How To Go Viral: Joining The Dots

The third thing that we've learned about viral content is that people are more likely to share something if they have a strong, positive emotional response to it. A 2010 study of the New York Times "most emailed" list found the articles that made the list tended to fall into one of four categories: awe-inspiring, emotional, positive or surprising. And the lesson from this isn't so much that people like to feel feelings when they engage with a piece of content, it is that when it works – when the thing actually makes them cry or exclaim or feel inspired or shocked or happy – they want to share that experience with others...

How To Make Something Go Viral - Tips from Buzzfeed, Guardian Online, Generation Y Takeover.

The site [Upworthy] has recently started making a big deal out of its fact-checking controls. A blog from its copy chief stresses that "credibility is perhaps the most important trait of great curation".

This attitude is far from universal. Other viral content originators are known for spreading unverifiable information. Perhaps the most famous is FCKH8, a pro-gay rights online clothing vendor (with mixed reviews at best), which has a habit of finding heartwarming or shocking anonymous letters from parents to their closeted children, or from people to theirbigoted family members. Efforts to find the writers of such letters generally fail. FCKH8's explanation – that they wish to stay anonymous... *

James Ball on Guardian Online, Generation Y Takeover, on Upworthy; 'Viral content about stuff that matters'. 

A sentimental gay hoax will go viral before the the truth has turned its tablet on.

This is where Fagburn is going wrong, basically.

Must run more baseless *Boo hoo squish squish sad face* stories in the future.

* It's not just FCKH8, of course. The problem is general to LGBT groups and media, and a credulous clicktivist virtual world.