7 ms·

I think YouTube is the counter argument to this - long form content from passionate people has taken off pretty good there. Perhaps it's just me, but it serious

by arsome 3y ago

I think YouTube is the counter argument to this - long form content from passionate people has taken off pretty good there. Perhaps it's just me, but it seriously makes the rest of social media look like an absolute trashfire by comparison.

Scoundreller 3y ago
Sorta. YouTube is kinda anti-monetization of your content unless you get 1000 subscribers, which is kinda hard if you don’t do consistent topic or are entertaining. If you’re a grouchy mechanic and do boring videos of exactly how to do brakes on every car, that’s incredibly useful, but not subscribeable (unless your grouchiness becomes a meme). I feel bad for the one guy that did 1 perfect video on how to fix&overhaul my garage door opener. But he won’t see a cent even as YouTube puts ads on it anyway and takes 100%. Meanwhile on blogs etc with Adsense, you could monetize immediately. That’s how i started out and figured out what worked. Went from $2/month, to 20 to 200 to 2000 for a while. Lots of random articles. Didn’t care to become a “platform” (new users that visit and never come back are the best ad-clickers).
- glfharris 3y ago
  I suppose that's where things like tip jars work quite well. To reward useful but otherwise niche content.
  - fleischhauf 3y ago
    is tip jars an actual software solutions for tipping? I'm wondering what is most commonly used for tipping websites/content?
    - whatamidoingyo 3y ago
      > I'm wondering what is most commonly used for tipping websites/content? Probably something like ko-fi.com. I have it on my sites, but no one has ever tipped (besides my girlfriend, haha). I imagine other people do get tips via kofi, though.
    - colingoodman 3y ago
      I'd imagine there's a lot of undesirable friction in "tipping" online (clicking a link, filling out a credit card form, etc.) that a tip jar in a cash-based society never had.
- youcantcook 3y ago
  [dead]
fjfkjfdljkfd 3y ago
Youtube is pushing Tik Tok style "shorts" pretty hard. If you ever accidently click on one, the UI makes it very hard to find your way back, and easy just to sit and watch a bunch of 15-second clips. Even the long-form content is a minefield. The line between educational, informative long-form content (Clickspring, Tech Ingredients, Ox Tools, Matthias Wendel, Alan Millyard, etc) and "lifestyle entertainment" (Matt Armstrong, Cleetus McFarland, Matt's Offroad Recovery, etc) is surprisingly fine (AvE, Tavarish, Rainman Ray, etc), and you might not notice you've crossed it until too late. Don't even get me started on the videos that contain a vital piece of information that could be written in one paragraph, but spread it over 10 minutes. A lot like the online recipe site disasters.
- demaga 3y ago
  Yes, I hated that Youtube felt the need to compete with TikTok and went this route. Short-form video is the worst medium to ever exist.
- xxs 3y ago
  the best part is to block all of that short jazz with a firefox extension (also don't use youtube logged in) > is surprisingly fine (AvE, Tavarish, Rainman Ray, etc), a Where would you place "This Old Tony" in that regard?
  - dajtxx 3y ago
    I’m not sure where TOT sits. He’s not particularly ‘how to do it’ like mrpete222 or maybe Presso, but he’s not trivial dumb stuff either. He’s entertaining and I think YT would be worse without him.
  - GuB-42 3y ago
    > also don't use youtube logged in I find YouTube to be a much better experience when logged in. There is targeting in both cases, but it tends to be better aligned with what I want when I am logged in. And I second the extension, I use "Youtube-shorts block" which also exists for Chrome. On the topic of YouTube specific extensions, I also recommend SponsorBlock.
cududa 3y ago
But I don’t like video or podcasts. My brain doesn’t learn that way. I like reading
- jahsome 3y ago
  It doesn't really compete will well-edited prose, but transcripts are available on youtube and actually often pretty good, despite being auto-generated.
- a1o 3y ago
  Same, I really need things written in detail. I can't learn from video. :/
- arsome 3y ago
  You weren't learning anything from Vice either.
  - cududa 3y ago
    Vice has done lots of investigative reporting. Two weeks ago I brought up one of their years old investigations in a discussion, went and found the article to brush up on the topic, my cousin and I spent about a half hour reading their articles on the topic, then we discussed. Yes, I did learn things from vice. I'm assuming your confusing Vice with a listicle producer or something. Your smug self-assured arrogant pessimism is showing.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
torginus 3y ago
I feel like the recent AI advancements will ruin that as well - YT will find a way to pull a Quora - extract all that passionately made content, whitelabel it, and sell it back to you.
DrBazza 3y ago
I typically watch YouTube content once, but I'll likely revisit a webpage many times. But I suppose YouTube returns more potential ad revenue despite lower visits.
darkwater 3y ago
> I think YouTube is the counter argument to this - long form content from passionate people has taken off pretty good there. This has downsides on its own. Nowadays there are tons of YT videos that convey useful info in which the same useful info could be conveyed in a 200 words written piece. But no, you have to skip through a 20 minutes video where the signal to noise ratio is extremely low to get the really useful bits.
- smallnix 3y ago
  That is true and it can also be said about a lot of long form written content.
  - darkwater 3y ago
    At least, skimming a long text is easier.
shortrounddev2 3y ago
Most of the long form content I see on YouTube is a 10 minute video stretched out over 50 minutes
ethagnawl 3y ago
Agreed. I know they're the minority but I'm regularly astounded by how well researched, produced and informative the videos by many of the channels I follow are (e.g. the retro tech scene). They make it look easy and I'm sure it does get easier once you've got momentum and a process but as someone who has dabbled in such things ... it's anything but.

