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> Most of those things haven’t worked for me. Most of the listed ad networks are blocked by uBlock Origin. SponsorBlock is crowdsourced YouTube ad flagging.

> Most of those things haven’t worked for me. Most of the listed ad networks are blocked by uBlock Origin. SponsorBlock is crowdsourced YouTube ad flagging. It is not surprising that those paid channels would not be effective for firms not willing to commit the $$

closewith 4y ago
SponsorBlock is unfortunate, as sponsorships are the “good” form of advertising. No invasive tracking or targeting, contextual targeting only, and generally vetted by content creators (as least far better than ads sold on exchanges).
- elashri 4y ago
  NordVPN and the other VPN, Military grade sponsorship ads will strongly disagree with you.
  - closewith 4y ago
    How so?
- marssaxman 4y ago
  "Less evil", maybe, but there is no form of advertising which is "good"!
  - closewith 4y ago
    That's a fairly fundamentalist take. Are signs outside shops evil? Window displays? Brochures?
    - marssaxman 4y ago
      "Fundamentalist" is a fair description; I do feel quite strongly about this. The function of advertising is to intrude on your awareness, stealing attention from whatever it is you actually care about, in order to create a desire for something you were previously content without, in hopes of enriching the advertiser at your expense. Ads are a tax on your attention which hope to to take a toll on your pocketbook; they benefit advertisers by making everyone else's lives just a little bit worse. In Seattle, billboards are forbidden (with a few grandfathered-in exceptions), but stores are still permitted to post signs. This seems like a reasonable compromise; labeling the contents of the building provides useful information, which seems beneficial enough to outweigh the advertising function of the sign. I suppose brochures are fine if you go in and get one because you are curious; but someone walking down the street bothering people by handing them out at random would be an asshole.
      - closewith 4y ago
        Thanks for responding. Where do you feel the line is online, specifically in Youtube videos/podcasts, where SponsorBlock is effective?
        marssaxman 4y ago
        I don't spend a lot of time on Youtube, and rarely have the patience to watch the sort of videos people make in hopes of earning money, so I don't have much of an opinion there. I did install SponsorBlock recently, just in case.
- cercatrova 4y ago
  They're really not vetted by the creators, usually. Edit: I mean the products aren't usually vetted, they just make an ad saying how great it is, all the while most likely not having even tried it. How many YouTubers do you think actually played Raid Shadow Legends or used NordVPN?
  - closewith 4y ago
    Well, they are vetted in the literal sense. The creators have to approve the ads. Most exchanges have no human in the loop at all.
- tomjen3 4y ago
  Problem is a) it is the same stuff that is being sold all across youtube, b) aside from maybe audible none of that is a good offer, c) the claimed benefits are non-existent or bullshit (see all VPN ads) and finally d) the problem is not advertising, it is terrible products. Good products should not need creators to sponsor them, they should get creators so excited they can't stop talking about it.
  - closewith 4y ago
    A) Youtube is a big site. It's more likely that you're seeing the same ads on the channels that you watch. It's very unlikely to be the same set that I see. b) Apart from the products you like, none of it is a good offer? c) Are you sure this is true for all sponsors? d) Is advertising ever justified in your mind? Overall, I think you just don't like ads, so have decided to arrive at that conclusion. Your arguments don't seem to hold water.
    - tomjen3 4y ago
