The Onion launches Clickhole

http://www.clickhole.com/article/what-clickhole-230

by danso • 12 years ago

152 36 12 years ago

minimaxir• 12 years ago

I Can't Believe The Onion Would Publish This Article About Linkbait. I'm Shocked And Haven't Been Able To Sleep.

The funny thing about websites like BuzzFeed and ViralNova is that the linkbait headlines they use are hard to parody since the truth is already much stranger than the fiction.

brickmort• 12 years ago

It took me a good minute to see what they were really doing. Clickbait websites were definitely in need of some pushback and I'm glad that the Onion is behind it. Oh Onion, you clever bastards.

danielweber2• 12 years ago

The Onion uses those same clickbait websites as its advertising revenue. So it's either brilliantly brave or completely dense of them.

EDIT Holy crap: http://www.clickhole.com/video/video-seems-silly-it-makes-go...

EDIT I just realized in lowerclase "clickhole" looks like "dickhole". Maybe this was an obvious joke all along and I'm slow.

jkestner2• 12 years ago

Realistically cynical is the description I'd use.

colanderman2• 12 years ago

They're usually very blatant about where their ad money comes from. See their 7-Up (http://www.theonion.com/video/today-now-offers-7up-ten-chanc...) and Acura (http://www.theonion.com/video/did-the-media-treat-bachmann-u...) sponsorships. So this doesn't surprise me.

JimmaDaRustla• 12 years ago

That video brings satire to a whole new level!

Istof• 12 years ago

isn't this one better: http://www.clickhole.com/video/what-adorable-little-girl-say...

danso• 12 years ago

I'm not a satirist, but if I were, I'm guessing this would be the best kind of praise.

meritt• 12 years ago

Facebook has been doing a fair job of banning them. Can't wait for BuzzFeed to be removed next.

nkozyra• 12 years ago

I think Facebook has tried to block them but they pop up all over the place. The latest one seems to be PetFlow, which is ostensibly some sort of pet site but it's churning out clickbait like mad.

In short, I don't think FB has been particularly effective, though I admire(d) the goal.

morley• 12 years ago

The site looks very promising so far. The Onion has been running listicle-type articles for a while (in the form of captioned photo sets, bulleted lists, and more) so this seems like a natural extension. And the Buzzfeeds of the world certainly deserve the lampooning.

I love how there's a persistent click counter in the footer, which seems to be implemented with localStorage and also seems to be tied to some badge system.

csinchok3• 12 years ago

Here's a little insider's secret: http://www.clickhole.com/achievement-hole/

jcromartie• 12 years ago

The Onion was lampooning infographics before they took off and evolved into "listicles" at least 10 years ago.

mikeash• 12 years ago

At least two decades. Here's one in an issue from 1994: http://www.theonion.com/articles/november-2-1994,10581/

I imagine they go all the way back to 1988 but it's hard to dig them up....

bluetidepro• 12 years ago

The badge system is interesting. You can see more of it here: http://www.clickhole.com/achievement-hole/

It also resets after you get the top badge. I cheated and just kept running "jQuery("body").trigger("click");" in the browser console, and it triggered clicks. See: http://bluetide.pro/69vO/52JI0bMg

colanderman2• 12 years ago

The irony is this website is better implemented (more responsive, simpler to navigate) than 99% of the "news" sites out there.

peterkelly2• 12 years ago

This is what gives away the fact that it's a parody

midnitewarrior• 12 years ago

The Onion's version of BuzzFeed?

gegtik• 12 years ago

Looks like The Onion's version of FeedBuzz http://f.eed.bz

tootie2• 12 years ago

I think it's The Onion's version of cnn.com.

csinchok3• 12 years ago

I worked on this! It was a pretty fun project, and I'm really excited to see what the writers do with it.

mrspeaker• 12 years ago

Did you work on the "ClickQuest achievement" stuff in main.js? "You're truly a god amongst clickers. Trees bend to clear your path." I love it!

csinchok3• 12 years ago

Ha, I actually did not. That was my coworker's pet project (but the writers drafted all the achievement names/text). Glad you like it, it was one of my favorite features.

worksaf• 12 years ago

The article on publicly executing Ronald Mcdonald is priceless

http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/its-time-publicly-execute-...

bkurtz13• 12 years ago

For more from the front lines in the fight against linkbait, see this twitter account: https://twitter.com/SavedYouAClick

stygiansonic• 12 years ago

Linkbait/Clickbait self-referential title announcing the website: "This One Website Made a Fortune Just By Publishing Sensationalist Headlines - Truth Or Fiction?"

Aaronontheweb• 12 years ago

Oh my god... their parody quizzes are priceless:http://www.clickhole.com/features/quizzes/

peterkelly2• 12 years ago

No native Android client? How am I supposed to ignore my friends and family in social situations without this? :(

heurist• 12 years ago

They need to add markov generated comments to tie this all together.

jonnathanson• 12 years ago

I think it's our god-given duty, as citizens of these United States and of the Internet at large, to make Clickhole articles go more viral than articles from BuzzFeed, ViralNova, etc.

The truly sad, but ingenious thing about this? Most of the clickers won't know the difference.

rohitv• 12 years ago

   $(window).unload(function(){
     localStorage.setItem("cqstate_v7", JSON.stringify({'achievements': {}, 'counters': {'clicks':998}}));
   });

Enjoy! :)

The Onion launches Clickhole

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