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

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

blog.prototypr.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 302 posts

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

#211

Post by scarface74 »

edgyquant wrote: post #196
devnulll wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a huge fan of YouTube Premium. Youtube has become the de-facto video platform in our household, having totally displaced traditional shows. To pay $10 per month to have unlimited content w/o ads is perfect. I don't understand the pushback.

The pushback is because all of the shows I want to watch are still half ads. The content creators insert them, surely they have a rational reason, but I’m not interested in the economics if I pay for ad free I want ad free. I would pay quite a bit more than 10$ for this, but the option just isn’t there.

Then pay for streaming services they have professional content?

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

#212

Post by scarface74 »

sophacles wrote: post #172
boardwaalk wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all the kvetching about ads I see regarding YouTube, most people really could just pay Google and make it go away. I mean, I don’t like paying for things either, but it’s not worth the headache of ad blockers (which aren’t available on every device) and philosophically, I would rather the internet get away from ads everywhere and I’ll help that happen if I can. It helps that $10 is worth the many hours of use I g…

Cable tv was originally ad-free because you paid for the content instead. Now you pay and get more ads than network tv instead! Premium channels were ad-free longer, because you the content producers didn't have to share the fees based on (estimates) of how much the channel was watched. Lots of ad-free services really mean "no ads except bumpers since you must like ads just not in the middle of the show". Why would a…

Cable TV has never been as free. It was first a method to deliver broadcast channels to areas without a good signal and then you had the “Superstations” like TBS and WGN that also had ads.

The only channels that were ever ad free were the premium channels that are still ad free.

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

#213

Post by frostmatthew »

sophacles wrote: post #172
boardwaalk wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all the kvetching about ads I see regarding YouTube, most people really could just pay Google and make it go away. I mean, I don’t like paying for things either, but it’s not worth the headache of ad blockers (which aren’t available on every device) and philosophically, I would rather the internet get away from ads everywhere and I’ll help that happen if I can. It helps that $10 is worth the many hours of use I g…

Cable tv was originally ad-free because you paid for the content instead. Now you pay and get more ads than network tv instead! Premium channels were ad-free longer, because you the content producers didn't have to share the fees based on (estimates) of how much the channel was watched. Lots of ad-free services really mean "no ads except bumpers since you must like ads just not in the middle of the show". Why would a…

> Why would anyone be stupid enough to trust google to keep the "ad free" experience ad free?

One can cancel their YouTube Premium subscription at any time for any reason, including and especially if it is no longer delivering an ad-free experience. In the meantime I'm quite happy paying $10 a month (annual plan) to never see ads.

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

#214

Post by edgyquant »

aantix wrote: post #149
boardwaalk wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all the kvetching about ads I see regarding YouTube, most people really could just pay Google and make it go away. I mean, I don’t like paying for things either, but it’s not worth the headache of ad blockers (which aren’t available on every device) and philosophically, I would rather the internet get away from ads everywhere and I’ll help that happen if I can. It helps that $10 is worth the many hours of use I g…

Youtube Premium is a quality of life upgrade. It's amazing what a difference it makes when you don't have to go through the tension of battling ads for every three minute video you'd like to watch. You're free to consume videos at the speed for which you're thinking of ideas/questions.

I just run an adblocker

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

#215

Post by edgyquant »

frostmatthew wrote: post #213
sophacles wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cable tv was originally ad-free because you paid for the content instead. Now you pay and get more ads than network tv instead! Premium channels were ad-free longer, because you the content producers didn't have to share the fees based on (estimates) of how much the channel was watched. Lots of ad-free services really mean "no ads except bumpers since you must like ads just not in the middle of the show". Why would a…

> Why would anyone be stupid enough to trust google to keep the "ad free" experience ad free? One can cancel their YouTube Premium subscription at any time for any reason, including and especially if it is no longer delivering an ad-free experience. In the meantime I'm quite happy paying $10 a month (annual plan) to never see ads.

But videos are crawling with ads from the content creator themselves? So you aren’t getting an ad free experience for that 10$.

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

#216

Post by edgyquant »

scarface74 wrote: post #209
edgyquant wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube is the largest social media site (or at least was a couple of years ago.) Google gets a lot more value than just cash out of it, otherwise they’d have shut it down.

What value does Google get out of YouTube besides the minuscule profit?

Having complete control over the vast majority of internet video content

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

#217

Post by zimpenfish »

scarface74 wrote: post #199
gaius_baltar wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YT Premium only makes the problem worse by still allowing native ads and requiring you to log in using an account that is tied to your real world identity (for payment processing). You just end up giving more data points to Google to track and don't get rid of all ads.

So you don’t want to see ads and you don’t want to pay not to see ads? What business model should Google use for YouTube? But you can always use a prepaid debit card.

> So you don’t want to see ads and you don’t want to pay not to see ads?

But even if you do pay, you still see (often longer!) ads because people put sponsor segments in their videos. As far as I can tell, there's no way to skip those, paying or otherwise, except resorting to something like sponsorblock, right?

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

#218

Post by astura »

zimpenfish wrote: post #217
scarface74 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you don’t want to see ads and you don’t want to pay not to see ads? What business model should Google use for YouTube? But you can always use a prepaid debit card.

> So you don’t want to see ads and you don’t want to pay not to see ads? But even if you do pay, you still see (often longer!) ads because people put sponsor segments in their videos. As far as I can tell, there's no way to skip those, paying or otherwise, except resorting to something like sponsorblock, right?

shrug I just fast-forward them.

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

#219

Post by scarface74 »

edgyquant wrote: post #216
scarface74 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What value does Google get out of YouTube besides the minuscule profit?

Having complete control over the vast majority of internet video content

There is nothing stopping content producers from hosting their own content on something like S3+CloudFront or the cheaper (than AWS) alternatives.

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

#220

Post by scarface74 »

zimpenfish wrote: post #217
scarface74 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you don’t want to see ads and you don’t want to pay not to see ads? What business model should Google use for YouTube? But you can always use a prepaid debit card.

> So you don’t want to see ads and you don’t want to pay not to see ads? But even if you do pay, you still see (often longer!) ads because people put sponsor segments in their videos. As far as I can tell, there's no way to skip those, paying or otherwise, except resorting to something like sponsorblock, right?

Yes, there is - don’t spend time watching their content.

I hate ads with a passion [1]. I pay for the ad free tier of every streaming service I subscribe to. I find YouTube a wasteland of shitty content.

[1] For some reason tech podcasts ads don’t bother me and many of the ones I listen to have chapter markers for their ads.

Post reply on HN