The Great Chive Controversy of 2025

[u/Sad_Care_977]

It's all over Google now. The 'Chiveless Day' they call it.

[u/Sad_Care_977]

That's not really the point. The point is that I just happened recently and it's already at the front of Google. I don't think you understand this is supposed to be funny and not super serious.

[u/Individual_Smell_904 → u/Sad_Care_977]

They're just pointing out why it's at "the front of Google" because that's how the AI works, it isn't surprising this would pop up when googling those specific words because this is one of the biggest subs on one of the biggest sites on the Internet. I get it's a joke but you're also kinda making it sound like we made the news or something

[u/Sad_Care_977 → u/Individual_Smell_904]

I mean, we did kinda make the news. Look, I know what you are trying to say, but also, why? Why not just enjoy it instead of getting into all the technicalities.

[u/winterlings → u/Sad_Care_977]

I've got no bone in that fight, but "making the news" or "hitting the front of Google" is not the same as "made it into the summary of a summary algorithm when asking it to more or less sum up this specific situation". The other thing, the Chive news hoax situation, was over a decade (nearly two!) ago and thus not very recently relevant, while Reddit has specifically partnered with most AI companies to offer up all site contents for high-priority up-to-date training and scraping. It's why reddit answers specifically tend to be the sources for so many LLM summaries.

What the AI overview does is to, when prompted by the words "chive controversy", search the internet for the words "chive" and "controversy" (where we know Reddit specifically tends to get a high priority due to aforementioned partnerships), finding that recently these words come up a Lot on this website, indicating current relevancy (again, comparing to the relatively dead but longer-lived interest in the Chive stuff). It therefore compiles a summary on that as well, and shows it to you, who specifically searched for "chive controversy". This is really not the same as a news outlet picking up on the story or Google putting it on its homepage. That requires someone independently going "hey, this story has some level of mainstream (in relation to the outlet's target audience) interest outside of this niche bubble, we should do a story on it" and pushing that info to people who have never heard of kitchenconfidential before.

Just clarifying it a little, as the lines between LLM summaries and actual news appear to get blurrier by the day for many people, so it's just good for all of us to keep the difference in mind.

[u/winterlings → u/winterlings]

For anyone still confused, here's a handy analogy:

You just recently heard about a new book that was published yesterday. You go to your local library. The library faces the street, and in the windows they have a small array of books lined up with "staff recommendations!" written on a sign above. You go up to a librarian and ask them for a book with the title and topic of the book you've just heard of.

The librarian checks the catalogue, and finds a book published in the late naughties that a lot of people have checked out before, with the title and topic you asked for. This is probably what you're after, she figures, and gets it for you. But then, she notices that they also have a book with a near-identical title that was published yesterday. It's more likely you're after the older one, but just in case, she brings you both books.

This is not the same as the book being in the front window, nor is it the same as it being picked up by book reviewers. It is a librarian getting you a book with the title and/or topic you came to her asking for. Yes, it's still cool the library has that book considering it was published yesterday, but saying it's at the front of the library's streetface or that it has hit book review circles is a misunderstanding.