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With all its overly discussed faults, YT is such an invaluable resource. There is so much free high-quality content: educational, sport, music, spiritual. YT s

by avip 7y ago

With all its overly discussed faults, YT is such an invaluable resource. There is so much free high-quality content: educational, sport, music, spiritual. YT should get some respect and recognition. I'm an avid yt music user. There is practically infinite musical content there never released on any other medium. It's an irreplaceable cultural treasure.

chrisseaton 7y ago
Yeah I pay for YouTube Premium and spend a lot of time watching the extremely high quality arts, current affairs, and documentaries you can find on there. Follow the Royal Opera House for example! Super high quality production values and frequent posting. Better than what you'd regularly find on even high-quality broadcast TV like BBC 4, or a subscription service like Netflix.
aabhay 7y ago
I totally agree with you, but I also notice the slow but steady increase in ad content before, between, below all YouTube videos, that also seem to call back to my preferences, feelings, tastes, past interactions, etc. The question I always ask is: how long until YouTube removes the ability to skip ads altogether? How long until a painfully nontrivial portion of our browsing time is spent directly consuming propaganda?
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > How long until a painfully nontrivial portion of our browsing time is spent directly consuming propaganda? They'll be running commercials on television in a few years at this rate.
- roel_v 7y ago
  The $10 a month I pay for Youtube Premium improves my life a lot more than some other things I pay that or more for.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  If you don't want to pay for it and you don't want to be 'consuming propaganda' who do you think should be paying to run YouTube for you?
  - aabhay 7y ago
    Just like on Facebook, the ads are doing much more than ‘paying to run’ the platform. And moreover, why would YouTube do anything but continue to increase the amount of ad content? It directly translates to more cash and profit. Same goes for paying content creators less.
    - chrisseaton 7y ago
      > And moreover, why would YouTube do anything but continue to increase the amount of ad content? It directly translates to more cash and profit. No the relationship isn't direct. As you add more advertising content to videos people will watch less and the advertising revenue would go down - this makes it not directly correlated. > Same goes for paying content creators less. In the same way, it's not a direct relationship. As you pay creators less they're less incentivised to create content for you to attach your advertising to. To prove by absurdity, if you added an hour of un-skippable advertising to a two minute video, few people would watch the video.
      - tjoff 7y ago
        This got a bit more complicated when they youtube launched their premium ad-free subscription. Now the annoyance of ads also serves the direct purpose of advertising their own service.
  - tjoff 7y ago
    If the ads was only there to run youtube there would be much much less of them.
    - chrisseaton 7y ago
      As of 2015 it was famously not profitable! Maybe they've added more adverts since then? I don't know but I would think at most YouTube earns a normal operating profit. I don't think it's printing money.
tjoff 7y ago
Sure, there is immense value of the youtube content. Question is if any of the good sides of youtube can be attributed to youtube itself or if it is just the presence of a free and popular video distribution channel that enabled them. The youtube monopoly is getting quite unbearable, and the ads can be insanely intrusive. Which of course is a feature, so that you'll buy a youtube subscription.
ptcampbell 7y ago
It deserves credit as a product but I prefer to acknowledge the cultural impact of the internet as a medium. Regarding music I’ve found its algorithm getting worse. I used to go on benders of discovery on YouTube. I just don’t see that anymore.

by avip 7y ago

chrisseaton 7y ago

Yeah I pay for YouTube Premium and spend a lot of time watching the extremely high quality arts, current affairs, and documentaries you can find on there. Follow the Royal Opera House for example! Super high quality production values and frequent posting. Better than what you'd regularly find on even high-quality broadcast TV like BBC 4, or a subscription service like Netflix.

aabhay 7y ago

I totally agree with you, but I also notice the slow but steady increase in ad content before, between, below all YouTube videos, that also seem to call back to my preferences, feelings, tastes, past interactions, etc. The question I always ask is: how long until YouTube removes the ability to skip ads altogether? How long until a painfully nontrivial portion of our browsing time is spent directly consuming propaganda?

thaumasiotes 7y ago
> How long until a painfully nontrivial portion of our browsing time is spent directly consuming propaganda? They'll be running commercials on television in a few years at this rate.
roel_v 7y ago
The $10 a month I pay for Youtube Premium improves my life a lot more than some other things I pay that or more for.
chrisseaton 7y ago
If you don't want to pay for it and you don't want to be 'consuming propaganda' who do you think should be paying to run YouTube for you?
- aabhay 7y ago
  Just like on Facebook, the ads are doing much more than ‘paying to run’ the platform. And moreover, why would YouTube do anything but continue to increase the amount of ad content? It directly translates to more cash and profit. Same goes for paying content creators less.
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    > And moreover, why would YouTube do anything but continue to increase the amount of ad content? It directly translates to more cash and profit. No the relationship isn't direct. As you add more advertising content to videos people will watch less and the advertising revenue would go down - this makes it not directly correlated. > Same goes for paying content creators less. In the same way, it's not a direct relationship. As you pay creators less they're less incentivised to create content for you to attach your advertising to. To prove by absurdity, if you added an hour of un-skippable advertising to a two minute video, few people would watch the video.
    - tjoff 7y ago
      This got a bit more complicated when they youtube launched their premium ad-free subscription. Now the annoyance of ads also serves the direct purpose of advertising their own service.
- tjoff 7y ago
  If the ads was only there to run youtube there would be much much less of them.
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    As of 2015 it was famously not profitable! Maybe they've added more adverts since then? I don't know but I would think at most YouTube earns a normal operating profit. I don't think it's printing money.

tjoff 7y ago

Sure, there is immense value of the youtube content. Question is if any of the good sides of youtube can be attributed to youtube itself or if it is just the presence of a free and popular video distribution channel that enabled them. The youtube monopoly is getting quite unbearable, and the ads can be insanely intrusive. Which of course is a feature, so that you'll buy a youtube subscription.

ptcampbell 7y ago

It deserves credit as a product but I prefer to acknowledge the cultural impact of the internet as a medium. Regarding music I’ve found its algorithm getting worse. I used to go on benders of discovery on YouTube. I just don’t see that anymore.