The link to the database on their homepage is broken(1). Any idea where it's at? https://sponsor.ajay.app/database
Here's an older copy while it is temporarily down: https://cdnsponsor.ajay.app/database/sponsorTimes.csv
SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
151–160 of 185 posts
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like if someone is hawking wares on their channel they should at least use it/have faith in it/do their research. Tom Scott has a great video about VPN sponsorship and how he turned down a sponsorship from a VPN company because of the copy they wanted him to say and debunks the ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY Mad respect for him, and if he ever suggest a paid product in the future i'd trust hi…
Tom missed the biggest factor in VPN companies' exaggerations - that they call themselves "VPNs" because of the positive connotations of "Private", even though they're just proxies and have nothing to do with VPNs.
...and even the ones that use actual VPN software don't actually have anything for the "N" part of "VPN", so they are still just proxies.
But I guess it makes it easier to refer to than "proxy for all protocols."
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like if someone is hawking wares on their channel they should at least use it/have faith in it/do their research. Tom Scott has a great video about VPN sponsorship and how he turned down a sponsorship from a VPN company because of the copy they wanted him to say and debunks the ads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVDQEoe6ZWY Mad respect for him, and if he ever suggest a paid product in the future i'd trust hi…
VPN ads that are truthful and delivered with integrity are still disrespectful and disgusting, because advertising is a cancer.
Advertising isn’t black/white. I want to see ads telling me there’s a local farm selling produce a few minutes from my house. Or that the new Marvel movie is coming out in a couple months.
These things bring value to my life. How else would I know about them?
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#154I'm not going to bash this or anything, I see why people dislike the sponsor segments, it's advertising after all, but as someone who honestly could not afford to donate to every single channel I enjoy watching, I'm glad content creators have a way to make money while still providing content essentially for free. I'd rather sit and watch a silly ad than just not have access to the content because I couldn't afford to…
I pay for Youtube Premium specifically because I DON'T WANT TO WATCH ADS. Ever. I hate ads with a passion. I get the fact that content creators need to make money, but there needs to be a better way. Youtube needs to give content creators a way to put ads in their own content in a manner that gets automatically hidden if people pay for Youtube Premium. Worst case scenario, I would even pay for a higher tier of Youtub…
Yes, yes, yes. YouTube can solve this problem easily by requiring annotating ads "chapters" from the uploader, then having a higher paid tier that skips these chapters.
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tom missed the biggest factor in VPN companies' exaggerations - that they call themselves "VPNs" because of the positive connotations of "Private", even though they're just proxies and have nothing to do with VPNs.
...and even the ones that use actual VPN software don't actually have anything for the "N" part of "VPN", so they are still just proxies. But I guess it makes it easier to refer to than "proxy for all protocols."
I've only used my work VPN, so I just assumed commercial VPNs had similar mechanics. They don't lease IP addresses?
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#156- the more people that use adblock/sponsor block, the less effective ads are in general (lower advertiser ROI for each ad) - if ROI for ads drop, ad sellers (eg. youtubers) have to reduce the price charged to advertisers - given that ad budgets are more or less constant (companies will always need to reach customers) there will simply be more ads, since each ad view is now worth less. - if ads become completely ineff…
And if ad blockers didn't exist, they would still increase the number of ads anyway. If nobody could block ads, there would be no incentive for companies to be scared about having "too many ads", as there would be nowhere for users to turn to (ie. ad blockers).
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#157I really don't like how most sponsored segments are just downright misleading about what VPNs do. Making them funny doesn't change the fact that the ads are deceptive. There's always some fearmongering about people stealing your data on public networks, but no actual substance about feasible attacks that could happen in reality. In the UK, similar ads have been banned by the advertising regulator for being misleading…
I feel sorry for average non-technical people who get hoodwinked into VPNs. The majority of people have absolutely no need for a VPN for "privacy" reasons, particularly these days with wide adoption of TLS which prevents ISPs from reading and/or injecting content into streams.
Modern cases for a VPN:
1. The few countries/regions with severely corrupt governments/ISPs.
2. Accessing region-locked services; eg. another country's Netflix.
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#158The link to the database on their homepage is broken(1). Any idea where it's at? https://sponsor.ajay.app/database
Here's an older copy while it is temporarily down: https://cdnsponsor.ajay.app/database/sponsorTimes.csv
Sorry, doesn't look this one is loading either. I'll check afterwards i guess when the traffic is less.
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#159I pay for YouTube Red in part due to the promise of no advertisements. Sponsorship segments reduce the value of the subscription significantly. I'm surprised YouTube does not have a policy banning such segments.
Re: SponsorBlock – Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
#160- the more people that use adblock/sponsor block, the less effective ads are in general (lower advertiser ROI for each ad) - if ROI for ads drop, ad sellers (eg. youtubers) have to reduce the price charged to advertisers - given that ad budgets are more or less constant (companies will always need to reach customers) there will simply be more ads, since each ad view is now worth less. - if ads become completely ineff…
And if ad blockers didn't exist, they would still increase the number of ads anyway. If nobody could block ads, there would be no incentive for companies to be scared about having "too many ads", as there would be nowhere for users to turn to (ie. ad blockers).
aka the "you actually want to show ads to paying customers, because you've got evidence they have disposable income and a willingess to part with it" phenomenon.