21 ms·
Show HN: SponsorBlock – Skip sponsorship segments of YouTube videos
- joshjhargreaves 7y agoHmm, I don't know how I feel about this. I tend to find that with most content creators I watch, the sponsors they pick for their videos tend to be more relevant to their audience than standard pre/midroll ads might be. I'm okay with supporting their channel typically with a sponsorship.
- omarchowdhury 7y agoAgreed. Lots of times the sponsor content is creatively woven into video, providing either humor or entertainment, or both. I won't be using this.
- ajayyy 7y agoIt seems the most popular channel for this extension is Linus Tech Tips, which does not do this. I made this for the channels that don't do that, and have whitelisted channels with good and ethical sponsorships. - Developer
- mopsi 7y ago"Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend" podcast does this really well. He has totally unrelated ads like State Farm insurance and a glass printing company, but he turns them into comedy bits with self-deprecating jokes and riffing. I'm usually very sensitive to ads, but I've never felt the urge to skip any of his.
- Nullabillity 7y ago"No, those are the good guys. They're good at emotional manipulation!"
- wccrawford 7y agoI've seen a lot of the ones I watch having sponsors that are only vaguely related, such as a certain mattress manufacturer or a certain shopping cart creation site. I don't mind the ones that relate, but the unrelated ones are very jarring. Regardless, I almost never watch a second ad for the same product. I skip through them. I haven't yet gotten to the point that I'd just skip them automatically, though. That's seems extreme.
- fortytw2 7y agoThe "play this awesome gacha game that I _totally_ play all the time" segments on absolutely unrelated videos is awful. I get that they pay the creators so much money for the spots it's silly for the creators to say no, but I will always skip those segments.
- ajayyy 7y agoI added a channel whitelisting feature just for this. Hopefully, we can encourage ethical behavior and good sponsors by rewarding those who do it right with a whitelist, like how adblock in theory can help. - Developer
- dylz 7y agoSome are quite well done and feels less like an ad, some awful ones just play a shitty VPN clip in the worst possible way.
- ajayyy 7y agoThe reason why I made this extension was because I was sick of the deceptiveness some channels used. Some channels don't even mention they are sponsored, but just talk as if they are recommending the product. Yes, you could say it's obvious they are sponsored, but that is only true to a regular YouTube viewer. To many outsiders, they get tricked into thinking these are actual recommendations and not ads. I think saying that something is sponsored, then talking about it is perfectly acceptable. Trying to dodge that you are sponsored or being supported by them is very sketchy. And I especially don't like the new common practice of making hard to distinguish segues into sponsorships. Here is what made me make this extension: https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/ca7vub/first_deceptive_sponsor_spot_no_mention_that_they/ https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/ca7vub/first_de... - Developer
- Beldin 7y agoSo don't install the plugin and you're good to go. Or were you considering some scenario where someone gets to decide when other people can press play, pause or fast-forward? That is a feature I'm not interested in. Give me a media player that does what I want (as its user), not overrule that for anyone else.
- sosuke 7y agoOh by "report them" it just means to SponsorBlock and not that YouTube somehow doesn't approve of sponsorships.
- ajayyy 7y agoHowever it is true that YouTube doesn't really like sponsorships, since they don't get a % cut from it. They now just say that your sponsorship cannot be too similar to an ad format that YouTube offers (banner ads or straight up video ads from the company in the middle).
- ajayyy 7y agoYea, just to the database of SponsorBlock :) - Developer
- htek 7y agoMy problem with ads isn't the time (as long as we're not talking minutes), it's the abrupt interruption in the middle of a video or exposing my system to ad network malware/redirects/viruses. If an ad is part of the content itself and doesn't disrupt the video, great. Many content providers generally promote the stuff their audience might have an interest in anyway.
- RickS 7y ago> There are currently 635 users who have submitted 5251 sponsors and saved a total of 7.37 days of people's lives. > 7.37 days of people's lives This is a really cool thing to track.
- ajayyy 7y agoYea, I really like that statistic. I also put it on the stats page for individuals, so you can see how much time you have saved people with your submissions. I plan to add that statistic to the extension too so that you can see it even if you are not in the top 50. https://sponsor.ajay.app/stats https://sponsor.ajay.app/stats - Developer
- bot1 7y agois there a way to actually skip the sponsorship without doing it manually or am i missing something?
- ajayyy 7y agoWell, the extension has a database of all the timestamps of the sponsors. See here: https://sponsor.ajay.app/database.db https://sponsor.ajay.app/database.db That database is created by submissions from the community. Every time you browse a video, it will check the DB for sponsors and skip the timestamps if needed. - Developer
- bot1 7y agoyeah i missed that, it works perfectly fine!
- vgoh1 7y agoUsers who block ads often justify their "free lunch" because of the nefarious things that advertisers do - namely tracking and being a resource hog in their device. Sponsored segments on YouTube do neither of these. Also, YouTube creators who rely on sponsorships are often de-funded due to some pretty sketchy YouTube decisions, or just plain underpaid.
