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I'm sorry, but paying money to YouTube/Google to get around their adds and garbage recommendations seems too much like rewarding them for bad behavior.

0xffff2 7y ago
As opposed to what? YouTube is supposed to just host videos for you for free?
- naravara 7y ago
  >As opposed to what? YouTube is supposed to just host videos for you for free? I think there is a median point between this dichotomy where YouTube comes up with ways to collect revenue that don't depend on maintaining an adversarial relationship with their users. If the ads make you feel like they're specifically there to make you hate them enough to pay, that's basically playing highwayman. You can't blame people for thinking that's distasteful. They could have less intrusive systems for advertising or just make it subscription only, patron/donation based like Wikipedia, or some hybrid of multiple models.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    >If the ads make you feel like they're specifically there to make you hate them enough to pay That's inherently subjective though. About the only way for a paid product to not make me feel that way would be to keep showing me ads after I pay up, which is not what we're after. On the other hand, people have claimed on HackerNews before that they just plain don't mind ads. Where do you draw the line that says that they're specifically there to make you pay up? It's intellectually dishonest to both complain about ads and complain when a company offers a reasonable alternative to those ads. > They could have less intrusive systems for advertising or just make it subscription only, patron/donation based like Wikipedia, or some hybrid of multiple models. They have that. Subscription only makes discoverability (YouTube's primary strength) far more difficult. AFAIK YouTube does offer paid channel subscriptions, but for whatever reason Patreon seems to have captured that market far better.
oska 7y ago
I agree with you. I'm totally fine with services charging subscriptions but not if the subscription is a way to turn advertising off. Push advertising is basically evil in my opinion and you don't get absolved from the evil you are doing by allowing people an out by paying to turn the ads off.

0xffff2 7y ago

As opposed to what? YouTube is supposed to just host videos for you for free?

naravara 7y ago
>As opposed to what? YouTube is supposed to just host videos for you for free? I think there is a median point between this dichotomy where YouTube comes up with ways to collect revenue that don't depend on maintaining an adversarial relationship with their users. If the ads make you feel like they're specifically there to make you hate them enough to pay, that's basically playing highwayman. You can't blame people for thinking that's distasteful. They could have less intrusive systems for advertising or just make it subscription only, patron/donation based like Wikipedia, or some hybrid of multiple models.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  >If the ads make you feel like they're specifically there to make you hate them enough to pay That's inherently subjective though. About the only way for a paid product to not make me feel that way would be to keep showing me ads after I pay up, which is not what we're after. On the other hand, people have claimed on HackerNews before that they just plain don't mind ads. Where do you draw the line that says that they're specifically there to make you pay up? It's intellectually dishonest to both complain about ads and complain when a company offers a reasonable alternative to those ads. > They could have less intrusive systems for advertising or just make it subscription only, patron/donation based like Wikipedia, or some hybrid of multiple models. They have that. Subscription only makes discoverability (YouTube's primary strength) far more difficult. AFAIK YouTube does offer paid channel subscriptions, but for whatever reason Patreon seems to have captured that market far better.

oska 7y ago

I agree with you. I'm totally fine with services charging subscriptions but not if the subscription is a way to turn advertising off. Push advertising is basically evil in my opinion and you don't get absolved from the evil you are doing by allowing people an out by paying to turn the ads off.