Our recent article for those who missed it: https://novafuture.org/opinion-piece/the-salt-water-bowl-thats-the-last-straw-for-fake-news/
A certain @jik@federate.social decided to publicly trash it on Mastodon, claiming we’re “clickbait complaining about clickbait”, that we don’t link to the sites we criticize so there’s “no way to verify”, that he could only find “just one article” about this trick, and that our article isn’t dated which is supposedly “a sure sign of clickbait.” Let’s clear this up.
We don’t link to clickbait, and that’s a deliberate choice.
We name the outlets, we name the “expert,” we name the source. We chose not to send traffic to sites that spread scientific misinformation for ad revenue. That’s not a flaw, that’s editorial integrity. But since @jik apparently needs the homework done for him, here’s what 30 seconds of searching returns:
In France alone, Presse-citron published THREE separate articles pushing this myth: “Beaucoup l’ignorent” (https://www.presse-citron.net/beaucoup-lignorent-placer-un-bol-deau-salee-a-la-fenetre-fait-baisser-la-facture-de-chauffage/), “Pourquoi mettre un bol d’eau salée” (https://www.presse-citron.net/pourquoi-mettre-bol-eau-salee-fenetre-change-vraiment-confort-fait-froid-chez-vous/), and “Personne ne le sait” (https://www.presse-citron.net/personne-ne-le-sait-placer-un-bol-deau-salee-a-la-fenetre-fait-baisser-la-facture-de-chauffage/). comment-economiser.fr ran it too (https://www.comment-economiser.fr/bol-eau-salee-fenetre-contre-froid.html). Demotivateur jumped on the bandwagon (https://www.demotivateur.fr/vie-pratique/cette-methode-naturelle-et-efficace-vous-permet-de-garder-une-maison-chaude-sans-vous-ruiner-41444).
In the UK, Homes & Gardens (https://www.homesandgardens.com/life-design/i-use-this-cheap-salt-trick-to-get-rid-of-condensation), House Beautiful (https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/cleaning/a68167514/stop-winter-condensation-salt/), and even IFLScience twice (https://www.iflscience.com/people-are-being-urged-to-put-bowls-of-salt-in-their-window-this-autumn-and-winter-but-does-it-work-80996 and https://www.iflscience.com/why-are-people-being-asked-to-put-bowls-of-salt-in-their-windows-this-winter-81741). In the US, Green Matters (https://www.greenmatters.com/pn/why-people-are-keeping-a-bowl-of-salt-by-their-windows-this-winter).
And this list is far from complete. We stopped counting after a few dozen across France, UK, US, Germany, Spain and Latin America, in at least four languages. Every week new ones pop up, recycling the same debunked nonsense.
“Just one article”? Sure.
“The article isn’t dated.”
Yes it is. On the homepage and in NovaMag. We’re not a daily newspaper churning out 50 AI-generated posts a day. We’re an independent platform that takes the time to do proper research.
The real irony
Someone who couldn’t be bothered to do a 10-second web search felt qualified to publicly accuse us of being clickbait. He “found just one article.” We found dozens. In four languages. With three from the same outlet. Next time, maybe do the research before trashing someone else’s work. We did ours.
.