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I've noticed certain communities that live on the edge of tech-savvy do this a lot. In particular emulator and jailbreak communities for video game consoles ref

I've noticed certain communities that live on the edge of tech-savvy do this a lot. In particular emulator and jailbreak communities for video game consoles refuse to keep up-to-date text guides on things. Everything is done on YouTube which is such a terrible format when you need to follow 30-step lists and pause to click on many links throughout the process to download software, firmware and exploits.

Pxtl 6y ago
I think Youtube's monetization does it... they want to earn cash from their guides. Is there any money in "Youtube for Articles?"
- fomojola 6y ago
  Medium? I'd think there's money there, just not sure for whom.
  - hanniabu 6y ago
    I'm actually surprised they don't introduce unskippable ads into articles to let content producers monetize their articles. Rather than the static ads and paywalls you can have the intro paragraph visible and then a "watch to unlock article" ad. Just like youtube with their 10min requirement, Medium can make requirements like the article needs to be more than 1000 words for 2 ads or something like that. Granted, this would lead to a lot of useless fluff just like SEO has produced and pushing the meat of the content to the very end to get people through the ads. However this happens with video yet it's still popular.
    - nine_k 6y ago
      Are youtube ads really unskippable with youtube-dl, VLC, and other similar tools? Much like DVD ads used to be unskippable, but only for the non-tech-savvy.
      - qes 6y ago
        > Are youtube ads really unskippable No. I never see ads on Youtube on my own devices, and that barely requires any effort.
        Simon_says 6y ago
        I had to jailbreak my iPhone in order to not see Youtube ads. That qualifies as some (small) effort.
        saagarjha 6y ago
        You must be using the app?
        Simon_says 6y ago
        Yea, I'm using the app.
        vackosar 6y ago
        Can't you use Firefox with uBlock addon on an iPhone?
        olex 6y ago
        Firefox on iOS does not support add-ons.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        AsyncAwait 6y ago
        iOS does not allow "real" alternative web browsers with their own rendering and JavaScript engines, so Firefox on iOS is forced to being little more than rebranded Safari.
        Dahoon 6y ago
        No, the iPhone is locked down too much for this to work. Browsers in iOS are basically just skins on Safari/WebKit.
    - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
      See, I think people will tolerate ad breaks in video much more than e.g. full page takeovers in the middle of reading. They're used to it from cable TV, and there's the option to skip it, and an indication how long it is. And it's consistent because of Youtube's dominating position in the video market, unlike websites where every one would have a different 'takeover' format.
- mrpippy 6y ago
  There’s Patreon, but it really only works for people consistently writing articles (like The Digital Antiquarian/filfre.net which appears often on HN) OTOH, YouTube now has a fairly high bar for monetization (1000 subs, 4000 public watch hours over last year)
- anoncow 6y ago
  "YouTube for Articles" used to be blogs.
  - ethbro 6y ago
    YouTube for tech articles, circa late-1990s, was ZDTV / TechTV. A format that seems to work well with non-article is {topical content} + {multiple knowledgeable hosts} + {free form talk format with some segments}. Early-MTV, the Screen Savers, and Car Talk were all essentially this format. Good background noise to have playing while working. And the host-host, informal interaction makes it playable for longer than a pure just-the-facts source. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soK1_DaFym0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soK1_DaFym0
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Yes, but not as much I suspect. Blogs with some ads were the thing, but most people in tech will have an ad blocker or ad blindness, so that's not very effective. Some people will write a book about a subject, but I suspect that's hit and miss as well.
colechristensen 6y ago
Honestly, a hard to follow YouTube video is better than digging through hundreds of pages of forum posts in attempts to find the right one. Of course clear, concise, and findable documentation is always better, but at least if someone is doing it on youtube there is demonstrable evidence that the process functioned once.
- Proziam 6y ago
  This right here is why Youtube is my first choice. I've had too many run-ins with bad documentation and some of them are just about nightmare-inducing. Youtube has an awesome advantage that I can see the whole process (which sometimes includes minor things like using specific flags or config changes), I can see that it worked, and I can create my own documentation based on the success/failure of following that guide.
- mavhc 6y ago
  Well edited video is the most time consuming content to make, unedited video is the least time consuming content to make. Keeping an article up to date is the reason wikis were invented
- Xelbair 6y ago
  in such cases you have to compare it with digging through hundreds of pages of shitty video tutorials to find the good one
- rebolek 6y ago
  You are comparing a video that you already found to a forum that you need to search first.
nine_k 6y ago
I suppose that this makes some important words they say hard to search for, and thus hard to automatically detect and file a DMCA or copyright infringement note. So it could be some security via format obscurity.
vardrop 6y ago
Especially jailbreak for consoles do have youtube tutorials, but its advised against as those are usually done by amateurs and outdated as soon as they hit.
blensor 6y ago
I think it has more to do with how close to the topic you are researching you already are. I had to fix the motor of my vacuum, for that I preferred a youtube tutorial because I want to see someone do the things I an about to do. If on the other hand I am trying to do something in Blender I usually prefer a text tutorial to get the exact bit of information I am looking for. Compare it to conventional teaching. You usually don't throw pupils a book with all the knowledge the could need once they can read and call it a day,but you try to ahow them how things are done.
- godelski 6y ago
  I don't think it is just how close you are, but what you are doing. When doing engineering projects I still like to see what someone is doing because there tends to be things that they do that aren't discussed and change how things work. You also can learn neat little tricks this way too. But code, I generally like reading because most of it is abstract and in your head anyways. So I think the best media depends on what you're doing and what type of learner you are. I'll add that sometimes I read a dozen articles and just don't get it. Then I watch an OCW and everything just clicks. The reverse also happens. Sometimes you just need a different format and/or a different voice. More options only helps.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Ironically (given how anti-video-tutorial I generally am), I've learned to appreciate Blender-related videos. Not for everything, but for the things in which the alternative would be a lot of screenshots glued together with a bit of text. Some things are really best seen being done directly. I think it has to do with how much tacit information is embedded in your activity. Blender or vacuum motor repair videos? Yes please, because the problem domain is such that I actually need to see all the things that happen in the background of the main activity, just to reassure myself I'm on the right track. Coding? God no, typing text into computer is a very constrained activity and you gain nothing by showing it on video vs. just making an article.
Klinky 6y ago
Why do you expect better docs from free projects? You could certainly try to be the change you want to see, but you'll find it is not easy to create comprehensive documentation for these projects, and then dedicate yourself to keeping them up to date.
- ShamelessC 6y ago
  That's fair actually. I should appreciate that these people are all doing this on their spare time. I had considered updating a GH repo with what I learned about the Switch Android install process but was quite exhausted after spending the full day finding and implementing the up to date YouTube guide. I'm sure that's the case for many people. There's also a much broader audience of people who want to do these jailbreaks than programmers who are used to reading documentation. I imagine videos are drastically more accessible for them.
  - Klinky 6y ago
    The worst is when you do write up docs, there are links to the docs, but then people ask questions answered in the docs, and then fail to even really attempt to read the docs after you tell them it's in the docs. Often people want a quick fix designed specifically for them, and do not want to read even a few pages of docs.
    - ShamelessC 6y ago
      Yeah there's definitely a lot of entitlement from people in open source/volunteer projects. I will just say that as programmers we're far better equipped to handle the frustration of errors and have the patience to solve problems on our own. These things do often get out of hand though as I've seen in many GitHub issues.
pgalvin 6y ago
On the contrary, most of the emulation community looks down on YouTube videos as an out-of-date source of incorrect information contrary to best practices. I think you'd be surprised at the wide availability of written information and guides for emulation.
- ShamelessC 6y ago
  To be clear, I should have specified this was _only_ the case with cemu which is much more experimental and likely to need more obscurity from Nintendo than others. Other emulators, dolphin in particular, are fantastic in this regard.

