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SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

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Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#281
post #160

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.

What's the point of this? Nobody's getting a cut unless you use the affiliate link, and it's in the description anyway. You're just watching your favourite creator say how much they love ExpressVPN through gritted teeth.

CC's get paid for the sponsorship on top of any affiliate links. The RAID ads are the most obnoxious thing ever, but you dig through and realize even a tiny 2k sub channel can get a few hundred out of it (at this level you are getting maybe a few dozen dollars a month in YT ads) and you completely realize why they "sell out". I can only imagine the kind of cash moderate sized YouTubers (the 100-300k range) can get (i know a 400k YouTube disclosed half their revenue came from ad rolls, and their revenue was enough to live humbly.

>You're just watching your favourite creator say how much they love ExpressVPN through gritted teeth.

Which one of us likes every aspect of our job? Or every order/request of a customer? Gotta do what you gotta do.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#282

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?

> without paying

Attention is not a valid currency or payment method. Their service is literally free of charge. They did it that way hoping we would look at the ads. We're not obligated to do so. They have only themselves to blame for their risky business model that gambles on the idea that people might look at irrelevant content they didn't ask for.

They need to charge us up front if they want us to pay. If they send us ads, we'll delete them before they're shown. Nothing they can do about it. And we won't lose a second of sleep over it.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#283

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 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.

I try (tried) to. Money's tight now, but on the heyday of 2022 I was giving at least $5/month to 10 different creators. I'd say only 2 of those were even for a specific reward, 3 of then explicitly had no rewards.

But I'm subbed to 30 channels and probably "watch every video but am not subbed" to 10-15 others. I'm not quite at a point where I can support everyone I want to support.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it makes me aware of brands, and then I don't use their service because they have to pay people to say it's good. And I already have a web hosting solution, its the raspberry pi in my closet. I've asked them but they may be asleep

Ehh, if you go to buy a new car, will you buy a brand you've never heard of before? Or will you perhaps check out the brand you've seen ads for a hundred times in your life? It's not a conscious decision, your mind is familiar with some of the brands more than others, for whatever reason, and that tricks you into trust. Sure, you still might look into reviews and stuff, but your mind has already been primed to some e…

If I go to buy a new car, I'll look at the brands I have experience with, like what my friends and family drive. If I can actually see what its like and have people I trust endorse it, I'm more likely to support it

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#286
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It greatly depends on the audience, but for many cases, unfortunately, it's more likely the case that you are dreaming. Typical income flows for streamers include: 1. Passive advertising from video and stream platforms (which many adblockers do block) 2. Active advertising via sponsorships (which SponsorBlock wants to block) 3. Live stream donations 4. Video/stream-independent donations, most usually via Patreon 5. P…

If blocking ads means for-profit video creators go out of business then so be it. There will always be those who do it because it is something they enjoy and usually that kind of content is more worthwhile anyway.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#287

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…

I think you’d be surprised at how effective advertising is on you. An awful lot of it is brand familiarity. You mentioned some examples, but presumably you’ve seen more than three ads (not expecting you to list them). Square space is one provider that commonly does these kinds of placements and I can confirm that it’s an excellent product (albeit expensive). Where do you think your friend found out about onshape?

> An awful lot of it is brand familiarity.

Thus the ad industry term "impressions" ? One gets the impression (heh) that they're just trying to beat logos and catchphrases into your reptile brain.

"Familiarity breeds contempt"... but ubiquitous superficiality does not, I guess.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are you buying a product with a tracking code? If not, it's not supporting anyone Not all ads are equal. Most ad segments are performed with a direct transaction: advertiser hands YouTuber money, YouTuber puts ad in their content. There may be additional parts of the deal such as tracking codes, but that's not how it works. The YouTuber gets the ad money, even if the video is not watched. Though that does not mean…

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…

You're missing a critical part: there's additional information we can communicate. And that's what this is all about, what information is being communicated. The inefficiency is lack of perfect information.

If you indiscriminately watch or block that is a signal. Watch communicates potentially more because there's a secondary effect of some of those people buy the product. But by indiscriminately watching or not watching, we provide information about an interpolation along what was binary before. It is more complex to read, but now we can communicate that we don't dislike this add more than our willingness to support the channel. And on top of that, again our conversion rate. In a way, the discriminating information tells us something about the likely conversion rate. This is just more information, though that doesn't mean we are good at measuring it.

  > The market is for "high quality" (i.e. profitable) viewers, not high quality videos.
Yes, but profits aren't the only thing people care about. At least not all people. Money is still a proxy for something more abstract.

To make it clearer, there are in fact ads that I do enjoy. This is true for all of us because an ad is so vaguely defined. During a political campaign I appreciate some ads because I want to know the candidates positions, when they are debating, and so on. Too much of it pisses me off, but that's different.

I also like ads that make me aware of certain things that provide utility to my life, but maybe not yours and this can be based on timing.

So stop rejecting this and recognize that these are all attempts at communicating these other factors. It's another variable in a system of equations.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your content creators were always going to increase monetization strategies, whether you gave them the nod or not. That's the beauty of capitalism hard at work. And he can choose which content creators he watches based on how obtrusive their monetization strategies are, that is also very much part of capitalism.

I'd argue choosing to watch for free content that cost money to produce is the opposite of capitalism.

I wasn't arguing in favor of SponsorBlock, I was stating that you have to option to not watch the content at all if the sponsorship is so annoying you'd consider installing something like SponsorBlock.

Re: SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

#290

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.…

I only worked in ad tech briefly and many years ago, but what I saw there was a game being played between the people who make/distribute ads and the companies that buy them. The game is to convince the people buying ads that ads have value, even when they don't.
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