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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 eth

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
  I don't think you're being honest in your motivations here. SponsorBlock is a convenience tool to avoid having to watch/listen to ads. It's your stated aim on your website: > SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension and open API for skipping sponsor segments in YouTube videos. Again, I don't think there's anything morally wrong with using SponsorBlock, but I think it's absurd to claim it's a morally positive tool.
  - ajayyy 4y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20781415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20781415 The thing that sparked the idea was a badly disclosed sponsorship. The saving time bits are great, and that's why there's more features now than just ads, you can skip intros too. However, I did start this explicitly due to being frustrated with the state of deception in the sponsorship world, and that remains my main motivation.
    - closewith 4y ago
      That may have been the initial motivation, but SponsorBlock isn't a tool to reveal hidden product placement or sponsorships. It's not described that way on your site or the add-on pages, used that way, or - if we're honest - popular for that reason. In the end, the motivation is not the tool as implemented.

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
I don't think you're being honest in your motivations here. SponsorBlock is a convenience tool to avoid having to watch/listen to ads. It's your stated aim on your website: > SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension and open API for skipping sponsor segments in YouTube videos. Again, I don't think there's anything morally wrong with using SponsorBlock, but I think it's absurd to claim it's a morally positive tool.
- ajayyy 4y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20781415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20781415 The thing that sparked the idea was a badly disclosed sponsorship. The saving time bits are great, and that's why there's more features now than just ads, you can skip intros too. However, I did start this explicitly due to being frustrated with the state of deception in the sponsorship world, and that remains my main motivation.
  - closewith 4y ago
    That may have been the initial motivation, but SponsorBlock isn't a tool to reveal hidden product placement or sponsorships. It's not described that way on your site or the add-on pages, used that way, or - if we're honest - popular for that reason. In the end, the motivation is not the tool as implemented.