      I am talking about ads in sponsored segments. The inventory of youtube ads is much bigger, but I blocked them a long time ago (too annoying). As for the sponsor ads it is always things like hello fresh, vpn ads, ads for free to pay games, etc. You can argue that hello fresh could be a good deal for a very small selection of people[0], and VPNs might be fine if people didn't lie about what they can do but in general it is shit or actively harmful. Think of it this way: if you are making the best make up brush, do you want to pay for a sponsorship or just send a few samples to channels that are likely to feature it? On the other hand if what you make is so-so you have to pay to be featured. It wasn't because ridgewallet was so good everybody was showing it, it was because they were paid for it - and even if you want a wallet like that, you are the one who pays for all the marketing. So to sum up: most products are not revolutionary, the few that are gets their own mention because they are revolutionary and so what is left over is either too expensive or not good enough. [0]: disposable money and enough time to cook, but not too much time and/or not enough skills to make a dish from scratch.
      - 4y ago
- ajayyy 4y ago
  Sponsorships encourage deception (tricking the user into not skipping) and building up parasocial relationships with the audience to abuse their trust, the worst of the influencer world I made SponsorBlock, and over the years working on it, I have been able to see how horrible some of the techniques people use are
  - closewith 4y ago
    Two questions for you: Do you believe that sponsorships are worse that targeted digital advertising? Do you believe there are any Youtubers who have acted ethically in accepting sponsorships? > I made SponsorBlock, and over the years working on it, I have been able to see how horrible some of the techniques people use are It seems somewhat hypocritical to pretend that SponsorBlock is an ethical reaction to bad sponsorships when the clear ethical response would be to simply not watch the content. To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with SponsorBlock, but let's be honest. It's purpose is convenience, not any higher moral objective.
    - ajayyy 4y ago
      > Do you believe that sponsorships are worse that targeted digital advertising? With podcasts, it seems people are now trying to get the worst of both worlds, with dynamic advertisements from a pool based on who you are + the ads are read out by the podcast creator. I can't say that either case is worse than the other, but they are bad for different reasons. > Do you believe there are any Youtubers who have acted ethically in accepting sponsorships? There exist some that have clear transitions, declare in the first sentence that it is a sponsor, repeat at the end that it is a sponsor, and say explicitly in the ad-read that it is not their opinion but a script. That is certainly less deceptive. But unfortunately, this is not usually consistent. Some of their videos will do it well, and some do it poorly. > It's purpose is convenience, not any higher moral objective With "full video" labels (https://blog.ajay.app/full-video-sponsorblock https://blog.ajay.app/full-video-sponsorblock), I've started to delve into the fixing bad declarations world. Full videos don't skip anything, but just inform the viewer what to watch out for. I want to make a wiki-like system for organising more precise biases in the future as well, and allow people to know which where each opinion in a video comes from. Another fact I'll point out is that we sometimes get complaints that certain sponsor sections are incorrect, even though they totally are correct due to them not knowing it is paid promotion. An example is dbrand, which pays many top tech people to randomly mention their name in reviews, usually without much disclosure.

