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The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

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Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't know why ICANN gets to tell people what they can or cannot have as their TLD name. It's just a string, it doesn't cost anything more to compare on the DNS server if it's custom or standard.

I don't know if every ICANN restriction can be justified from first principles, but there definitely has to be some strategy to ensure nobody sets up a .(U+0585)rg TLD.

That's why punycode exists.

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#162
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative isn’t these creators giving their content away; the alternative is these creators using one of the dozens of paid-video-course hosting platforms that have sprung up. This isn’t going to put a paywall in front of any content that didn’t already have a paywall in front of it.

Well maybe, but on the other hand this makes pay walling far more trivial and accessible, so it'll likely be even more common. Google just wants that Nebula money.

(FYI, Nebula is a bad analogy, because it exists not to do anything like courseware, but rather because a bunch of creators don't believe in YouTube as a long-lasting + stable revenue engine that won't betray them one day. There's nothing YouTube could offer to make the channels with Nebula extras switch back to posting only on YouTube. Other than, maybe, offering them a contract that basically makes YouTube into a B2B video-hosting platform where the content-creator is treated as a paying customer that deserves things like SLAs, and a human customer-success agent being in the signal chain between copyright strikes and account suspension. Which will seemingly never happen.)

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a saying I've heard from Dean Graziosi (sales type guy). "Sell them what they want, give them what they need". I also dislike this whole game where you have to essentially mould yourself into this "mainstream click-baity character", but part of me recognises that if your goal is to sell, then you'd be wise to spend time on presenting your content in a way that is at least initially attention grabbi…

The justification some youtubers (LTT comes to mind) use for clickbait video titles/thumbnails is that they feel that so long as the content itself is good then it doesn’t matter what techniques they use to get people to watch it. Their logic is that there’s nothing wrong with lying to get someone to watch your video so long as they enjoy it once they do. To me it the race to the bottom of clickbait video titles/thum…

It's a hard line to walk. And I'm sure not everybody draws the same line.

The part I think LTT and many other folks with a similar philosophy ignore is that even engaging with their title/thumbnail isn't free. Clickbait forcefully grabs attention which requires every potential viewer to spend time and energy evaluating that option. A less forceful title/thumbnail makes it much easier to quickly and easily find the things you actually want to spend your time and energy on.

To make matters worse, most/all clickbait does it's damnedest to make it as hard as possible to decide a video isn't worth the time. Even when you know it's not worth it, the clickbait can make it extremely hard to actually skip.

So yeah, it has a real cost, even when the video itself is good. It's not equally good for everybody, and figuring that out has a cost too.

(And LTT in particular really pushes the boundaries, far more than most that actually try to not be dicks. LTT will sometimes draw the line at 'merely' technically not saying a lie, and blame you for hearing one anyway.)

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#165

Maybe just me, but I'm not really excited for established YouTubers to sell more stuff and expand their empires. It's already a winner-take-all game of attention. The beauty of YouTube is finding like a retired professor who puts up their lectures on an account with a couple thousand subscribers. It is not having a click-bait worthy thumbnail, over-produced video, and barely learning anything while being mindlessly e…

I found channels with 10k-100k subscribers to be extremely high in quality and... bespoke. Just these days, I am learning a lot about OpenWRT while I wait for my router to arrive, and there was one channel with near 30k subscribers run by an amazing person, as he shares quite detailed information about routers, even the ones that are less exciting.

This was such a fresh breath from Linus Tech Tips style "we upgraded to 100 Gbps network" kind of content, because most of us are just tinkering around with consumer hardware, and geek out on minor details.

That, and they don't shove merchandise and minute long sponsored contents to you.

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#166

> Every day, people come to YouTube to learn something new. True. > shows content on commonly used education apps without distractions like ads, external links or recommendations External links seem important on educational files, and I kind of like recommendations when I'm browsing educational stuff, but whoo, no ads on educational stuff? That's great! > Next year, qualified creators can begin offering free or paid…

Just to play Devil's Advocate (and I can't believe that I'm arguing for YouTube here): Why shouldn't they charge for a useful service? And it does sound like they're removing other major problems with using their platform for this purpose.

I'm confused, how is this different than adding a 5$ membership program? Why is allowing the creator to sell video content users want a bad thing? Yes Youtube gets a cut, but that's literally how every single platform works.

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube allows unlimited videos with unlimited size and with good quality completely for free. You can also keep ads disabled if you want. No other service is even comparable.

> You can also keep ads disabled if you want. Only for this special educational project. YouTube has been putting ads on un-monietized videos without asking the uploader for some time now.

I had thought that such ads only appeared when the video included content that belonged to another company that chose to puts ads on it, like if you made a music video but used a song owned by a record label. Do they put ads on stuff that's entirely yours? It's mentioned in their FAQ: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2475463

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> content that warrants more engagement is going to win What does that even mean? I'd be careful about using the language of silicon value ad companies. It changes how you think. One minute you're talking about content and community and the next thing you know you have metrics and are trying to measure engagement and are now making decisions based off something you could actually measure and not relying on your insti…

>Make it so good, your audience will want to support you. You used the same type of voice you criticized, I'm confused why you're projecting this narrative onto my comment. I'm obviously pointing out that clickbait content will get more engagement. I'm trying to make the OP ask themselves what they want... which I believe is very clear.

I probably am projecting and for that I apologize.

I do bristle at the use of words like content and engagement. If you are thinking about those things, you’ve already surrendered. I believe thinking in those terms will lead you to make more of the same stuff that’s already out there.

Mostly though, nobody should make content. That’s a word used by platform operators because it’s all they see your work as. To them, the thing you’ve created is just another file they can store in their CMS, to be monetized later. Be a video producer or podcaster or digital artist or writer or whatever it is (more specific is better IMHO), but don’t call yourself a content creator.

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#169

I produce Music Tech-based educational content on YT. It started as a hobby and sideline to my main work (which at the time was classroom teaching of the same content). While I'm no longer working in classrooms (pandemic plus other reasons led to this), I'm still producing content, which I think is of good quality and worthwhile. The issue I have with it is that I refuse to produce attention-grabbing clickbaity title…

I’m so thankful for creators like you who just want to share and teach and eschew the clickbaity crap. Ugh.

I am hopeful that somehow…somehow!!! we can have the quality content like yours more discoverable without having to game the system.

It reminds me how “SEO” has turned into an entire, absolutely ridiculous meta game industry that rarely has to do with how good a website actually is.

Re: The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube

#170

As a kid that grew up poor, all I can think about is great... another way to divide the haves and the have-nots. Society benefits when education is free. Keeping educational content behind a paywall just speaks to greed.

Also doesn't seem to match up well with Google's whole "make the world's information universally accessible and useful" motto.
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