- ajayyy 7y agoMy reason is the ethics of deceptiveness. I prefer clearly labeled ads over sponsorships any day. I hope the whitelisting feature allows people to whitelist those who have ethical sponsors, to encourage them. Also, other than the vessel sponsorship, I've never clicked on a sponsored video's referral link. So, they won't be losing out on any money from me. Here is my message from a previous comment: The reason why I made this extension was because I was sick of the deceptiveness some channels used. Some channels don't even mention they are sponsored, but just talk as if they are recommending the product. Yes, you could say it's obvious they are sponsored, but that is only true to a regular YouTube viewer. To many outsiders, they get tricked into thinking these are actual recommendations and not ads. I think saying that something is sponsored, then talking about it is perfectly acceptable. Trying to dodge that you are sponsored or being supported by them is very sketchy. And I especially don't like the new common practice of making hard to distinguish segues into sponsorships. Here is what made me make this extension: https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/ca7vub/first_deceptive_sponsor_spot_no_mention_that_they/ https://www.reddit.com/r/kurzgesagt/comments/ca7vub/first_de... - Developer
- slang800 7y agoAt their core, ads are a form of psychological manipulation. Subjecting yourself to this manipulation just because you feel guilty about getting a "free lunch" is absurd. Tracking and resource usage are also bad, but they're not the root of the problem. Pick a less harmful way of funding content creators, like direct donation.
- Miner49er 7y ago"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs." - Banksy
- natpalmer1776 7y agoI don't agree with this at all. Sponsored segments are typically produced by, or use the same production values as, the creator who is providing the content you intended to consume. The sponsored segments are an accurate reflection of the content you're consuming and typically do not detract from the overall experience. Like the normal web ads we see, they are intended to pay the bills of the individual(s) or company that is providing this content to us for free, so they may continue doing so. By blocking the sponsorships, you're denying them the right to make profit from their work in a manner that doesn't execute unexpected code, intrusively collect your information, or otherwise violate mutual trust.
- ajayyy 7y agoI don't fully agree with you. There are some channels that do sponsorships well: Jay Foreman, Tom Scott, etc. There are some that do it terribly: Kursgesagt recently, Wendover productions (I hate deceptive segues), etc. You can see more about my thoughts on this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20780728 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20780728 I guess it's a personal choice, but I prefer tracked ads that are properly labeled and not deceptive to integrated sponsorships and product placement any day. The real fear is that an extension like this will encourage even more deceptive and hard to skip sponsors (embeded product placement). - Developer
- swampthinker 7y agoWendover has the most obvious, telegraphed segues. On top of that, the sponsorship is left at the end of the video. Linus on the other hand I completely agree with.
- ajayyy 7y agoI haven't watched wendover in over a year since I was sick of his sponsorships, but I remember never knowing when the end of a video was, because the sponsors were part of the same sentence.
- codeisawesome 7y ago
- teddyh 7y agoI wish this could be added to youtube-dl to (optionally) cut the offending content out of the downloaded video file.
- ajayyy 7y agoThe API is open and database is downloadable, so feel free to try making something. https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlockServer#api-docs https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlockServer#api-docs - Developer
- jasode 7y agoRather than use a browser plugin, I'd prefer that Youtubers use the built-in metadata tool to mark their video as "paid promotion": https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235 https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/154235 A lot of Youtubers aren't marking their videos with that flag. (Many may be unaware of it.) A screenshot showing what a "Includes paid promotion" title card looks like: https://wersm.com/youtube-creators-includes-paid-promotion-disclaimer-videos/ https://wersm.com/youtube-creators-includes-paid-promotion-d... An example video with the "Includes paid promotion" displayed at the beginning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ijHIRaGXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ijHIRaGXc As an aside, I don't mind creators sponsored with relevant ads. They often show products that interest me. (This doesn't include generic ads like Blue Apron and Nord VPN that seem to be attached to any topic.)
- ajayyy 7y agoOne reason this isn't visible could be due to the fact that there are two checkboxes. One just says that it includes it, and the other says to display it. The YouTube console tells you that you don't have to display it if you mention it in the video.
- dingo_bat 7y agoHow does that let me skip the ads?
- slang800 7y agoIs there a place I can view all the sponsor segments I've submitted? It would be nice to see them individually, maybe with stats about how often each one was used and whether or not it is in good standing w/rt voting.
- ajayyy 7y agoRight now, there is no easy way, but you can do it manually following these steps: Get an sqlite DB GUI like this awesome one: https://sqlitebrowser.org/ https://sqlitebrowser.org/ Open up the DB from https://sponsor.ajay.app/database.db https://sponsor.ajay.app/database.db Click browse data and switch to the userNames table. Find the userID for your username in that list and copy it. Go back to the sponsorTimes table and paste your userID into the filter text box under the userID category. Currently, the only easy to access stats are at https://sponsor.ajay.app/stats/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/stats/
- slang800 7y agoThanks, I'll give that a shot.
