🤔 Our editor answers your questions

This first appeared in the Daily Dot’s newsletter web_crawlr. If you want to see more content like this before everyone else, sign up for the newsletter here. 

Hello fellow web crawlers! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of web_crawlr. 

Our top stories today are about: McDonald’s hacks we’ve come across and a man going viral and getting fired for making a rap song about his job.

After that, our Executive Editor Whitney answers a couple of questions web_crawlr readers like you submitted!

We are back to normal tomorrow with a “Main Character of the Week,” thanks to everyone who answered our surveys over the past week, we really appreciate it! 

See ya tomorrow! 

— A.W. 

⚡ Today in Internet Culture

🍟 HACKS
From the ‘McBrunch Burger’ to DIY ice cream sandwiches, these 17 McDonald’s hacks will inspire you to order something new

Whether you’re looking to find a menu hack that makes your mouth water or save a few dollars on your traditional menu favorites, this list will cover it all with the best McDonald’s hacks we’ve come across this year.

➤READ MORE

💼 LABOR
‘Can they do that?’: Man makes viral video about his job, doesn’t mention where he works. Then he gets called into the boss’ office

A TikToker has gone viral after claiming he got fired for making a rap song about his unnamed job. But, some questions remain.

➤READ MORE

📝 Our Editor Answers Your Questions

By Whitney Jefferson
Executive Editor

“Will you continue to publish when TikTok gets shut down because the majority of your coverage comes from the site?” – Craig S.

WJ: Yes, of course. The Daily Dot was founded in 2011 with a goal to rethink the way news is reported and delivered online, so it has existed for almost a decade before TikTok came into our lives. 

If you’re new to the Dot, you may not know that we were the first news outlet to write about QAnon—we’ve been at this for a while. More recently, our reporters have exposed a “no-fly list” that led to an investigation by Congress, profiled small towns in America impacted by far-right extremists in our “Naziland” series, and were cited (twice!) in the Congressional report on January 6th.

We’ll always follow the story no matter the platform, so we plan to cover TikTok up until the moment when (and if!) it’s banned. There’s also a story of where TikTok’s creators, businesses, and audience will go when (and if!) TikTok goes away. 

We’ll be there to cover that, too. 

“How do you decide which stories to publish?” – Lisa R. 

WJ: Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of our stories come to life during newsroom meetings and team Slack chats. Each day kicks off with a morning meeting where we review the previous day’s top stories, top-performing social posts, and the articles our newsletter subscribers engaged with the most (as always, thank you for reading!).

From there, we dive into what’s trending online, what’s happening in the broader news cycle, and the unique angles we can bring to our reporting.

Editors highlight the stories already in the works and what’s expected for the day, while our social curation teams listen closely and begin crafting video and social versions of the stories you’ll find on our website.

In addition, our Trending News team holds a second pitch meeting every afternoon to brainstorm fresh stories for the day. Editors also come together weekly to discuss bigger-picture editorial strategies and ideas.

“Where do you find the stories you publish? Particularly the conspiracy stories.” – Pierre S

WJ: Reporting on conspiracy theories (and conspiracy theorists) is one of reporter Mikael Thalen’s many strong suits. 

I can’t speak to all of his sources, but his previous stories have highlighted conspiracies from all corners of the internet including Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Truth Social. 

As you might expect, they’re especially prominent over on X. 

If you don’t already follow his extensive reporting for us, keep an eye out for his columns One Dumb Conspiracy and Your Password Sucks in this very newsletter. 

“What is your favorite platform and least favorite one?” – Sarah M

WJ: For now, while it still exists, I’ll be honest and say TikTok. 

Readers with excellent memory will recall that I named Tumblr as my “happy place” in my inaugural column in this very newsletter a mere two years ago. And while I still enjoy scrolling through Tumblr, it’s felt more and more evergreen over the years—and much less relevant to what’s happening at that moment online.

TikTok, on the other hand, thrives on the moment. It’s incredibly current—unless, of course, you’ve been scrolling for so long that you’ve exhausted your feed of fresh videos (it happens to the best of us). I’ll be sad if TikTok really does disappear in January, but I do think its users will flock to other platforms—hopefully new and exciting ones—if they can’t post there anymore.

Not to kick a platform while it’s down… but X has to be my least favorite platform currently. While it can offer some delightfully unhinged meme fodder at times, the quality of the service, users, and overall vibe has, in my opinion, diminished since Elon took over.

“At the end of articles, you always say you reached out to the people in the story. Do you ever hear back from them and give an update?” – Nel C

WJ: Absolutely. It’s actually far more common for people not to respond to our requests for comment—sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.

When someone does respond, we always include their comments in the story. But if they’re open and willing to speak further, it often helps us move the story along in even more meaningful ways. In fact, many of these conversations have led to follow-up stories or collaborations, like the sharing of video content on our social channels with the creator’s permission.

It probably won’t come as a surprise, but brands tend to respond much more quickly when we reach out. Many companies have dedicated publicity teams or established processes for handling media inquiries, which can be incredibly helpful for ensuring accuracy and providing valuable data. 

In both cases—whether from individuals or brands—we always aim to update our stories with the latest information whenever possible.

“Do you ever take a break from being online?” – Lisa R.

WJ: Yes, I do—but I’ll admit, not often enough! 

I took a week-long vacation over Thanksgiving and actually left my laptop at home. It was so nice to disconnect completely, even for just a few days, to spend time in nature, relax, and read a few books. 

I highly recommend it to anyone whose work or hobbies keep them glued to a computer all day. As the internet likes to say, sometimes you really do just need to go outside and “touch grass.”

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.