Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

sponsor.ajay.app

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 412 posts

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#261

Post by aniviacat »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #153
wanderingmind wrote: post #49

Sponsorblock is not as blunt a tool as people make it here. You can only block specific type of ads and you can whitelist whole channels which I do for some niche channels I subscribe to. In Android, I use Tubular [1], the NewPipe fork that integrates Sponsorblock and ReturnYoutube Dislike. My only additional request in this awesome app is if we can download the video after snipping out the sponsor block sections. [1…

>and you can whitelist whole channels which I do for some niche channels I subscribe to Honestly, these are ads that actually support the content I watch. So that's why I keep the adroll by default. AFAIK Google isn't getting any cut of it and that makes me feel good.

Why do you feel better about using Google's platform without paying (by watching ads) than about consuming someone's content without paying?

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#262

Post by seanvelasco »

i've gotten used to having no ads thanks to Firefox with uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock that it became painful when i try to browse the web on others' computers

SponsorBlock is a godsend when watching Linus Tech Tips where it feels like it's 80% ads and 20% content

for other YouTubers, i find that their ads are actually useful if they're relevant to the video's content. for example, i discovered Boot.dev when i was watching bigboxSWE

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#263

Post by voidUpdate »

bugtodiffer wrote: post #252
freetonik wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same. The more I hear about a brand in youtube ads (or any ads, for that matter), the more "scammy" feeling I get about it. At this point I feel I won't even consider looking into NordVPN, Betterhelp, or SquareSpace, even though I understand how this feeling is unjustified.

> I understand how this feeling is unjustified Every company you listed is bad. NordVPN wasn't caught yet, but it's to good to be true and ALWAYS having 73% off is illegal marketing. Betterhelp sold data to facebook to retarget you with ads. SquareSpace had a security issue were entering the email of an old, not yet migrated account, was instant account takeover... how does this slip through security reviews? Everyth…

The thing about nordVPN (and VPN services in general) is they always talk about how funneling all your traffic through them makes it more secure and it means that governments cant spy on you and whatever. But sending all your traffic through a single point of failure seems like a bad idea from a government protection view, and how is it any more secure than https? The only thing that I've seen it be good for is making it look like you're from somewhere else to watch different stuff on streaming services. I think Tom Scott put it well here https://youtu.be/WVDQEoe6ZWY

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#264

Post by prmoustache »

StableAlkyne wrote: post #127
simonmysun wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would rather expect an extension like AdNauseam[1] which automatically play the advertisement muted in background. [1]: https://adnauseam.io/

The best part about AdNauseum is it solves the criticism people give ad-blockers: content creators still get paid

But viewers do not owe anything to videomakers[1]

[1] honestly content creator is a terrible word for what it is, I wish people would stop repeating that non sense.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#265

Post by madaxe_again »

voidUpdate wrote: post #240

I still don't understand a lot of youtube advertising. Like for me, if I'm being advertised something, I instinctively don't trust it, because they're having to pay people to say good things about it rather than people who have used it telling me it's a good thing. And there are still so many sponsorships from places like BetterHelp, which has been known to be a scam for a while now, and Raid Shadow Legends, which is…

This makes you an outlier - and HN is the kind of place where you will find many such outliers.

The majority of people, however, are extremely responsive to advertising & marketing, or it would not exist.

My business used to be ecommerce platform development and consultancy, and I ended up seeing a lot of how the sausage is made - advertising is a bigger spend than product for most successful retailers, and it’s all about figuring out where to chop off the tail. You’ve got your core 15% who you can send an email to saying “buy this”, and they will, 95% of the time - then segments step down in terms of convertibility until you’re down to 0.01%, at which point you’re usually going to get more people irritated by the marketing than you will sales.

The marginal cost of most marketing is very low - that’s to say, to reach 10,000,000 eyeballs doesn’t cost much more than to reach 10,000 - unless you’re doing paper catalogues, which is a whole other thing, most of your cost is up front, artwork, direction, whatever - so it makes sense to shoot for a bigger basket and get some bycatch.

Me - I resolutely refused to do any marketing for our business. Mistake, bluntly, as I let my emotions get in the way of rationality. Had anyone other than a clique of medium-large UK merchants ever heard of us, the business might have gone somewhere - instead after a decade we were trundling along in a comfortable rut and I ejected.

