Phil Spencer confirms commitment to ABK titles in Game Pass

[Doncabesa (Jesse Norris)]

@Astrakan

This reasoning is exactly why I linked the source article, except I applied it to Stephen Totilo . He’s one of very few good actual reporters out there that focus on video games. He recently left Axios to start up his own thing: Game File

It’s a newsletter about video games, and so far he’s been doing a great job. I would very much like to see him succeed, and so I posted the link in an effort to send some traffic his way.

I’m sure most readers will just read the quote here on Xboxera and stop at that, but I feel Stephen Totilo deserves the click for doing the interview that generated the quote in the first place.

I made sure to link to Stepuen’s site multiple times in both newspieces I did

[Astrakan]

@cinste @Doncabesa

I thought I had adressed both your points in my original reply:

@Astrakan

I’m sure most readers will just read the quote here on Xboxera and stop at that, but I feel Stephen Totilo deserves the click for doing the interview that generated the quote in the first place.

But maybe I was unclear. Here’s a modified version of that paragraph:

I know the link was provided in the Xboxera write-up, but I’m sure most readers will just read the quote here on Xboxera and stop at that. I feel Stephen Totilo deserves the click for doing the interview that generated the quote in the first place, hence I chose to give it a bit more exposure.

[cinste (Pete)]

@Astrakan

But maybe I was unclear. Here’s a modified version of that paragraph:

Surely a better solution would have been to just say this and encourage people to click through from the link provided in the OG Xboxera article and read the original interview then as that’s promoting a click for both sites not just the one that doesn’t provide the forum you are posting on?

[Astrakan]

@cinste

Surely a better solution would have been to just say this and encourage people to click through from the link provided in the OG Xboxera article and read the original interview then as that’s promoting a click for both sites not just the one that doesn’t provide the forum you are posting on?

I guess. I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill here, but sure, that would’ve been another way to go about it.

I’d still argue that since my link naturally appears below the Xboxera link, the only people who would click on it are those who either a) didn’t click through to the Xboxera article in the first place, in which case nothing was lost from Xboxera’s point of view. Or b) did click through to the Xboxera article, but didn’t click through to Game File from the article.

Either way, I don’t see how providing a link later in the thread, below the Xboxera link, can harm Xboxera clickthroughs. I suppose there could be a third cohort, those who read the thread first, then scroll back up for the Xboxera link. Those people may click the Game File link instead. But I have to imagine that’s a small minority of users.

[cinste (Pete)]

@Astrakan

I guess. I think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill here, but sure, that would’ve been another way to go about it.

And I think if you have to go through such mental gymnastics to justify something then perhaps you just … shouldn’t.

[Astrakan]

@cinste

And I think if you have to go through such mental gymnastics to justify something then perhaps you just … shouldn’t.

I didn’t go through any mental gymnastics until you decide to harp on about it, making something out of nothing. At the time of posting, the only mental “calculation” I did was: I should post a link to Game File, to help drive some traffic that way.

I’ve wasted enough time on this ridiculousness. I won’t reply further.