[Ads-l] chumbox

[Margaret Winters]

Just out of curiosity - has anyone opened it to see what the vegetable is?

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MARGARET E WINTERS
Former Provost
Professor Emerita - French and Linguistics
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI  48202

mewinters at wayne.edu


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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Friday, May 10, 2019 1:29 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: chumbox

1. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/8/18537279/chum-box-weird-sponsored-links-gut-doctor <https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/8/18537279/chum-box-weird-sponsored-links-gut-doctor>
A mysterious gut doctor is begging Americans to throw out “this vegetable” now. But, like, which?
Kaitlyn Tiffany
8 May 2019

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The gut doctor’s desperation pops up over and over, on websites like CNN and the Atlantic (and as I said, this one), in what are known colloquially as “chumboxes.” These are the boxes at the bottom of the page that have several pieces of clickbaity “sponsored content” or “suggested reading.”
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2. Not in the OED or Merriam-Webster, chumbox has citations back to 2014 on Wiktionary:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chumbox <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chumbox>

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A grid of clickbait advertisements on a webpage.
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3. Wiktionary's 22 April 2014 citation by Alene Vincent (https://twitter.com/alenevince/status/458656349136900097 <https://twitter.com/alenevince/status/458656349136900097>) has no context, no likes and no retweets.

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ctrl+f "chumbox" http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/22/5639892/how-weaponized-clickbait-took-over-the-web … zero results :(
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4. Word Spy (https://wordspy.com/index.php?word=chumbox <https://wordspy.com/index.php?word=chumbox>) has 11 July 2014 as the earliest unambiguous citation by Mig Greengard (@chessninja), but the citation indicates that the word was in use before then:
https://twitter.com/chessninja/status/487719152765771776 <https://twitter.com/chessninja/status/487719152765771776>

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@tomgara I learned that area is called the "chumbox" the other day. Excellent.
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5. Here is another 2014 citation
Um, Is Your Facebook About To Get Less Dumb? Wow.
John Herrman
25 August 2014
https://www.theawl.com/2014/08/um-is-your-facebook-about-to-get-less-dumb-wow/ <https://www.theawl.com/2014/08/um-is-your-facebook-about-to-get-less-dumb-wow/>

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(Also, know that for every high-profile new viral site there are probably five spammier knockoffs with names you’ll never remember, and content created as much for chumbox advertising arbitrage as for actual humans.
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6. Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumbox <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumbox>
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A chumbox (or chumbucket) is a form of online advertising that uses a grid of thumbnails and captions to drive traffic to other sites and webpages. This form of advertising is often associated with low quality 'clickbait' links and articles.

The term derives from fishing terms such as chumming – referring to the use of (fish) meat as a lure for fish.
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7. Wikipedia has two citations providing this etymology, but neither provide citations proving the relationship to the fish. The following provides chum porn:

https://www.theawl.com/2015/06/a-complete-taxonomy-of-internet-chum/ <https://www.theawl.com/2015/06/a-complete-taxonomy-of-internet-chum/>
A Complete Taxonomy of Internet Chum
4 June 2015
John Mahoney

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This is a chumbox. It is a variation on the banner ad which takes the form of a grid of advertisements that sits at the bottom of a web page underneath the main content.
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8. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/330-reality-isn-t-real-utopia-is-creepy-1.3792237/diving-into-internet-chum-yes-it-s-as-bad-as-you-d-expect-1.3794213 <https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/330-reality-isn-t-real-utopia-is-creepy-1.3792237/diving-into-internet-chum-yes-it-s-as-bad-as-you-d-expect-1.3794213>

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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