Elliot Shares Links (2021)

Is he though? I haven’t been watching others to compare lately so maybe the others are so bad that this is technically “better” but even if so I don’t think “better” is a good description of something bad.

I think Tucker was better but got worse after his top writer got doxxed/cancelled (warning: link is an unfair, misleading hit piece) by a rival news organization (CNN) that competes with Fox/Tucker for ratings (and also hates Tucker over political disagreements). I’ve seen various bad Tucker clips since then but don’t recall Tucker saying anything particularly good since then.

https://www.tiktok.com/@demlia/video/7002237000497646854

https://www.tiktok.com/@wenyanyu1/video/7003446303283744002

https://www.tiktok.com/@thatradicalfostermom/video/7006469137098624262

https://www.tiktok.com/@nihaomrzhang/video/7005580218794642693

https://www.tiktok.com/@nihaomrzhang/video/7004099713658064133

https://www.tiktok.com/@its_just_brennaa/video/7008666149751655686

https://www.tiktok.com/@madi.grace2003/video/7005796219452706054

https://www.tiktok.com/@bethsanity/video/7007832826536086790

I see zero clickthroughs showing on a lot of links – but the thread keeps getting views (why visit if you aren’t gonna click anything?). And near the bottom right now I see a tiktok with a click and then the ones before and after it have no clicks. But they’re unlabelled so why click that particular one?

My suspicion is that the clickthrough numbers are not accurate. Not sure exactly what’s going on though. Maybe someone who clicks a bunch of links can confirm they clicked a link that is showing zero clickthroughs.

BTW, not the main issue, but I assume it’s inaccurate because people who visit a link from RSS or email, instead of the website, won’t get counted. I also wouldn’t expect them to get counted as a view, though.

As for the thread views, I check the thread when there are new posts are to see what is new.

As for checking the links I usually don’t click on the tiktok links b/c they usually have no additional info about what they are about and thus don’t really draw my interest. Sometimes I do click on a tiktok link but usually do not watch more than one or two for the time being.
I more often click on the links with additional info (not just url) b/c then I have a better guess re if I’m interested in reading more about it or not (or watch a video if a video).

I’d appreciate if you’d share which tiktoks you didn’t find worthwhile in the past so we could discuss them. There is a disagreement/criticism here that is leading you to ignore my curated content without explanation.

I’ve shared some reasonable, moderate leftwing tiktoks with explanations/reasoning. Are there reasonable, moderate rightwing tiktoks with explanations/reasoning? Do those exist?

My friend is looking. Got to right wing tiktok on a new account but hasn’t really found anything nuanced and reasonable yet. Found some extreme stuff and some jokes/memes no problem. There’s tribal signaling but is there anything somewhat intellectual? Leftwing tiktoks that show some concern about issues and a bit of thought, or just a reasonable complaint that makes sense to raise awareness about, are common.

The tiktok algorithm is kinda impressive btw. Seems a lot more effective than YouTube’s recommendations. (Though an algorithm that’s really good at showing you only what you want is problematic in some ways. People should have some broader exposure, not just an echo chamber.)

OK here’s a good example of why I think the link click counts are inaccurate:

I don’t think anyone (in this case @alanforr) would like those posts without watching the links.

I just i did right click and “copy link” on a link, because I wanted to open it in a different browser, and realized that’s another way the link click counter becomes inaccurate.

Some privacy settings or extensions in some browsers might make it inaccurate.

The links do not appear visited on my computer. Is it the default on Discourse that links are showing the same colour no matter if visited or not?

I went over every tiktok link that was marked with at least one view and didn’t have any additional info (just url) in order to find which ones of the “no info tiktok links” that I had seen before.

I ended up with finding only one that I had seen before that fit that description:

I think that I found it not worthwhile in an alternative cost kind of way. Like if it said what it was about in a comment I don’t think that I would have clicked on it / would have spent less time on it (just reading the comment) and done something else instead.
I think the tiktok was roughly about how bad some really important things are - like the treatment of ppl (both kids and adults) by the authorities).