closewith 4y ago

SponsorBlock is unfortunate, as sponsorships are the “good” form of advertising. No invasive tracking or targeting, contextual targeting only, and generally vetted by content creators (as least far better than ads sold on exchanges).

elashri 4y ago
NordVPN and the other VPN, Military grade sponsorship ads will strongly disagree with you.
- closewith 4y ago
  How so?
marssaxman 4y ago
"Less evil", maybe, but there is no form of advertising which is "good"!
- closewith 4y ago
  That's a fairly fundamentalist take. Are signs outside shops evil? Window displays? Brochures?
  - marssaxman 4y ago
    "Fundamentalist" is a fair description; I do feel quite strongly about this. The function of advertising is to intrude on your awareness, stealing attention from whatever it is you actually care about, in order to create a desire for something you were previously content without, in hopes of enriching the advertiser at your expense. Ads are a tax on your attention which hope to to take a toll on your pocketbook; they benefit advertisers by making everyone else's lives just a little bit worse. In Seattle, billboards are forbidden (with a few grandfathered-in exceptions), but stores are still permitted to post signs. This seems like a reasonable compromise; labeling the contents of the building provides useful information, which seems beneficial enough to outweigh the advertising function of the sign. I suppose brochures are fine if you go in and get one because you are curious; but someone walking down the street bothering people by handing them out at random would be an asshole.
    - closewith 4y ago
      Thanks for responding. Where do you feel the line is online, specifically in Youtube videos/podcasts, where SponsorBlock is effective?
      - marssaxman 4y ago
        I don't spend a lot of time on Youtube, and rarely have the patience to watch the sort of videos people make in hopes of earning money, so I don't have much of an opinion there. I did install SponsorBlock recently, just in case.
cercatrova 4y ago
They're really not vetted by the creators, usually. Edit: I mean the products aren't usually vetted, they just make an ad saying how great it is, all the while most likely not having even tried it. How many YouTubers do you think actually played Raid Shadow Legends or used NordVPN?
- closewith 4y ago
  Well, they are vetted in the literal sense. The creators have to approve the ads. Most exchanges have no human in the loop at all.
tomjen3 4y ago
Problem is a) it is the same stuff that is being sold all across youtube, b) aside from maybe audible none of that is a good offer, c) the claimed benefits are non-existent or bullshit (see all VPN ads) and finally d) the problem is not advertising, it is terrible products. Good products should not need creators to sponsor them, they should get creators so excited they can't stop talking about it.
- closewith 4y ago
  A) Youtube is a big site. It's more likely that you're seeing the same ads on the channels that you watch. It's very unlikely to be the same set that I see. b) Apart from the products you like, none of it is a good offer? c) Are you sure this is true for all sponsors? d) Is advertising ever justified in your mind? Overall, I think you just don't like ads, so have decided to arrive at that conclusion. Your arguments don't seem to hold water.
  - tomjen3 4y ago
    I am talking about ads in sponsored segments. The inventory of youtube ads is much bigger, but I blocked them a long time ago (too annoying). As for the sponsor ads it is always things like hello fresh, vpn ads, ads for free to pay games, etc. You can argue that hello fresh could be a good deal for a very small selection of people[0], and VPNs might be fine if people didn't lie about what they can do but in general it is shit or actively harmful. Think of it this way: if you are making the best make up brush, do you want to pay for a sponsorship or just send a few samples to channels that are likely to feature it? On the other hand if what you make is so-so you have to pay to be featured. It wasn't because ridgewallet was so good everybody was showing it, it was because they were paid for it - and even if you want a wallet like that, you are the one who pays for all the marketing. So to sum up: most products are not revolutionary, the few that are gets their own mention because they are revolutionary and so what is left over is either too expensive or not good enough. [0]: disposable money and enough time to cook, but not too much time and/or not enough skills to make a dish from scratch.
    - 4y ago
ajayyy 4y ago
Sponsorships encourage deception (tricking the user into not skipping) and building up parasocial relationships with the audience to abuse their trust, the worst of the influencer world I made SponsorBlock, and over the years working on it, I have been able to see how horrible some of the techniques people use are
- closewith 4y ago
  Two questions for you: Do you believe that sponsorships are worse that targeted digital advertising? Do you believe there are any Youtubers who have acted ethically in accepting sponsorships? > I made SponsorBlock, and over the years working on it, I have been able to see how horrible some of the techniques people use are It seems somewhat hypocritical to pretend that SponsorBlock is an ethical reaction to bad sponsorships when the clear ethical response would be to simply not watch the content. To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with SponsorBlock, but let's be honest. It's purpose is convenience, not any higher moral objective.
  - ajayyy 4y ago
    > Do you believe that sponsorships are worse that targeted digital advertising? With podcasts, it seems people are now trying to get the worst of both worlds, with dynamic advertisements from a pool based on who you are + the ads are read out by the podcast creator. I can't say that either case is worse than the other, but they are bad for different reasons. > Do you believe there are any Youtubers who have acted ethically in accepting sponsorships? There exist some that have clear transitions, declare in the first sentence that it is a sponsor, repeat at the end that it is a sponsor, and say explicitly in the ad-read that it is not their opinion but a script. That is certainly less deceptive. But unfortunately, this is not usually consistent. Some of their videos will do it well, and some do it poorly. > It's purpose is convenience, not any higher moral objective With "full video" labels (https://blog.ajay.app/full-video-sponsorblock https://blog.ajay.app/full-video-sponsorblock), I've started to delve into the fixing bad declarations world. Full videos don't skip anything, but just inform the viewer what to watch out for. I want to make a wiki-like system for organising more precise biases in the future as well, and allow people to know which where each opinion in a video comes from. Another fact I'll point out is that we sometimes get complaints that certain sponsor sections are incorrect, even though they totally are correct due to them not knowing it is paid promotion. An example is dbrand, which pays many top tech people to randomly mention their name in reviews, usually without much disclosure.