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Frustrated YouTube viewers seek explanation for hour-long unskippable ads (Update: Statement) (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 71 points 2 years ago (24 children)

I either watch YouTube without ads or don't watch at all. We need a new platform for videos.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Tell you the truth, once upon a time I really didn't mind the ads. In fact I was quite happy to support the creators that I like with watching the ads that appeared on their videos. But then YouTube started getting smarmy by blocking my suggestions because I didn't use history on my account. And then there's the problem of the ads getting longer. At which point I got fed up and downloaded the adblock software to stop seeing this garbage. And then this little war broke out over ads on the platform.

    Quite frankly, so long as the people who make the software to block ads continue to do that kind of work I will continue to download their software and make Google spend boatloads of their own money to try to block the blockers. Because the blockers aren't going anywhere. Not to mention that the blockers were not quite as popular before Google started this little campaign. And now they have made people so hyper aware of the fact that they can actually go out and find some way to skip these stupid ads that they've basically dug their own grave. Broadcast TV spent decades on this failed quest.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago*

    I was the exact same way. I could justify watching ads to support the people I watched, but then I learned how little compensation a creator actually gets from one view and decided my time was more valuable. Plus I just got too used to never seeing ads and could never go back.

    This video sums up the sentiment you're describing nicely.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    Exactly right. Two 15 second ads in between shows two midstream 15 to 30 second ads, I was perfectly fine with watching those ads.

    When they started letting content creators pick the number of ads, and they started letting more than 30 seconds of ads per break, now I have incentive to block them.

    Capitalism dictates that they need to make 20% more every year. They cannot continue to get 20% more ad revenue every year without increasing ads substantially.

    When a handful of companies owns everything and they can no longer buy new companies up to make more money, They can't make their numbers. All they can do is gut us for the last 20% and then go out of business.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago* (13 children)

    Peertube looks good... but has nearly no content or content creators, which is the reason Google nearly has monopoly with Youtube

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    Not a fediverse thing, but I pay $5 a month for nebula. I think it’s worth it to support creators. And I believe the whole “if you’re not paying for something you’re the product”. Though you can still be the product even if you do pay.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    Is there any competitor like Nebula that's not solely focused on informational/longform videos? I come from the age when hobbyists made silly memetic animations and shared them around, not even necessarily for profit. I'm sure many of those people consider YouTube to be some level of evil and would enjoy an alternative that's actually organic.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

    Is nebula good?

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I'm also a Nebula subscriber for the same reason stated above. A lot of my favorite creators are on Nebula and either post their videos a week or two early on Nebula, or post extended versions of their videos on Nebula.

    There's no ads or sponsorship segments, so it makes for a pleasant experience. Admittedly, the Nebula "originals" which are exclusive to Nebula, is a fairly small catalogue. But what is there is high quality.

    The Nebula subscription is worth it for me to support creators and have a better viewing experience... And to see each Jetlag episode a week early.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    They have a $30/ year annual subscription (I'm not certain if that's a purely introductory rate or not). Most of the content is non-exclusive but it's ad-free and many creators remove the sponsor segments or even include exclusive content on their Nebula version. It seems pretty worthwhile to me

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

    I ended up getting a lifetime subscription, and it's definitely worth it, but it's not a replacement for YT entirely.

    Dropout.tv has good comedy videos which is largely lacking from Nebula, but I find it buffers more often for me, which makes it uniquely bad among all the streaming services I've used.

    But, I watch plenty of fan compilations / animatics for stuff on YT from my recommendations, and I haven't found them anywhere else either because they don't exist or because they don't get recommended to me. It seems difficult for that kind of stuff to exist without free, easy uploads AND free, easy viewing.

    Finally there are some people that primarily do Twitch that I subscribe to on YT. I've tried watching them on Twitch, and I prefer the content after their YT editor has worked their magic.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Dropout.tv was created by college human right? Idk if their old videos would hold up today, but I remember liking their content. Nice to know they’re still around.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, they even finally rebranded the YT channel last year so it is now Dropout instead of CollegeHumor. They are doing some interesting stuff currently (Gamechanger is almost always good), and all their old sketches and programs are there too.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    The problem is hosting (storage, network) is expensive.

    IIRC some platforms (feddit.org, catbox.moe) pays $1000 per month, and that's mostly just static images.

    Videos is much more than that. Who pays for that?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    I have a hunch Linus at LTT could float his own storage for whatever stuff he wants to host. The same way you and me have to pay for our own online storage.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Hosting is only half the equation you have to be able to serve it people all around the world at once with no buffering. People have no clue how amazing YouTube is for a free service. Bandwidth costs a fuckload of money too to add to the hosting cost.

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