrelevant to you (and in fact even aggravating). Interesting (or perhaps strange), isn't it.

 

[pubwvj]

Gee... The MacRumors Skimbot finds more easy low hanging fruit. What did she use? A search pattern like this:

How to Add Reminders and View Your Daily Schedule on Apple Watch

Or is this article just straight out of the Apple Watch Manual again?

Please, MacRumors, stick to the rumors.

(People who don't like comments like this should take their own advice and not read them or complain.)

 

[C DM]

Gee... The MacRumors Skimbot finds more easy low hanging fruit. What did she use? A search pattern like this:

How to Add Reminders and View Your Daily Schedule on Apple Watch

Or is this article just straight out of the Apple Watch Manual again?

Please, MacRumors, stick to the rumors.

(People who don't like comments like this should take their own advice and not read them or complain.)

Ah, so that the off-topic complainers could be the ones complaining and derailing the actual discussion. Sure.

 

[BillyTrimble]

Gee... The MacRumors Skimbot finds more easy low hanging fruit. What did she use? A search pattern like this:

How to Add Reminders and View Your Daily Schedule on Apple Watch

Or is this article just straight out of the Apple Watch Manual again?

Please, MacRumors, stick to the rumors.

(People who don't like comments like this should take their own advice and not read them or complain.)

And how do we know that you are posting garbage unless we read it? Now, if we had the ignore capability, you'd be on it and would never have to see these absurd posts again.

So many have such a need to criticize just about everything. Why is that?

 

[DavidTheExpert]

And yet you keep finding the time to write comments on such things that are completely irrelevant to you (and in fact even aggravating). Interesting (or perhaps strange), isn't it.

I've always been a regular commenter on MR. I take delight in commenting in articles which interest me. But these articles are presented in the exact same place. Am I supposed to just ignore them and pretend they don't exist? No, they're here, and I'm going to express my opinion on them just as I do any other legitimate article.

These comments aren't just idle complaining for the sake of complaining, I am writing them in the hopes that the mods take note of the entire community's immense displeasure with these low quality articles, and in the hopes that other community members will make their voices heard as well.

The MR regulars who find these articles interesting or useful are in the vast minority, and it is painfully obvious that the only reason they're being written is to attract the large numbers of search traffic to click on them and generate ad revenue. It's transparent and it's disgusting. I used to read MR for the high quality Apple related articles, not because I happened to find a useful how-to through Google one time.

 

[C DM]

I've always been a regular commenter on MR. I take delight in commenting in articles which interest me. But these articles are presented in the exact same place. Am I supposed to just ignore them and pretend they don't exist? No, they're here, and I'm going to express my opinion on them just as I do any other legitimate article.

These comments aren't just idle complaining for the sake of complaining, I am writing them in the hopes that the mods take note of the entire community's immense displeasure with these low quality articles, and in the hopes that other community members will make their voices heard as well.

The MR regulars who find these articles interesting or useful are in the vast majority, and it is painfully obvious that the only reason they're being written is to attract the large numbers of search traffic to click on them and generate ad revenue. It's transparent and it's disgusting. I used to read MR for the high quality Apple related articles, not because I happened to find a useful how-to through Google one time.

If you really cared about your comments being heard by people who actually have something to do with the site, you'd know (especially by being a regular commenter) that there are other more appropriate ways to go about it, rather than repeatedly venting and derailing threads with off-topic commentary. Not only is it not accomplishing anything (clearly), but it's only making it worse for other readers who have nothing to do with any of this but are reading these articles and related commentary that have to constantly read all this pointless stuff (again, something you surely know as a regular commenter).

 

[Pakaku]

If MacRumors has threads like this that keep popping up, maybe MacRumors should reconsider the whole "How-To Rumors" angle lately.

 

[MacProMovie]

I think these articles are useful, and are not a distraction from the standard MacRumors article.

1. They’re NOT clickbait articles. “Click bait” is an article with a provocative misleading title and inaccurate information. These are helpful articles with accurate titles. “How to Make Icons and Fonts Bigger on Apple Watch” is an article about just that. It’s useful for some readers, including me.