- shortformblog 7y agoPlease don’t do this. It disrespects small creators. This isn’t like hurting big companies that can afford the hit. This is the digital equivalent of stealing money out of the till of the corner shop.
- ajayyy 7y agoI wouldn't say that. Only big creators get sponsors. I guess it depends on what you mean by small creator. And this isn't taking money, it would just be not putting any in.
- shortformblog 7y agoI’ve seen channels with as few as 10,000 subscribers have sponsors. This is literally screwing with some person’s job.
- TacticalTable 7y ago'Big creators' seems to be fairly ambiguous. I've seen plenty of sponsorship segments on <10,000 subscriber accounts, which (I'm guessing) is probably the threshold where the creator is starting to make noticeable money from Youtube, but not quite enough to go full time. It's the big creators who seem to not have the sponsorship segments in my experience, because they have enough income from other parts of their brand.
- ajayyy 7y agoPeople use adblock now, I don't see how this is much worse. In my opinion, this is more ethical than adblock since it allows easy whitelisting and has an easy to click unskip button.
- shortformblog 7y agoWeb ads generally come with tracking software baked in. Paid sponsorships do not.
- 7y ago
- post_break 7y agoI feel like Google did this to themselves. They had the adpocalypse, so creators had to resort to patreon and sponsorships, devaluing the paid version of YouTube. Why pay to avoid ads when the ads are now in the videos? Then Google puts 2 ads in front of some videos. Now people are writing tools to block out the in video sponsorships. If there hadn't been an adpocalypse we wouldn't have patreon begging, in video VPN commercials, etc.
- ajayyy 7y agoGoogle doesn't like sponsorships, they don't get a % cut.
- krispbyte 7y agoWould this block the whole video about the Glass Age[0] by the MythBusters since the whole thing was sponsored? :) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OSBJwogFc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OSBJwogFc
- ajayyy 7y agohaha, that is something I'd be scared this extension promotes, since that is something unblockable - Developer
- ShakataGaNai 7y agoPlease no. If this takes off it'll devalue sponsor segments in youtube videos. That's the main source of revenue for a lot of creators. Sure some larger groups (like Linus Tech Tips) can probably take the hit, but a lot cannot. I hate adverts, I run an adblocker, I hate youtube ads. But mostly I hate them because they are intrusive and non-applicable. Most of the sponsor segments in youtube are non-invasive. They tend to cater to the audience too. Many youtubers also make it easy to tell when the ad is, how long is left, and make it skipable manually.
- ajayyy 7y agoI find it the other way. As well, I am fine with youtubers who make it clear and whitelist those. - Developer
- lkiernan 7y agoSeems to be an unpopular opinion but I'm on board with this. I pay for YouTube premium so that I don't have to watch ads (on TV/phone) and I feel railroaded whenever somebody stops their video to talk about a product that are paying them to do so. I manually skip these always if I'm paying attention. I hope this shows in their analytics. I include "buy my tshirt" and "look I have another channel where I interview my 5 year old" in this.
- ajayyy 7y agoI think it's just a vocal minority, and on reddit there were way less people disagreeing with the extension :/ - Dev
- conroy 7y agoWould anyone use a similar service for skipping ads in podcasts? I've thought about creating an open database that contains the timestamps of ads in popular shows.
- ajayyy 7y agoGood idea, feel free to join the Discord linked on the website so you chat with people about your idea.
- dingo_bat 7y agoPerfect addition to ublock origin.
- superasn 7y agoThis is a very cool extension. Most sponsored content is more deceptive and time wasting than Yotube ads. Thank you for making this and hopefully I can say goodbye to all those pesky nordvpn ads! Just a thought but anyway to see which channels / videos / ads were reported the most? No reason, just curious.
- ajayyy 7y agoSomeone made a program to view that, but sadly I wasn't given permission to host it publicly. Here is a link to it if you want to try it: https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/ckt0f4/i_made_a_browser_extension_that_allows_you_to/ewm0i21/ https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/ckt0f4/i_made_a... It's mostly Linus Tech Tips. You can also download a DB viewer like DB viewer for Sqlite and open up the database: https://sponsor.ajay.app/database.db https://sponsor.ajay.app/database.db and then just sort by views or votes. You just see videoIDs though, no thumbnails :)
- s09dfhks 7y agofor the dev, can you add a feature to skip to the end of the sponsored segment
- ajayyy 7y agoWhat do you mean? It should do that automatically.
- Endy 7y agoI have an 'L' key. It works well enough for my needs.
- ajayyy 7y agoThat works too, but encourages them to make sure you don't realize you are watching a sponsored segment until it is too late.