8 ms·

YouTube adds ads but won't pay all content-makers

45 points by khaledh 6y ago

cannedslime 6y ago
Funny, today I woke up and first thing install ABP for the first time in my life, because google will not let me fall asleep to soothing documentaries without obnoxious ads rolling every two minutes because their algos figured out im not there to skip them. Then I see this and im just even more confident in that decision.
- SubGenius 6y ago
  Newpipe is pretty good. https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe
  - Tokelin 6y ago
    I've been using YouTube Vanced on my Android. I tried NewPipe, but was not impressed with it. Then I went to Vanced not because of the ads, but the looping functionality (which is disabled now for some time) and it's been a great experience so far.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Have you considered trying uBlock Origin?
  - notRobot 6y ago
    I second this recommendation. uBO is much better.
    - Tokelin 6y ago
      In my view uBlock Origin is the gold standard in ad blockers.
  - cannedslime 6y ago
    I didnt consider anything, I just searched for ad blocker first thing this morning and took what seemed like the popular choice. I'll try uBlock now, what is the difference in regards to user experience?
- MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
  Ublock origin is nice that it prevents you from page redirects to known tracking websites. I first found out about that with slickdeals. The one thing I still haven't figured out how to use with it is the zapper. Adblock plus' "zapper" just worked and always prevented that pop up or whatever from showing. Ublock just stops it from showing again after you do it after the page load. Then it'll pop up again.
  - jtvjan 6y ago
    uBlock's zapper is just for deleting elements once. If you want to remove something permanently, use the picker.
    - MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
      Thank you! Imo they should really change the icons for that cause when I see that, it looks like I want to take the color of the thing, not remove something completely.
- bigbassroller 6y ago
  have you considered paying for YT premium? Its great for watching with no ads. I started paying once I discovered Event Horizon, What The Math? and Space Time Channels. I then discovered Mixtape Magic for old school mixtapes to listen to while working. All in all, one of the subscriptions that bring the most value.
hajhatten 6y ago
How many serious alternatives are out there for content makers now adays?
- lotsofpulp 6y ago
  They’ll have to pitch their ideas to Netflix/ATT/Disney/Comcast/Apple/etc. Or setup their own website and make deals with advertisers.
- izacus 6y ago
  Nginx can still serve videos with a plugin. There's plenty of ways to self host it. The problem? You don't have YouTube to cover your hosting costs.
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    Split the video into chunks and serve it with the wrong mime type, and cloudflare will host it for you...
  - smt88 6y ago
    S3/CloudFront supports video with scrubbing, and it's not expensive. The bigger problem with leaving YouTube is losing the enormous audience and recommendation algorithms that bring in viewers.
  - pan69 6y ago
    > The problem? You don't have YouTube to cover your hosting costs. Even bigger problem, when you self host nobody knows you exist.
- kzrdude 6y ago
  A lot of creators are trying to advert nebula as a way to watch their videos, but I haven't tried it.
- sct202 6y ago
  There's Twitch and then I see a lot of people doing talk shows on Instagram. Definitely more than there used to be.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
spiderfarmer 6y ago
This is very painful for the people who make video's that don't attract enough subscribers to reach the 1k threshold (like makers of incidental How To video's). You can have millions of views, but if you don't have enough subscribers, you won't be able to monetise and Google will profit from your work. This will push more and more people towards adblockers.
- ct0 6y ago
  Or an increase in premium YT accounts. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a holiday promotion in the near future.
- Gustomaximus 6y ago
  Could this be something we solve with community actions. find videos that are well made, do get views and ask a community to subscribe so they cross the threshold? Its late and I'm about 5 whiskeys in so maybe a silly idea but right now I feel I'd be more than happy to hit a few channels and subscribe to help out.
  - Yetanfou 6y ago
    Yes, it can be solved with community actions: the community can start using something like PeerTube to distribute their content instead of relying on centralised behemoths like Youtube. The value of Youtube lies in the content which its users upload, if you have something worth sharing on there you can also share it elsewhere. Begin by having content both on Youtube as well as PeerTube and point those who are annoyed by Youtube-ads to the ad-free PeerTube instance. Youtube will eventually change its terms and conditions so as to forbid pointing users to alternative distribution channels so the sooner you set up those alternatives and start pointing your viewers there the bigger chance you have of spreading the word. Replace the lost income from Youtube with one of the many sponsoring services, this will aid in becoming less dependent on Youtube. Once the PeerTube channel has gained traction you can put a moratorium on your Youtube presence. Keep to this and, once you are close to the end, replace old content with short trailers which point viewers to the new site. Continue publishing on the new site, if you want you can put trailers on Youtube but it is probably better to refrain from doing so as this might end up annoying viewers. Just leave a message on your channel about the move and keep it at that. Assuming that your content is worthwhile to viewers they will follow you. Don't criticise the media, become the media
mobilemidget 6y ago
just before I saw the first headlines, I was jokingly complaining to a friend that it seemed Youtube was showing more ads then regular commercial TV channels do. Apparently something did change...
tartrate 6y ago
Just like Twitch started forcing random ad interruptions, I guess this is a trend now.
- adrianN 6y ago
  It's almost as if hosting and serving videos cost a lot of money and the companies eventually want to make a profit.
  - angelbar 6y ago
    Then relax the rules to monetize, or dump them altogether
merricksb 6y ago
Big discussion already in the past 24-36 hours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25149206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25149206 (926 points/721 comments)
taylodl 6y ago
Google's corporate code of conduct used to be "Don't Be Evil". After their restructuring under Alphabet that was changed to "Do the Right Thing." You may think these statements are equivalent but we can see it's driving different behavior, i.e. people respond to them differently. On another note, I used to think YT was great. I was a regular viewer, lots of subscriptions, etc. It was typical that I'd watch YT in lieu of other content. That has changed in the past month or so because the ad frequency has gotten to the point of making the content unwatchable. Maybe that should be our 2020 Holiday Challenge - take a break from YT for the holidays. If their viewership drops significantly then maybe that'll drive better behavior.
morinoandou 6y ago
I know it's unpopular to suggest paying for things on the Internet, but YouTube Premium is worth the investment if you're allergic to ads. It removes ads on mobile and Chromecast too (where ad blocking is harder to set up otherwise) and allows you to play videos in the background on mobile (a feature that I use constantly). If you're a heavy YT user like me it's really not that hard to justify the expense.
- wayneftw 6y ago
  I'm allergic to signing into any Google property in a web browser. The only thing I use my Google accounts for is email and I don't want everything I do to be associated with one of my Google accounts because then they shove other annoyances in my face. Even non-Google websites like Medium.com annoy me with pressure to sign in to their site if I'm signed into a Google account. [0] [0] https://imgur.com/a/06M9riv https://imgur.com/a/06M9riv

