7 votes

The problem with telling sick workers to stay home

6 comments

  1. [6]
    Sand
    Link
    This might be a stupid question, but why does the url say "Coronavirus could hit American workers especially hard", while the actual headline says "The Problem With Telling Sick Workers to Stay Home"?

    This might be a stupid question, but why does the url say "Coronavirus could hit American workers especially hard", while the actual headline says "The Problem With Telling Sick Workers to Stay Home"?

    1. [5]
      j3n
      Link Parent
      I don't know about the Atlantic specifically, but usually this means that the title was changed at some point.

      I don't know about the Atlantic specifically, but usually this means that the title was changed at some point.

      5 votes
      1. [3]
        Deimos
        Link Parent
        Nah, it's actually still the title of the article if you look in the tab or browser window's title area: "Coronavirus Could Hit American Workers Especially Hard". For some reason The Atlantic...

        Nah, it's actually still the title of the article if you look in the tab or browser window's title area: "Coronavirus Could Hit American Workers Especially Hard".

        For some reason The Atlantic almost always has two different titles for each article, with the "browser title" and "headline title" being different.

        You can see the same thing on the second most-popular article on the site right now: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/03/joe-bidens-super-tuesday-wins-against-bernie-sanders/607429/

        • Browser title: Joe Biden's Super Tuesday Wins Against Bernie Sanders
        • Headline title: Bernie Sanders Gets a Rude Awakening

        @Sand

        7 votes
        1. entangledamplitude
          Link Parent
          I’m guessing, that’s just because they wouldn’t want to change the url/permalink of articles after they’ve been shared online... but still keep A/B testing headlines for social media virality....

          I’m guessing, that’s just because they wouldn’t want to change the url/permalink of articles after they’ve been shared online... but still keep A/B testing headlines for social media virality. Most people don’t even look at the URL bar (especially on mobile), so the mismatch is deemed acceptable.

          3 votes
        2. DrStone
          Link Parent
          Clicking around their homepage, it seems like a lot of the articles have a more reasonable, descriptive url and html (tab) title, and then a more clickbait visible title on the page" The...

          Clicking around their homepage, it seems like a lot of the articles have a more reasonable, descriptive url and html (tab) title, and then a more clickbait visible title on the page"

          • The Geopolitics of the Coronavirus vs The Coronavirus Is Exposing the Limits of Populism
          • How Biden Won Super Tuesday vs The Establishment Strikes Back
          • The Last Days Of Michael Bloomberg's Failed Campaign vs Why Michael Bloomberg Spent Half a Billion Dollars to be Humiliated
          • Review: Fergus M. Bordewich's 'Congress At War' vs Abraham Lincoln's Radical Moderation
          • Why Sexual Harassment Persists at Conservatories vs Classical Music Has a 'God Status' Problem
          2 votes
      2. Litmus2336
        Link Parent
        The Atlantic, recently, mega A/B tests their articles it seems. Or at least changes them after publishing. It started recently (last year), idk why.

        The Atlantic, recently, mega A/B tests their articles it seems. Or at least changes them after publishing. It started recently (last year), idk why.

        4 votes