So, you hate it, I hate it, it’s misleading, it’s annoying, it’s a negative signal to us - but it works on most people.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#266

Post by fhd2 »

dkarras wrote: post #245
voidUpdate wrote: post #240

I still don't understand a lot of youtube advertising. Like for me, if I'm being advertised something, I instinctively don't trust it, because they're having to pay people to say good things about it rather than people who have used it telling me it's a good thing. And there are still so many sponsorships from places like BetterHelp, which has been known to be a scam for a while now, and Raid Shadow Legends, which is…

you're not the target. advertisements work. the people managing ads are very meticulous about their spend vs. return. if you are seeing an ad of something for any noticeable duration of time, that means it works. by that I mean they get positive return from showing the world their ad. if it generates negative returns, it will be pulled pretty quickly. they are humans just like you and me, we don't like losing money.…

From my ad industry insights, that's only partly true. What you mentioned last is called brand advertising IIRC, which is not conversion oriented, but aimed at exposing you to a brand (like, a car manufacturer) so that at some point _later_ in your life, you contribute to a decision to buy from them.

Now, huge companies do run focus groups and such to ensure their brand advertising has the right (psychological) effects. But it is inherently difficult to measure. And I've seen many mid-sized companies not do that at all, they run these ads based on what they believe might work.

Mind you, this is experience from 4 years ago, but I did find the ad industry, as obsessed with tracking as it is, to be surprisingly gut-driven. For a lot of it, it's hard to tell if it works.

I do fully agree that for people who know what they're doing, advertising absolutely works, in ways that are sometimes unintuitive to consumers.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#267

Post by johnnyanmac »

manuelmoreale wrote: post #223
johnnyanmac wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Writing is no longer viable for many. I don’t see why YouTube should be this special case. >Writing is no longer viable for many. I don’t see why YouTube should be this special case. because Youtube is owned by a trillion dollar corporation but mostly powered by content creators. Substack isn't. It's really that simple. most wringing isn't viable because there's no money in it, literally. There still is money in vid…

I’m not asking why it is. I’m asking why it should be.

Why what should be? Why platforms with money pay people with no money? Why platforms with no money shut down?

It's not a very fun answer. Google gets a lot of ads to pay then to shove ads down the consumer's throats, and they can do this with no risk of users migrating. They "should" get more money because they more effectly do this than news websites, which have failed to appeal to advertisers effectively enough.

I don't really know what to do with that answer, though. Accept I'm the minority that will subscribe to paid avenues to support creators (or even care about other creator's well beings?) and move on?

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#268

Post by account42 »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #153
wanderingmind wrote: post #49

Sponsorblock is not as blunt a tool as people make it here. You can only block specific type of ads and you can whitelist whole channels which I do for some niche channels I subscribe to. In Android, I use Tubular [1], the NewPipe fork that integrates Sponsorblock and ReturnYoutube Dislike. My only additional request in this awesome app is if we can download the video after snipping out the sponsor block sections. [1…

>and you can whitelist whole channels which I do for some niche channels I subscribe to Honestly, these are ads that actually support the content I watch. So that's why I keep the adroll by default. AFAIK Google isn't getting any cut of it and that makes me feel good.

Why not just donate to the creators you like instead of letting them or a third party psychologically manipulate you into giving money to that third party who in turn pay some small part of that money to fund the creator.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#269

Post by johnnyanmac »

aniviacat wrote: post #261
johnnyanmac wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and you can whitelist whole channels which I do for some niche channels I subscribe to Honestly, these are ads that actually support the content I watch. So that's why I keep the adroll by default. AFAIK Google isn't getting any cut of it and that makes me feel good.

Why do you feel better about using Google's platform without paying (by watching ads) than about consuming someone's content without paying?

I do pay so the point is moot. But for the exercise:

Google has probably already well overextended it's reach and made thousands off data without my consent. And will probably make more without my consent from Gemini. They have so many cash glows that I couldn't care less about plugging one of the holes up. They've long burned their good will points.

Meanwhile, I am an aspiring indie dev and I've overtime gotten rough ideas of how and what other creators on YT are paid. I honestly feel bad knowing some of these people arguably work 5 times harder than I do selling their brands while making maybe half (if they are a really established creator, maybe 500k+ subs) of what I make just walking to my computer and typing into a codepad. Some can barely afford their rent despite this hard work, and potentially hundred of hours of entertainment given to me. And those are "big" (but not Huge) creators. Someone with 50-100k subs may still not be able to do their work full time, or they do it on the very edge of viability.

I can't do much. I subscribe to some crowd funds, but not all. being able to at least watch their ad rolls is some form of appreciation in my mind. So call it guilt or call it an odd emotional attachment.

I just want to try and pay it forward, knowing I may be on that seat one day.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#270

Post by account42 »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #175
ndriscoll wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not interested in the advertisement, then you're creating a less efficient market by signaling that you are. So you ought to skip past it or block it in that case. And if you're not interested in any advertisements, the market is more efficient when you block them all. Or just run adnausium if you're basically just trying to help creators scam advertisers. Remember in all advertising funded models that you…

Adnausium isn't making the market more efficient. It's wasting everyone's time and bandwidth.

> It's wasting everyone's time and bandwidth.

No, that's what ads are doing. And not just your computers bandwidth but also your mental bandwidth. Fuck ads.

Post reply on HN