2. Should MacRumors’ articles only be based on information that is purely conjecture and gossip that meets your high standards of rumoriness®?

3. “…these click-bait ads…” If these articles serve to bring more Mac/iOS users to MacRumors and provide a larger reader base for advertisers (which will bring in more revenue), don't you think that the quality of MacRumors will actually improve? They're not going to get rid of the main reason the majority of us come back every day.

 

[WildCowboy]

With a new device and platform in the Apple Watch, there's actually a lot to learn, and we think it's worthwhile to highlight some of the tidbits for those who might need a little help. Aside from a few rather vocal dissenters, they've actually gotten a good response in both traffic and comments.

Not every article is going to appeal to every reader...that's always been the case. You're free to skip over articles that don't interest you, and these reside on the blogs in the sidebar of the front page. We're not *not* covering other stories in order to do these.

Happy to listen to opinions here, but please don't hijack the how-to threads themselves.

Thanks.

 

[BillyTrimble]

The MR regulars who find these articles interesting or useful are in the vast minority, and it is painfully obvious that the only reason they're being written is to attract the large numbers of search traffic to click on them and generate ad revenue. It's transparent and it's disgusting. I used to read MR for the high quality Apple related articles, not because I happened to find a useful how-to through Google one time.

Perhaps it's time for you to move on. There are new MR regulars who find these articles worthwhile. Things change. Find a new forum with the advanced content you desire. Then you can stop complaining and derailing these threads that many find useful. Good luck at your new site. Just remember, be tolerant. Not everyone is as advanced as you are. After all, you are a self proclaimed expert.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

I'm not a fan of these articles either. It isn't because I don't have an Apple Watch. I'd feel the same way if/when articles start appearing on how to use the new iOS 9 or El Capitan features. These articles should be placed right next to the "MacRumors bought me an iPhone" blog that happened a long time ago.

 

[BigPrince]

I do think the site has lost its focus and its charm and I do think its worth it for the editorial team to really sit back and reflect on that.

 

[C DM]

I do think the site has lost its focus and its charm and I do think its worth it for the editorial team to really sit back and reflect on that.

Because of a few how-to articles?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

@C DM , there have been a lot more changes to the editorial content than just these How To articles in the past couple of years. Perhaps @BigPrince is referring to some of those as well.


Unrelated: @C DM, I see you're a P6 and have been around for 4 years...I'm here nearly every day and don't recognize your user name. Did you used to be someone else? Just curious. Not a big deal, obviously.

 

[casperes1996]

If you would like to discuss the general topic of how-to articles at MacRumors, there's a forum feedback thread where you're welcome to do so.

If you would like to discuss adjusting font and icon sizes on your Apple Watch, this is the place.

I appreciate that you point people to appropriate threads for different discussions, but if you're aware that people don't like it, why do you keep doing it? I mean, it might end up costing you your reader base. And the point of Apple products, is that they should be simple enough that how to's aren't necessary. Which they aren't. Case reviews also. I actually always said I wished you'd do more reviews on the site, because I like your articles that aren't just news. But only having case reviews is a bit annoying as well. More featured monitor, storage, etc reviews would be nice.

 

[MacProMovie]

I do think the site has lost its focus and its charm and I do think its worth it for the editorial team to really sit back and reflect on that.

Specifics? Your perspective can be valuable if they're dropping the ball.

Do they cover too many Apple products that aren't Mac OS based? Not enough rumors? Could it be that Apple has changed over the years and MacRumors reflects that?

For myself, I've been following Mac rumor sites/info, since Mac the Knife in MacWEEK (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_the_Knife), and think MacRumors is doing great.

 

[C DM]

@C DM , there have been a lot more changes to the editorial content than just these How To articles in the past couple of years. Perhaps @BigPrince is referring to some of those as well.


Unrelated: @C DM, I see you're a P6 and have been around for 4 years...I'm here nearly every day and don't recognize your user name. Did you used to be someone else? Just curious. Not a big deal, obviously.

Mostly have been (and still am) in iOS and iPhone sections of the forums, with occasional "forays" into some others.