Pxtl 6y ago

I think Youtube's monetization does it... they want to earn cash from their guides. Is there any money in "Youtube for Articles?"

fomojola 6y ago
Medium? I'd think there's money there, just not sure for whom.
- hanniabu 6y ago
  I'm actually surprised they don't introduce unskippable ads into articles to let content producers monetize their articles. Rather than the static ads and paywalls you can have the intro paragraph visible and then a "watch to unlock article" ad. Just like youtube with their 10min requirement, Medium can make requirements like the article needs to be more than 1000 words for 2 ads or something like that. Granted, this would lead to a lot of useless fluff just like SEO has produced and pushing the meat of the content to the very end to get people through the ads. However this happens with video yet it's still popular.
  - nine_k 6y ago
    Are youtube ads really unskippable with youtube-dl, VLC, and other similar tools? Much like DVD ads used to be unskippable, but only for the non-tech-savvy.
    - qes 6y ago
      > Are youtube ads really unskippable No. I never see ads on Youtube on my own devices, and that barely requires any effort.
      - Simon_says 6y ago
        I had to jailbreak my iPhone in order to not see Youtube ads. That qualifies as some (small) effort.
        saagarjha 6y ago
        You must be using the app?
        Simon_says 6y ago
        Yea, I'm using the app.
        vackosar 6y ago
        Can't you use Firefox with uBlock addon on an iPhone?
        olex 6y ago
        Firefox on iOS does not support add-ons.
        deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
        AsyncAwait 6y ago
        iOS does not allow "real" alternative web browsers with their own rendering and JavaScript engines, so Firefox on iOS is forced to being little more than rebranded Safari.
        Dahoon 6y ago
        No, the iPhone is locked down too much for this to work. Browsers in iOS are basically just skins on Safari/WebKit.
  - Cthulhu_ 6y ago
    See, I think people will tolerate ad breaks in video much more than e.g. full page takeovers in the middle of reading. They're used to it from cable TV, and there's the option to skip it, and an indication how long it is. And it's consistent because of Youtube's dominating position in the video market, unlike websites where every one would have a different 'takeover' format.
mrpippy 6y ago
There’s Patreon, but it really only works for people consistently writing articles (like The Digital Antiquarian/filfre.net which appears often on HN) OTOH, YouTube now has a fairly high bar for monetization (1000 subs, 4000 public watch hours over last year)
anoncow 6y ago
"YouTube for Articles" used to be blogs.
- ethbro 6y ago
  YouTube for tech articles, circa late-1990s, was ZDTV / TechTV. A format that seems to work well with non-article is {topical content} + {multiple knowledgeable hosts} + {free form talk format with some segments}. Early-MTV, the Screen Savers, and Car Talk were all essentially this format. Good background noise to have playing while working. And the host-host, informal interaction makes it playable for longer than a pure just-the-facts source. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soK1_DaFym0 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=soK1_DaFym0
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Yes, but not as much I suspect. Blogs with some ads were the thing, but most people in tech will have an ad blocker or ad blindness, so that's not very effective. Some people will write a book about a subject, but I suspect that's hit and miss as well.

