[flagged]
You still get these ads even when you go and buy YouTube premium that should be actually your way to an experience free of ads.
SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
11–20 of 412 posts
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does this work, how does it get between the client and youtube.com?
It uses the tv youtube app remote control over local network to see if it plays a video, and skips at the right time.
Ha. What a fantastic piece of hack. Absolutely brilliant. Love it.
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#13[flagged]
I wasn’t gonna buy the thing being advertised to me, so why not save us all some bandwidth and time? Or if you think that I was gonna buy it but I didn’t know it, then you’re admitting you want to manipulate me, which only strengthens my argument for my right to block it.
Advertising is creating consensus without consent. It’s information warefare, propaganda, psychological manipulation… whatever you want to call it, in any other context the immorality is clear. If a guy buys a woman a vodka soda at a hotel bar, can she accept it and return to her table, or does she need to listen to his offer to come up to his room before she can drink it?
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#14[flagged]
I get where you're coming from but consider this: using an adblocker like ublock isn't only about digital privacy.
Many people, myself included, dislike being advertised to in general.
Especially in the real world I think ads are a blight, and so do the Swiss [1].
I do use sponsor block myself, though I have it disabled on certain channels because they actually show decent sponsors, like things that their audience might actually be interested in and they're not complete lies. But there is absolutely no positive impact on my life from seeing the 624th ad for a VPN to "protect myself online".
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#15[flagged]
Yes, it has nothing to do with privacy. The opposite is maybe true in that case (i.e. google can probably see my usage of sponsorblock in the access logs, which makes it simpler for them to identify me).
But I do use it. I don't watch video clips very often. When I did, most of the times it was disappointing waste of time. Conference talks are the most obvious exception that come to my mind, and they don't interrupt their talk with sponsor ads.
Once something is in YT (or any other big tech silo), I'm completely outside of charity or goodwill mode. It's basically like sth broadcasted by a random tv station for me. I maybe consume it, but I'll not start thinking how I can support them. The 'free web' that I'd explicitly try to support does not happen in big tech's walled gardens.
Btw: Are there any 'good' sponsors in YT? I suspect, a company that sponsors YT channels is by definition suspect. Just because the target audience doesn't really ask for more. They spend hours each day in a loop of mostly pointless 'subscribe, like me, follow me, comment below, $SPONSOR, ...' and always the big show without any actual substance in the end.
Sure, there are always a handful of exceptions...
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#16As a YouTuber, I’m conflicted about this. My main channel (non-tech) is small, but is monetised, and YouTube see fit to throw me a _very_ variable amount of money every month. CPMs are down right now so revenue has tanked along with it, it’ll pick back up at some point, but the variability is itself the pain point. My videos are relatively expensive and time consuming to make, but people seem to find them useful, and even enjoyable. The occasional (relevant) sponsor read or similar has been a huge help in providing some stability in the past, and I know for many channels it’s the main source of income since YPP revenue share can be so volatile.
I do worry that if this takes off it will just result in those sponsors pulling their budgets for this type of advertising, and it’ll be another nail in the coffin for creators. Sure many of us also do patreon etc but that’s never really sat right with me personally (and see also the post on HN just today about Apple coming for a revenue split there for another creator-hostile storm brewing).
On the other hand, I totally get the hatred of “the usual suspect” sponsors (VPNs, low-quality learning platforms etc) that get done to death because of their aggressive sponsor budgets and not-unreasonable deals. Those get shoehorned into a ton of videos and it’s a shame, but a blunt instrument like this is likely to kill off sponsorships as a whole, not just those bad ones.
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#17[flagged]
I first started to block ads for privacy and to prevent those that takes over the screen, but once you have blocked ads once, you start to enjoy the actual peace and ability to concentrate.
Plus ads are for shitty products, since good products end up selling through recommendations and reviews.
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#18As a YouTuber, I’m conflicted about this. My main channel (non-tech) is small, but is monetised, and YouTube see fit to throw me a _very_ variable amount of money every month. CPMs are down right now so revenue has tanked along with it, it’ll pick back up at some point, but the variability is itself the pain point. My videos are relatively expensive and time consuming to make, but people seem to find them useful, and…
Don't do your videos for money. You are interrupting users that pay for YouTube premium with ads in the middle of your videos. Set up a way to donate to you on YouTube, channel memberships are an option, they display next to the "subscribe button".
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#19As a YouTuber, I’m conflicted about this. My main channel (non-tech) is small, but is monetised, and YouTube see fit to throw me a _very_ variable amount of money every month. CPMs are down right now so revenue has tanked along with it, it’ll pick back up at some point, but the variability is itself the pain point. My videos are relatively expensive and time consuming to make, but people seem to find them useful, and…
> blunt instrument like this is likely to kill off sponsorships as a whole
That's the dream. Ads are a poison and a blight.
Removing them is something many users, including me welcome. If one wants money for their videos, they're welcome to actually allow getting payments i.e. patreon, the "Youtube sponsorship"-thing.
Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
#20Freetube.io has it implemented already few years.