45 points by khaledh 6y ago

Funny, today I woke up and first thing install ABP for the first time in my life, because google will not let me fall asleep to soothing documentaries without obnoxious ads rolling every two minutes because their algos figured out im not there to skip them. Then I see this and im just even more confident in that decision.

SubGenius 6y ago
Newpipe is pretty good. https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe
- Tokelin 6y ago
  I've been using YouTube Vanced on my Android. I tried NewPipe, but was not impressed with it. Then I went to Vanced not because of the ads, but the looping functionality (which is disabled now for some time) and it's been a great experience so far.
saagarjha 6y ago
Have you considered trying uBlock Origin?
- notRobot 6y ago
  I second this recommendation. uBO is much better.
  - Tokelin 6y ago
    In my view uBlock Origin is the gold standard in ad blockers.
- cannedslime 6y ago
  I didnt consider anything, I just searched for ad blocker first thing this morning and took what seemed like the popular choice. I'll try uBlock now, what is the difference in regards to user experience?
MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
Ublock origin is nice that it prevents you from page redirects to known tracking websites. I first found out about that with slickdeals. The one thing I still haven't figured out how to use with it is the zapper. Adblock plus' "zapper" just worked and always prevented that pop up or whatever from showing. Ublock just stops it from showing again after you do it after the page load. Then it'll pop up again.
- jtvjan 6y ago
  uBlock's zapper is just for deleting elements once. If you want to remove something permanently, use the picker.
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
    Thank you! Imo they should really change the icons for that cause when I see that, it looks like I want to take the color of the thing, not remove something completely.
bigbassroller 6y ago
have you considered paying for YT premium? Its great for watching with no ads. I started paying once I discovered Event Horizon, What The Math? and Space Time Channels. I then discovered Mixtape Magic for old school mixtapes to listen to while working. All in all, one of the subscriptions that bring the most value.

hajhatten 6y ago

How many serious alternatives are out there for content makers now adays?