colechristensen 6y ago

Honestly, a hard to follow YouTube video is better than digging through hundreds of pages of forum posts in attempts to find the right one. Of course clear, concise, and findable documentation is always better, but at least if someone is doing it on youtube there is demonstrable evidence that the process functioned once.

Proziam 6y ago
This right here is why Youtube is my first choice. I've had too many run-ins with bad documentation and some of them are just about nightmare-inducing. Youtube has an awesome advantage that I can see the whole process (which sometimes includes minor things like using specific flags or config changes), I can see that it worked, and I can create my own documentation based on the success/failure of following that guide.
mavhc 6y ago
Well edited video is the most time consuming content to make, unedited video is the least time consuming content to make. Keeping an article up to date is the reason wikis were invented
Xelbair 6y ago
in such cases you have to compare it with digging through hundreds of pages of shitty video tutorials to find the good one
rebolek 6y ago
You are comparing a video that you already found to a forum that you need to search first.

nine_k 6y ago

I suppose that this makes some important words they say hard to search for, and thus hard to automatically detect and file a DMCA or copyright infringement note. So it could be some security via format obscurity.

vardrop 6y ago

Especially jailbreak for consoles do have youtube tutorials, but its advised against as those are usually done by amateurs and outdated as soon as they hit.

blensor 6y ago

I think it has more to do with how close to the topic you are researching you already are. I had to fix the motor of my vacuum, for that I preferred a youtube tutorial because I want to see someone do the things I an about to do. If on the other hand I am trying to do something in Blender I usually prefer a text tutorial to get the exact bit of information I am looking for. Compare it to conventional teaching. You usually don't throw pupils a book with all the knowledge the could need once they can read and call it a day,but you try to ahow them how things are done.

godelski 6y ago
I don't think it is just how close you are, but what you are doing. When doing engineering projects I still like to see what someone is doing because there tends to be things that they do that aren't discussed and change how things work. You also can learn neat little tricks this way too. But code, I generally like reading because most of it is abstract and in your head anyways. So I think the best media depends on what you're doing and what type of learner you are. I'll add that sometimes I read a dozen articles and just don't get it. Then I watch an OCW and everything just clicks. The reverse also happens. Sometimes you just need a different format and/or a different voice. More options only helps.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Ironically (given how anti-video-tutorial I generally am), I've learned to appreciate Blender-related videos. Not for everything, but for the things in which the alternative would be a lot of screenshots glued together with a bit of text. Some things are really best seen being done directly. I think it has to do with how much tacit information is embedded in your activity. Blender or vacuum motor repair videos? Yes please, because the problem domain is such that I actually need to see all the things that happen in the background of the main activity, just to reassure myself I'm on the right track. Coding? God no, typing text into computer is a very constrained activity and you gain nothing by showing it on video vs. just making an article.

Klinky 6y ago

Why do you expect better docs from free projects? You could certainly try to be the change you want to see, but you'll find it is not easy to create comprehensive documentation for these projects, and then dedicate yourself to keeping them up to date.

ShamelessC 6y ago
That's fair actually. I should appreciate that these people are all doing this on their spare time. I had considered updating a GH repo with what I learned about the Switch Android install process but was quite exhausted after spending the full day finding and implementing the up to date YouTube guide. I'm sure that's the case for many people. There's also a much broader audience of people who want to do these jailbreaks than programmers who are used to reading documentation. I imagine videos are drastically more accessible for them.
- Klinky 6y ago
  The worst is when you do write up docs, there are links to the docs, but then people ask questions answered in the docs, and then fail to even really attempt to read the docs after you tell them it's in the docs. Often people want a quick fix designed specifically for them, and do not want to read even a few pages of docs.
  - ShamelessC 6y ago
    Yeah there's definitely a lot of entitlement from people in open source/volunteer projects. I will just say that as programmers we're far better equipped to handle the frustration of errors and have the patience to solve problems on our own. These things do often get out of hand though as I've seen in many GitHub issues.

pgalvin 6y ago

On the contrary, most of the emulation community looks down on YouTube videos as an out-of-date source of incorrect information contrary to best practices. I think you'd be surprised at the wide availability of written information and guides for emulation.

ShamelessC 6y ago
To be clear, I should have specified this was _only_ the case with cemu which is much more experimental and likely to need more obscurity from Nintendo than others. Other emulators, dolphin in particular, are fantastic in this regard.