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Nevo David

DEV.to don't want you to write clickbait articles

February 3, 2024

Nevo David

Lately, we got a post from Ben Halpern about the new DEV AI algorithm coming into place to “punish” posts that encourage clickbait. Still, we all know it’s trying to tackle the DEV listicle posting as it takes most of the “top” feed and attention of valuable articles.

Dive into the algorithm.

I am not a ruby developer, but we can see the algorithm for clickbait here.
From reading over the files, we can see a few things:

  1. The clickbait score ranges between 0 to 1.

  2. There is no algorithm yet to detect penalization. At the moment, the “super admin” will mark articles that they think should be penalized, so if you think you can “trick” the algorithm, hold on with it, as it’s being done manually.

  3. It looks like after a while when they tag different articles, they will train the algorithm to detect clickbait.

PRO TIP: If you have some new ideas for click bait, save them after the model training 😉

Freaking out about the results

There is no secret here; over the last two years, DEV has lost a lot of its traffic; back in the day, if I got a post with less than 30k views, we would laugh about it with the team. Today, if I get 10k views, that’s probably a listicle.

But now they are taking the listicles out, what should we do?

That’s not a bad thing. I think it’s time for a comeback for technical articles. In 2022, when we launched articles with more than 100k views, they were all use cases that appealed to a large audience. We have never, even once, released a listicle.

Honestly, writing use-case articles is a blue ocean. Most people write about how to use their product, like “How to use Novu” or “How to send a notification with Novu.” But if you focus more on use cases like

By presenting your audience with their “reward” for reading the article, you will get many more views as you reach a wider audience.

PRO TIP 1#: Since the article tackles a more extensive use case, you can incorporate other companies in the article (with a social presence) and tag them on Linkedin. We have done it a lot of times. The incredible thing about it is that you tap into audiences that don’t reside on DEV.

PRO TIP 2#: Publish them on Reddit - Unlike listicles with low-effort content that will be blocked in a second on DEV or self-promotion articles like “how to use Novu.” Tackling a more extensive use case is a product placement and will usually not get blocked. Every time we release an article, we automatically plan our launch on all the subreddits we will post it on.

Here are some updates about me 🙈

I moved from Bangkok to Chaing Mai.
Bangkok was too big a city for me and made me feel “alone.”

I have been having some problems with the Thai visa lately, so if I missed a meeting or didn’t answer you, that’s probably why - I am so sorry in advance.

I have rented a 3-bed apartment in Chaing Mai for $840 per month (100m), and I have an additional room with a shower, so you are invited to visit if you find yourself in Chaing Mai.

On the 20th of February, I will fly to Laos for four days to create a new visa in Thailand - I am already so tired of running around.

See you next week 🚀