I wish there were some way to tell Facebook that:
I know Ben Edelman.
He's a good guy.
No more "news" about him writing emails to restaurants in the Boston area.
Please!
I posted that on Facebook, and there were a couple of replies that were interesting enough for me to want to turn this into a post on Scripting News.
"Unfortunately, some within the media love to throw out red meat to the famished, raging, and self-righteous mobs of social media to build up those page views. Add in some anti-elitism and other stereotypes to fuel the rage, boston.com has generated the perfect storm against a single human. Yes, what Ben did was tactless and asinine, but he doesn't deserve what's happening to him. The same goes with that GOP staffer who ill-advisedly criticized the president's kids on her personal Facebook page."
"'All the news that's bait for clicks' would not have built the New York Times into the institution it, um, well, hasn't been for years now. The need for clicks to put bread on the table is a mighty corrupting influence, isn't it?
Yup this is the new SEO. At some point I expect the news "algorithms" will have to defend against this. It's so obvious what they're doing, and so potentially harmful. And after a while, sad and shameful, like a bad commercial that a station plays over and over.
One more thing. If you order takeout at Sichuan Garden in the future, and you think they screwed up the bill, just pay it. Not worth the grief.