 

[The Doctor11]

Moderator Note: Content moved from the How to Add Reminders and View Your Daily Schedule on Apple Watch article.


Ohhhh this makes so much sense now!! I NEVER would have figured out how to do this on my own!!

I sincerely hope that MacRumors is making a ton of money off of these click-bait ads, er articles, because they are pissing me off to the point that I am getting sick of visiting MR every day. I have been visiting this site for years, but this is what's going to push me over the edge to stop returning.

Have you tried turning it on and off?

 

[cycledance]

while the more modern forum tech is welcome i hate the new design.
you no longer see the last topic of each section. all you get is some extremely cut off 10 latest topics on the right which are useless.
clicking on your own name on the top right opens a pop up with a headache inducing 20 links or so.
way too many links on every page in general.

in the past 2 years macrumors has gotten considerably worse and doesn´t respect it's readers anymore.
many pointless articles every single day. certainly many of them paid.

i don't know how many apple watch stand articles i can take before i remove this site from my rss.

 

[WildCowboy]

I appreciate that you point people to appropriate threads for different discussions, but if you're aware that people don't like it, why do you keep doing it? I mean, it might end up costing you your reader base. And the point of Apple products, is that they should be simple enough that how to's aren't necessary. Which they aren't. Case reviews also. I actually always said I wished you'd do more reviews on the site, because I like your articles that aren't just news. But only having case reviews is a bit annoying as well. More featured monitor, storage, etc reviews would be nice.

Appreciate the comments. Everything is a tradeoff obviously, and we're still evaluating what we want to do with how-tos and reviews. We've definitely heard from some people who don't like the how-tos, but we've also heard from many who do like them. And they generally seem pretty popular based on traffic, so we'd like to think they're an overall positive for the site. We've taken a few steps to make how-tos less visible on mobile simply because they can be long and everything is shown in one story stream there, and in the future we may spin them off into a dedicated section.

Reviews generally seem to be well-received in my opinion, aside from the folks who respond to every one saying they must be ads in disguise, which they are most definitely not...we've tried every way we can think of to make that clear, without much success. Cases are actually a fairly small proportion of our reviews, and we try to mix things up to meet different people's interests...still evolving that mix, and I agree it would be nice to add some more storage/display stuff there. We've been doing a decent number of Apple Watch stand reviews recently since they're a frequent topic of conversation in our forums and they're one of the most popular accessories for Apple's latest gadget. You'll obviously see those reviews become less frequent over time as people settle in with their preferred charging methods and there are fewer new ones on the market to talk about.

 

[cycledance]

looks like most are happy, only a tiny minority is annoyed so everything will stay the same. replaced macrumors with appleinsider. bye.

 

[casperes1996]

Appreciate the comments. Everything is a tradeoff obviously, and we're still evaluating what we want to do with how-tos and reviews. We've definitely heard from some people who don't like the how-tos, but we've also heard from many who do like them. And they generally seem pretty popular based on traffic, so we'd like to think they're an overall positive for the site. We've taken a few steps to make how-tos less visible on mobile simply because they can be long and everything is shown in one story stream there, and in the future we may spin them off into a dedicated section.

Reviews generally seem to be well-received in my opinion, aside from the folks who respond to every one saying they must be ads in disguise, which they are most definitely not...we've tried every way we can think of to make that clear, without much success. Cases are actually a fairly small proportion of our reviews, and we try to mix things up to meet different people's interests...still evolving that mix, and I agree it would be nice to add some more storage/display stuff there. We've been doing a decent number of Apple Watch stand reviews recently since they're a frequent topic of conversation in our forums and they're one of the most popular accessories for Apple's latest gadget. You'll obviously see those reviews become less frequent over time as people settle in with their preferred charging methods and there are fewer new ones on the market to talk about.

… That was a really good answer. I like you

 

[casperes1996]

Mostly have been (and still am) in iOS and iPhone sections of the forums, with occasional "forays" into some others.

Hold on... What does it mean to be P6?

 

[C DM]

Hold on... What does it mean to be P6?

Just forum titles that mainly relate to the number of posts you've made: https://macrumors.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/201624413-How-do-user-titles-work-