I’m not sure that lemmy users are different in this from user of Reddit/HackerNews/Facebook/etc.
It’s never been about reading the post/ articles. Mmm?!
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I 100% did this on Reddit. And I do it here too. Most news websites are garbage and loaded with advertisements. Get halfway through the story and a full page ad pops up or a video starts playing. Honestly, does anybody stop reading to watch those videos???
Or, you go into the comments and see the summary, or the full article, or quotes of the most important parts with discussions. If I feel I have questions, only then will I open the website.
You must be the last person on Lemmy still looking at these sites the way they’re displayed by default. Firefox, adblock, no script, pi hole, etc makes all that go away pretty painlessly.
I use an app on my phone that just loads the website in a browser within the app.
I read the TLDR bot at least…
Seems like that gives 90% of the relevant info, then I view the article if there’s anything missing.
Not that it makes a difference, my opinions are formed before I even read the title. I’m dug in, and I’ll never change 😎
I always read the top comment first, because often they have a better article or explain why the article is misleading
Yeah, I go top comment(s) to see if the article is not clickbait. Then I’ll read the summary to see if it’s any good. Then I’ll go to the article itself if those check out.
But what if that comment is instead downvoted to death because it goes against the community opinions?
Then I look for a better community
Ssshhhh!
I generally do this because the articles are often behind paywalls.
The real truth!
I’m dug in, and I’ll never change 😎
'Cause we don’t have to! 'Cause we’re AMERICANS! We won’t change our minds on anything, regardless of the facts that are set out before us.
Rock, flag, and eagle! Right, li10?
I prefer to only read the top line of a meme then post. And no that’s not a Lemmy user, that’s squidward
Right!? Everyone but us is so stupid for talking about Lemmy (who ever that is) in here, while this is obviously squidward. Sheeple are so stupid!
The cellist?
I don’t want to read the thing. I want to discuss the thing that i didn’t read with other people who didn’t read the thing.
Did you read the thing? Because I didn’t and I don’t like your opinion on that topic!
Many articles are only accessible via a VPN, blocked either by my side or theirs. I’m too tired to switch it on and off. Summary bot is very helpful.
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modern websites are a pain to navigate with popups, paywall, ads, heavy tracking that slows down navigation, autoplaying video ads etc
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modern journalism = let’s just report whatever the person or company says without fact checking, contextualizing or taking a stance. I believe this is done because it takes less effort and because it makes sure that the news org doesn’t anger any of the persons/organizations it has tides with (for ads or direct funding)
The comments solve both problems, as lemmy is ad- and tracking-free and the people in the comments are mostly real people usually without any vested interests in the things they’re discussing.
So OBVIOUSLY I only read the comments. I’ll get the content of the article indirectly as it’s being discussed.
Also you can use the comments to determine if the article is even worth reading so you don’t accidentally give a click to some hack journalism.
This is absolutely true. I get more information and understanding from the discussion in the comments than I do the article. Using other platforms I want to read what people are discussing about the article than the article itself. Brings more depth to the conversation and the article.
When I see a lot of 💩 on the site, I use Firefox’s reader mode.
archive.md, 12ft.io or the “Bypass paywalls clean” extension for paywalls
I have Ublock origin to block the tracking.
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I read comments first mostly because a lot of posted articles are behind a paywall or i have to turn off my adblockers and maybe someone posted a tldr
Shoot, they won’t just be posting a tl;dr, but a commentary on it, and sometimes really good context from their field or experience. It’s basically the article, but written by a more intelligent journalist who is a part of whatever is being reported on, not just observing from interviews and phone calls (and lame corporate website ‘about us’ pages).
Yeah thats what i mean a tldr but from ppl that know shit :)
Exactly - no fluff or dancing around, they get right to the point and make concrete assertions. Then if they’re wrong, people will correct them, and you get a debate that (hopefully) brings up various subtleties and connected issues for a more holistic view.
Then if I’m still intrigued, I read the source
Same as it ever was
Once in a lifetiiiime
Give me an archive link and I’ll click it every time. Otherwise, almost never.
I thought it was standard operating procedure on the Internet.
Kinda understandable for articles from sites that pester you to disable adblocker or pay for a subscription (WSJ/Wired/Guardian type news sites etc).
Well, we’ve got the very useful tldr. bot.
I remember seeing that bot make something longer once, super useful.
I tried to read the article but it was paywalled. Or it wanted me to turn off my ad blocker before I could read the article. Or it was a video. Or the source was something like
www.patriotusaeaglenews.ru.The first two can often be thwarted by turning off Javascript. And if it still doesn’t work, it probably wasn’t worth your time anyways.
You ever used the web with javascript disabled? How do you do this on a mobile device? Are you sticking to this setting?
Lemmy is awesome to me for this reason: Mostlikely the bot comment is either at the top, or at the bottom. Former tells me that bo expert has yet entered the conversation. Maybe I have meaningful insight (I haven’t yet. My shame). The latter shows me I need to read the tldr first, before proceeding to read the conversation. Or maybe I have already cosumed the article and I am still looking for other views on it.
Anyhow, I think it shows that the internet nowadays does no spread information, but user data.
I only turn off javascript on specific annoying websites. Then it stays off for that website. I don’t know how to do that on mobile.
Why would I read a long, padded, ad-riddled article when I can get a quick and accurate TL;DR in the title and expert commentary in the comments?
I’ll do it again!
