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Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

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Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#121

Post by BitwiseFool »

rocqua wrote: post #83
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'll leave this here: https://sponsor.ajay.app/ This also skips the sponsored parts of the actual videos ("this video is sponsored by skillshadow raid vpn,...")

I think this kind of add-skipping is worse. It is 'stealing' from the content creators rather than youtube. Besides, these ads are not based on surveillance capitalism but much less invasive old-school methods. Finally, there is much easier recourse against these ads. Don't watch content creators that have annoying adds. There are not many alternatives to youtube, but there are many alternatives to any given channel.…

>"It is 'stealing' from the content creators rather than youtube."

I'm not so sure, from what I understand these creators are typically paid upfront to embed the sponsorship in the video and they are given some promocode or url to present to watchers and that's how these sponsors track engagement. I don't think they check the watch time or the skip rate.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#122

Post by BaseballPhysics »

elzbardico wrote: post #84
paulpauper wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

google and YouTube generate insane profits. they could show fewer ads and it would not impair the functionality of YouTube

Who gets to decide what is an "insane" profit? You?

Given that Alphabet still refuses to release profit numbers for Youtube, right now, no one but Alphabet.

And given the context of this conversation is about ads, dark patterns, and more broadly, privacy, I think it's perfectly reasonable that we have that conversation.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#123

Post by tpoacher »

alias_neo wrote: post #56
blindseer wrote: post #16

The ads are genuinely one of my most frustrating experiences when using the Chromecast with Google TV. And seeing this kind of pattern makes it more likely that I’ll never sign up for premium YouTube (whatever it is called) and just use YouTube less. Also, I swear they do this - If you click on the try YouTube premium for 14 days, once the 14 days end you are bombarded with extra ads. And ads that are usually not ski…

There are a couple of videos of some really chill music sessions posted by the artists that I used to put on every morning when my daughter was born. I've seen the same few vids hundreds of times and I know, like I know the sky is blue and water is wet that they had no ads. Couple years later, my son is born and that morning peace time comes for me to put on a vid or two, next thing I know, a couple of ads bang in th…

the worst thing about ads in the middle of relaxing music is that they are typically loud and obnoxious, instantly destroying within milliseconds any mood/relaxation benefits accrued over the preceding few hours.

it's as if a frat party suddenly bombs your meditation group, trashes the place in 5 seconds, then leaves

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#124

Post by [deleted] »

duxup wrote: post #97
ramblerman wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird hill to die on... You still seem to be missing the point OP was making though. The dark pattern isn't that you can't skip the ad.

>The dark pattern isn't that you can't skip the ad. Help me out then, what is it?

[deleted]

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#125

Post by sjroot »

tristan957 wrote: post #116
mark_l_watson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, I am curious: you see ads on GMail? I haven’t seen ads in many years. What email client do you use? web app, phone app?

I can't recall seeing ads on the Android app, but there are definitely ads in the web client. The ads must do a very good job of disguising themselves if you haven't noticed them. I have moved most of my email to ProtonMail. So much nicer paying for that from a company that respects me rather than using a free product from a company who has no other purpose than to drive ad revenue.

I’ve never seen ads. I believe the difference (and potential explanation as to why GP hasn’t seen any either) is that my account is through google workspace.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#126

Post by pluc »

jrootabega wrote: post #96
pluc wrote: post #68

And how we make sure to always skip ads is 1) use an adblocker 2) use a pihole 3) use sponsorblock anything short of the first two is literally using a different internet. Marketers and Advertisers would ruin the net if we let them.

I wonder how much this is still contributing to the overall problem. The content is getting views, so advertisers will still pay for ads, the algorithm will promote it more, more people will see the ads.

I think it creates a hierarchy of Internauts, ones that have the technical know-how and/or tools awareness needed to negate all the pollution and ones that don't and must suffer extra to compensate for the former. It's what I meant when I said there was a different Internet out there depending on how adept you are at "customizing" your Internet.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#127

Post by runarberg »

tpoacher wrote: post #123
alias_neo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a couple of videos of some really chill music sessions posted by the artists that I used to put on every morning when my daughter was born. I've seen the same few vids hundreds of times and I know, like I know the sky is blue and water is wet that they had no ads. Couple years later, my son is born and that morning peace time comes for me to put on a vid or two, next thing I know, a couple of ads bang in th…

the worst thing about ads in the middle of relaxing music is that they are typically loud and obnoxious, instantly destroying within milliseconds any mood/relaxation benefits accrued over the preceding few hours. it's as if a frat party suddenly bombs your meditation group, trashes the place in 5 seconds, then leaves

If you are in the USA, I think it is illegal to play ads at a louder volume then the surrounding content. You can file an FCC complaint if you see that.

Re: Dark pattern: how YouTube makes sure you don’t always “skip ad”

#128

Post by mobiuscog »

I would likely pay for youtube premium if the TV app wasn't so absymal.

However, having something that does not allow sorting by 'new' (and constantly recommending videos that are many years old), regularly re-introducing channels that have been marked as 'do not show' along with injecting the popular junk into 'for you' despite me having constantly marked similar as 'not interested'.

There is no way I will pay premium for such a terrible experience, even if it does remove ads. The TV experience - where I consume most content - is fast becoming the biggest reason to never use youtube.

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