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YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

engadget.com

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Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#31

Post by anyfoo »

CaptSpify wrote: post #10
bognition wrote: post #2

Its about time. The Youtube UI has become a disaster over the last few years. It all started with the ability to let uploaders "annotate" their videos. I've disabled the setting to show annotations probably a dozen times and they keep coming back. I can't figure out if the setting is poorly implemented or if youtube is deliberately switching the setting back.

It seems like a better approach would be to just get rid of those annotations. I don't know how anyone ever thought that was a good idea. But YT should let them link externally. Site's like Patreon are beneficial to everyone involved.

I can echo what the others have already commented, which is that in the overwhelming majority of videos from channels that I have subscribed to, the annotations have been useful.

Getting rid of them entirely would get rid of an easy and much needed way for the uploader to add corrections and other additions after the fact.

I do see videos where the annotations are rather annoying, but I don't think it's so often that it has been a terrible problem overall, and I have a suspicion that on those videos the annotations have not been the only annoying aspect.

Edit: I just saw further down that annotations are actually deprecated, and now I really wonder how people can add corrections to videos? Does that mean I have to read the description of every video I watch?

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#32

Post by anyfoo »

cm2187 wrote: post #13
bognition wrote: post #2

Its about time. The Youtube UI has become a disaster over the last few years. It all started with the ability to let uploaders "annotate" their videos. I've disabled the setting to show annotations probably a dozen times and they keep coming back. I can't figure out if the setting is poorly implemented or if youtube is deliberately switching the setting back.

Also the ability to illustrate a video with an image that's not part of the video, has become a click bait paradise.

Unlike the additions, I really don't see how that feature is benefiting the platform except for some uploaders by, as you succinctly put it, providing click bait.

I really wish the video image would have to be a frame taken from the video. Make it any frame, if the uploader cares so much they can include the image as a title card and pick a frame from that.

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#33

Post by anyfoo »

timothya wrote: post #23
wickawic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but this move seems like a grab at Patreon and self promotion in general. Users can still put obnoxious annotations up.

> Users can still put obnoxious annotations up. No, annotations are deprecated, you can't add them to videos anymore. [0] [0]: https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2017/03/keep-fans-en...

Huh, so, how will uploaders update corrections and other additions after the fact?

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#34

Post by colmvp »

timothya wrote: post #23
wickawic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but this move seems like a grab at Patreon and self promotion in general. Users can still put obnoxious annotations up.

> Users can still put obnoxious annotations up. No, annotations are deprecated, you can't add them to videos anymore. [0] [0]: https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2017/03/keep-fans-en...

Seriously, good riddance. It added so much clutter to videos that I explicitly hid them any chance I got. I'd rather content creators just use the video description to communicate or edit their videos so that annotations would not be necessary.

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#35

Post by anyfoo »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #8

An important note here, if you cannot enable monetize videos, YouTube will not allow you to link to patreon or other sites. https://i.imgur.com/byCxnAj.jpg Its not enough for Google to ban you from ads, they have decided to cut off any other funding source aswell...

That is absolutely disgusting, and may actually threaten any niche channel which is not mainstream enough to generate a significant amount of clicks, but which so far has been able to keep alive using Patreon and other donations.

That was my favorite thing about YouTube: Unlike Cable TV, not all content was converging towards the lowest common denominator, because creators of e.g. advanced science and engineering topics could keep afloat with the dedicated support of a small community.

At least (I hope) creators can still mention their Patreon in their videos.

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#36

Post by Mithaldu »

colmvp wrote: post #34
timothya wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Users can still put obnoxious annotations up. No, annotations are deprecated, you can't add them to videos anymore. [0] [0]: https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2017/03/keep-fans-en...

Seriously, good riddance. It added so much clutter to videos that I explicitly hid them any chance I got. I'd rather content creators just use the video description to communicate or edit their videos so that annotations would not be necessary.

So you read the entire description of a video before watching it and remember every word of it, including timestamps with comments to note corrections, even when there's 10 of them for a half hour video?

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#37

Post by Mithaldu »

anyfoo wrote: post #33
timothya wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Users can still put obnoxious annotations up. No, annotations are deprecated, you can't add them to videos anymore. [0] [0]: https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2017/03/keep-fans-en...

Huh, so, how will uploaders update corrections and other additions after the fact?

You can add "cards", i.e. the popups in the top right that show a short text and an "i" button. Those can be links to videos, polls, or external links (if you're a big youtuber). However the text is limited, you can't set how long it shows, and you can have a maximum of 5. You can maybe use subtitles too, but you cannot set a default subtitle for your video.

So there are hacky half-working workarounds, but otherwise youtube just told everyone who cares about their videos to go and kindly get fucked.

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#38

Post by TeMPOraL »

anyfoo wrote: post #33
timothya wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Users can still put obnoxious annotations up. No, annotations are deprecated, you can't add them to videos anymore. [0] [0]: https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2017/03/keep-fans-en...

Huh, so, how will uploaders update corrections and other additions after the fact?

Well, how about reuploading if you fuck up the editing process, and trying not to fuck up the next time?

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#39

Post by gizmo686 »

foepys wrote: post #28
falcolas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you shouldn't be trying to be monetize when you have that low of a view count anyway. Urm, why? Not everyone is in it for the advertisement money. Want to direct someone to a charity instead of supporting you? Not unless you're 10k+ Patreon? 10k+ Blueprints for the table you just built on screen? 10k+ Not to mention one of the requirements to be a partner is that your content is advertiser friendly. If you make vid…

I think outside of a YouTube network, 10k views equals about $0.10 in advertising money. So it's not even worth to donate this to charity.

The idea isn't to direct the add money to charity, but direct your viewers to charity. Depending on your audience, 10k views could be a fair bit of money that viewers are willing to pay if you ask them to.

Re: YouTube is cracking down on external links in videos

#40

Post by andyjsong »

falcolas wrote: post #25
andyjsong wrote: post #16

From the article it sounds like it's more cracking down on people who rip off other people's content and then use the link cards to get referral traffic to their own properties. I don't think legitimate creators need to be concerned. From the article, the minimum requirement to be a partner is 10K public views. That's a relatively low bar, and you shouldn't be trying to be monetize when you have that low of a view co…

> you shouldn't be trying to be monetize when you have that low of a view count anyway. Urm, why? Not everyone is in it for the advertisement money. Want to direct someone to a charity instead of supporting you? Not unless you're 10k+ Patreon? 10k+ Blueprints for the table you just built on screen? 10k+ Not to mention one of the requirements to be a partner is that your content is advertiser friendly. If you make vid…

Because 10K total public views is a vanity metric and people can just pump out total crap to get there. This to prevent a spam account from stealing content and monetizing immediately with external links vs. the grind of maximizing your view count. Last I heard 1 million views is about $2,000 in ad dollars from Google. Google has made it unfavorable to compensate based off of view count because there is so much inventory. So the only real way for creators to sustain are platforms like Patreon, selling merch, sponsored posts, or referral links base off of CPA. From what the article states, this prevents illegitimate accounts from siphoning from OPs.

If YT really wanted to keep the bar high in terms of quality creators they would base it off of number of subscribers and the level of engagement that those subscribers watch another video vs. a one hit wonder that goes viral.

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