I like the links with more info in them. Then I can chose if I want to see more about that particular thing it says it is about or not. I basically do casual watching of the links in this thread. That might be a mistake.
I do not think that links that you chose to post here are not worth watching. But some things I am more interested in watching casually than others. Should I change how I use this thread?
I do not want to become overwhelmed (~try to engage in too many discussions - I don’t know how many “too many” is. Maybe 2.).

I can’t imagine myself treating DD this way 15 years ago. The thought of me purposefully not clicking an unlabelled link from DD back then is absurd. Similarly, today, if Ayn Rand were alive and sharing unlabelled links, I would click all of them. So I think you just don’t like/respect/value me much. You act like you don’t think I’m a great, Rand-like thinker, but you don’t say or discuss that. Meanwhile you’re asking for my help in another thread (with substantial ambiguity about what you’re asking for). But if you think I’m not a great thinker – if you place a much lower value on my help than how valuable I think it is – then I shouldn’t help you personally.

PS I am aware that some similar issues apply to other people.

Isn’t the fact that Elliot posted it enough? He’s posting them for a reason, and filtering them for you (and all of us). The videos each have a point to them (sometimes more than one). Also, if he added comments to all the links – thats overhead + primes ppl so they will react differently if they know his opinion. I don’t think I’ve watched any TT he’s posted and thought well that was a waste of a few minutes (and ofc you can always just close the tab if it’s not interesting or relevant).

I click on many of the tiktok links (it’s the only time I use tiktok) – I’m sure I’ve missed some, or clicked on 5 and gotten distracted before finishing them all (often b/c one of them inspires something). Like I hadn’t seen that one you linked about foster kids and neglect. I thought it was good and worth watching.

Here are two reasons that I don’t click on links: either I’ve seen it (mostly applies to speedrun related stuff) or b/c it’s not interesting (like some of Asmondgold’s stuff about WoW or other games specifically – I have watched multiple of his vids tho and enjoy a lot of his content, just not all).

I know I’ve missed some too b/c I’ve scrolled to the bottom – discord doesn’t track my last actual read post then. I’ve done that b/c sometimes I want to see the latest post. Thinking about it now, I should use anon mode for that or just open the thread in an incognito window (so I’m not signed in).

That’s how it works for me.

That makes sense. Similarly, I would not expect everyone to watch chess links (though I do think skimming at least one chess video a bit would be reasonable for a non chess player just to see what it is. There are a few types btw. Currently I’m watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTtc1LEtUrg which is a tournament video with announcers, which is done a bit like a live sports broadcast. There are also videos with one guy teaching something or playing or analyzing a game.).

Testing after re-enabling TikTok Oneboxes (which were buggy a few months ago):

https://www.tiktok.com/@thatradicalfostermom/video/7006469137098624262

EDIT: I just see the URL text but the preview was:

idk I’ll just turn tiktok oneboxes (link previews) back off for now.

my experience: I don’t play chess (like mb 10-20 games so far over my life) but I usually like those vids. There was one the other day about why ppl don’t progress (:+1:) and I watched a few when there was some drama. I find them valuable and entertaining mostly (tho with some I have watched ~5% and closed). Even tho I don’t play chess, and usually don’t enjoy watching games, I still find the ones you’ve posted valuable.

If anyone else is reading this and hasn’t clicked on them b/c they’re chess vids, I suggest giving some a go. Esp like during downtime and things (is the YT alg really going to consistently suggest better vids?)

This sounds interesting. I’m going to check it out (tho not right now). I probs wouldn’t if I hadn’t started climbing:

What you said reminds me a bit of competition climbing vids; having the commentary makes a big difference (example vid – women’s bouldering finals, streamed 7 hours ago) and elite athletes/players are often interesting to watch, esp if they become familiar. I usually watch at 1.5x or 1.6x (IDK how well that’d work for the linked chess vid). Before climbing I didn’t watch any sport-esq/competition/finals stuff – i include the chess championship in that category btw based on what you said (announcers, competitive, etc). Actually one thing I did used to watch was the WSOP (poker), but not for many yrs now.

I normally watch chess vids at 3x, which is my default YouTube speed.

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