by arsome 3y ago

Scoundreller 3y ago

Sorta. YouTube is kinda anti-monetization of your content unless you get 1000 subscribers, which is kinda hard if you don’t do consistent topic or are entertaining. If you’re a grouchy mechanic and do boring videos of exactly how to do brakes on every car, that’s incredibly useful, but not subscribeable (unless your grouchiness becomes a meme). I feel bad for the one guy that did 1 perfect video on how to fix&overhaul my garage door opener. But he won’t see a cent even as YouTube puts ads on it anyway and takes 100%. Meanwhile on blogs etc with Adsense, you could monetize immediately. That’s how i started out and figured out what worked. Went from $2/month, to 20 to 200 to 2000 for a while. Lots of random articles. Didn’t care to become a “platform” (new users that visit and never come back are the best ad-clickers).

glfharris 3y ago
I suppose that's where things like tip jars work quite well. To reward useful but otherwise niche content.
- fleischhauf 3y ago
  is tip jars an actual software solutions for tipping? I'm wondering what is most commonly used for tipping websites/content?
  - whatamidoingyo 3y ago
    > I'm wondering what is most commonly used for tipping websites/content? Probably something like ko-fi.com. I have it on my sites, but no one has ever tipped (besides my girlfriend, haha). I imagine other people do get tips via kofi, though.
  - colingoodman 3y ago
    I'd imagine there's a lot of undesirable friction in "tipping" online (clicking a link, filling out a credit card form, etc.) that a tip jar in a cash-based society never had.
youcantcook 3y ago
[dead]

fjfkjfdljkfd 3y ago

Youtube is pushing Tik Tok style "shorts" pretty hard. If you ever accidently click on one, the UI makes it very hard to find your way back, and easy just to sit and watch a bunch of 15-second clips. Even the long-form content is a minefield. The line between educational, informative long-form content (Clickspring, Tech Ingredients, Ox Tools, Matthias Wendel, Alan Millyard, etc) and "lifestyle entertainment" (Matt Armstrong, Cleetus McFarland, Matt's Offroad Recovery, etc) is surprisingly fine (AvE, Tavarish, Rainman Ray, etc), and you might not notice you've crossed it until too late. Don't even get me started on the videos that contain a vital piece of information that could be written in one paragraph, but spread it over 10 minutes. A lot like the online recipe site disasters.

demaga 3y ago
Yes, I hated that Youtube felt the need to compete with TikTok and went this route. Short-form video is the worst medium to ever exist.
xxs 3y ago
the best part is to block all of that short jazz with a firefox extension (also don't use youtube logged in) > is surprisingly fine (AvE, Tavarish, Rainman Ray, etc), a Where would you place "This Old Tony" in that regard?
- dajtxx 3y ago
  I’m not sure where TOT sits. He’s not particularly ‘how to do it’ like mrpete222 or maybe Presso, but he’s not trivial dumb stuff either. He’s entertaining and I think YT would be worse without him.
- GuB-42 3y ago
  > also don't use youtube logged in I find YouTube to be a much better experience when logged in. There is targeting in both cases, but it tends to be better aligned with what I want when I am logged in. And I second the extension, I use "Youtube-shorts block" which also exists for Chrome. On the topic of YouTube specific extensions, I also recommend SponsorBlock.

cududa 3y ago

But I don’t like video or podcasts. My brain doesn’t learn that way. I like reading

jahsome 3y ago
It doesn't really compete will well-edited prose, but transcripts are available on youtube and actually often pretty good, despite being auto-generated.
a1o 3y ago
Same, I really need things written in detail. I can't learn from video. :/
arsome 3y ago
You weren't learning anything from Vice either.
- cududa 3y ago
  Vice has done lots of investigative reporting. Two weeks ago I brought up one of their years old investigations in a discussion, went and found the article to brush up on the topic, my cousin and I spent about a half hour reading their articles on the topic, then we discussed. Yes, I did learn things from vice. I'm assuming your confusing Vice with a listicle producer or something. Your smug self-assured arrogant pessimism is showing.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

torginus 3y ago

I feel like the recent AI advancements will ruin that as well - YT will find a way to pull a Quora - extract all that passionately made content, whitelabel it, and sell it back to you.

DrBazza 3y ago

I typically watch YouTube content once, but I'll likely revisit a webpage many times. But I suppose YouTube returns more potential ad revenue despite lower visits.

darkwater 3y ago

> I think YouTube is the counter argument to this - long form content from passionate people has taken off pretty good there. This has downsides on its own. Nowadays there are tons of YT videos that convey useful info in which the same useful info could be conveyed in a 200 words written piece. But no, you have to skip through a 20 minutes video where the signal to noise ratio is extremely low to get the really useful bits.

smallnix 3y ago
That is true and it can also be said about a lot of long form written content.
- darkwater 3y ago
  At least, skimming a long text is easier.

shortrounddev2 3y ago

Most of the long form content I see on YouTube is a 10 minute video stretched out over 50 minutes

ethagnawl 3y ago

Agreed. I know they're the minority but I'm regularly astounded by how well researched, produced and informative the videos by many of the channels I follow are (e.g. the retro tech scene). They make it look easy and I'm sure it does get easier once you've got momentum and a process but as someone who has dabbled in such things ... it's anything but.