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SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

sponsor.ajay.app

11–20 of 185 posts

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#11

I understand people don't like ads, but at some point doesn't someone have to pay creators for content? This feels just like stealing: I don't know how you can justify it: sponsor spots don't track you and they don't slow down your computer. Yes they are a minor inconvenience but they make the content you watch possible.

For these sponsored contents it doesn't really matter though. The content creator has already been paid, so whether you watch the segment or not, they won't lose or make money.

They will if the practice becomes common place. Advertisers will know what percentage are just skipping automatically and reprice the spots value accordingly.

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#12

I understand people don't like ads, but at some point doesn't someone have to pay creators for content? This feels just like stealing: I don't know how you can justify it: sponsor spots don't track you and they don't slow down your computer. Yes they are a minor inconvenience but they make the content you watch possible.

For these sponsored contents it doesn't really matter though. The content creator has already been paid, so whether you watch the segment or not, they won't lose or make money.

That's not true. Many get money based on how many clicks an affiliate link gets or how much an offer code is used. At the minimum this data is used to determine if the company decides to continue buying ads from the creator.

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#13

I understand people don't like ads, but at some point doesn't someone have to pay creators for content? This feels just like stealing: I don't know how you can justify it: sponsor spots don't track you and they don't slow down your computer. Yes they are a minor inconvenience but they make the content you watch possible.

For these sponsored contents it doesn't really matter though. The content creator has already been paid, so whether you watch the segment or not, they won't lose or make money.

I could see it escalate into an arms race: if the new norm for watching videos will be to automatically skip sponsored segments by some popular software, the sponsorship offers will either dry up, or the resulting sponsorships will be designed to be more difficult to skip (eg. by making content creators incorporate them throughout the video in many small chunks, or as overlaid audio/video, ...).

Similar to what happened to web ads in communities that tend to run adblockers: more and more obnoxious advertising (intersitial ads, animated ads, etc.), advertising incorporated into content (ads-as-content like on Reddit), cross-site tracking and retargeting.

I tend to manually skip sponsored segments (especially for snake oil like VPN services!), but I'm not sure if writing automated software for this is the right thing to do in the long term.

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#15
post #9

I get the technical justification for doing this: You own your player, so you should be able to control it in whatever way you want. But as consumers, how do we expect the uploader to get paid for their work if we use both Adblock and Sponsor-skip (for the lack of a better word)? Pay to watch is, of course, an option, but that leads to discrimination based on income – unequally distributed between parts of the world…

I am curious if direct revenue shares are a sustainable model.

E.g., I pay some money -- $10/month. I can choose to pay more. A fraction of that is divided evenly amongst all the videos I've watched. Creators get a check at the end of the month.

This wouldn't rake in billions of advertiser money. But I think it would sustain a very decent business, and be better for society in general.

This does need to be voluntary: I need to be able to choose to not pay and not watch (or watch with ads, as an alternative). And you need to be very transparent about the rules from the get-go, as well as about how those rules get changed, and apply those rules equally, lest you sacrifice the trust of both your viewers and creators.

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#17
I've been using it for a year and it works amazingly well:

- It blocks all of the popular videos out there I've tried

- For the freshest videos, I find the UI to be super-easy to submit a new video; you press a button when the sponsor segment starts, another button when it ends, then pick the category and click "upload"

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#18
post #9

I get the technical justification for doing this: You own your player, so you should be able to control it in whatever way you want. But as consumers, how do we expect the uploader to get paid for their work if we use both Adblock and Sponsor-skip (for the lack of a better word)? Pay to watch is, of course, an option, but that leads to discrimination based on income – unequally distributed between parts of the world…

Advertising is bad and I will oppose it in all its forms. What other system for financing the content does or doesn't exist is irrelevant to the my decision to block as much advertising out of my perception as I can.

That said, Patreon seems to be working very well for a lot of people making high quality content.

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#19
post #9

I get the technical justification for doing this: You own your player, so you should be able to control it in whatever way you want. But as consumers, how do we expect the uploader to get paid for their work if we use both Adblock and Sponsor-skip (for the lack of a better word)? Pay to watch is, of course, an option, but that leads to discrimination based on income – unequally distributed between parts of the world…

Personally I do pay for YouTube Premium, so videos I watch do make money (and do not have ads for me). As for in-video sponsor segments, I doubt the actual sponsors get any analytics about when they're skipped or not.

Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube

#20
post #15
post #9

I get the technical justification for doing this: You own your player, so you should be able to control it in whatever way you want. But as consumers, how do we expect the uploader to get paid for their work if we use both Adblock and Sponsor-skip (for the lack of a better word)? Pay to watch is, of course, an option, but that leads to discrimination based on income – unequally distributed between parts of the world…

I am curious if direct revenue shares are a sustainable model. E.g., I pay some money -- $10/month. I can choose to pay more. A fraction of that is divided evenly amongst all the videos I've watched. Creators get a check at the end of the month. This wouldn't rake in billions of advertiser money. But I think it would sustain a very decent business, and be better for society in general. This does need to be voluntary:…

That is literally how YouTube Premium works today, but people seem to feel entitled to watch without paying any money and blocking the ads.
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