lotsofpulp 6y ago
They’ll have to pitch their ideas to Netflix/ATT/Disney/Comcast/Apple/etc. Or setup their own website and make deals with advertisers.
izacus 6y ago
Nginx can still serve videos with a plugin. There's plenty of ways to self host it. The problem? You don't have YouTube to cover your hosting costs.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  Split the video into chunks and serve it with the wrong mime type, and cloudflare will host it for you...
- smt88 6y ago
  S3/CloudFront supports video with scrubbing, and it's not expensive. The bigger problem with leaving YouTube is losing the enormous audience and recommendation algorithms that bring in viewers.
- pan69 6y ago
  > The problem? You don't have YouTube to cover your hosting costs. Even bigger problem, when you self host nobody knows you exist.
kzrdude 6y ago
A lot of creators are trying to advert nebula as a way to watch their videos, but I haven't tried it.
sct202 6y ago
There's Twitch and then I see a lot of people doing talk shows on Instagram. Definitely more than there used to be.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

spiderfarmer 6y ago

This is very painful for the people who make video's that don't attract enough subscribers to reach the 1k threshold (like makers of incidental How To video's). You can have millions of views, but if you don't have enough subscribers, you won't be able to monetise and Google will profit from your work. This will push more and more people towards adblockers.

ct0 6y ago
Or an increase in premium YT accounts. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a holiday promotion in the near future.
Gustomaximus 6y ago
Could this be something we solve with community actions. find videos that are well made, do get views and ask a community to subscribe so they cross the threshold? Its late and I'm about 5 whiskeys in so maybe a silly idea but right now I feel I'd be more than happy to hit a few channels and subscribe to help out.
- Yetanfou 6y ago
  Yes, it can be solved with community actions: the community can start using something like PeerTube to distribute their content instead of relying on centralised behemoths like Youtube. The value of Youtube lies in the content which its users upload, if you have something worth sharing on there you can also share it elsewhere. Begin by having content both on Youtube as well as PeerTube and point those who are annoyed by Youtube-ads to the ad-free PeerTube instance. Youtube will eventually change its terms and conditions so as to forbid pointing users to alternative distribution channels so the sooner you set up those alternatives and start pointing your viewers there the bigger chance you have of spreading the word. Replace the lost income from Youtube with one of the many sponsoring services, this will aid in becoming less dependent on Youtube. Once the PeerTube channel has gained traction you can put a moratorium on your Youtube presence. Keep to this and, once you are close to the end, replace old content with short trailers which point viewers to the new site. Continue publishing on the new site, if you want you can put trailers on Youtube but it is probably better to refrain from doing so as this might end up annoying viewers. Just leave a message on your channel about the move and keep it at that. Assuming that your content is worthwhile to viewers they will follow you. Don't criticise the media, become the media

mobilemidget 6y ago

just before I saw the first headlines, I was jokingly complaining to a friend that it seemed Youtube was showing more ads then regular commercial TV channels do. Apparently something did change...

tartrate 6y ago

Just like Twitch started forcing random ad interruptions, I guess this is a trend now.

adrianN 6y ago
It's almost as if hosting and serving videos cost a lot of money and the companies eventually want to make a profit.
- angelbar 6y ago
  Then relax the rules to monetize, or dump them altogether

merricksb 6y ago

Big discussion already in the past 24-36 hours: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25149206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25149206 (926 points/721 comments)

taylodl 6y ago

Google's corporate code of conduct used to be "Don't Be Evil". After their restructuring under Alphabet that was changed to "Do the Right Thing." You may think these statements are equivalent but we can see it's driving different behavior, i.e. people respond to them differently. On another note, I used to think YT was great. I was a regular viewer, lots of subscriptions, etc. It was typical that I'd watch YT in lieu of other content. That has changed in the past month or so because the ad frequency has gotten to the point of making the content unwatchable. Maybe that should be our 2020 Holiday Challenge - take a break from YT for the holidays. If their viewership drops significantly then maybe that'll drive better behavior.

morinoandou 6y ago

I know it's unpopular to suggest paying for things on the Internet, but YouTube Premium is worth the investment if you're allergic to ads. It removes ads on mobile and Chromecast too (where ad blocking is harder to set up otherwise) and allows you to play videos in the background on mobile (a feature that I use constantly). If you're a heavy YT user like me it's really not that hard to justify the expense.

wayneftw 6y ago
I'm allergic to signing into any Google property in a web browser. The only thing I use my Google accounts for is email and I don't want everything I do to be associated with one of my Google accounts because then they shove other annoyances in my face. Even non-Google websites like Medium.com annoy me with pressure to sign in to their site if I'm signed into a Google account. [0] [0] https://imgur.com/a/06M9riv https://imgur.com/a/06M9riv