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The view counter isn't for you. It's merely a convenience that you're showed it at all. View counts are for monetization. If a view isn't monetized, why count i

The view counter isn't for you. It's merely a convenience that you're showed it at all. View counts are for monetization. If a view isn't monetized, why count it? Purely foe vanity? You, a viewer, are nearly irrelevant to YouTube. You exist purely as a revenue source and no other reason. View metrics and monetization are what count, not your subjective experience. YouTube does not care one tiny bit about how much you like the site or interface or what you think of the view counter.

ianbutler 1y ago
It's for sponsors too so yes a total view count is important since creators use views to negotiate deals. I have adblock[0], but I still watch sponsor spots. 0: I just side step this entirely these days by paying for premium.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- nandomrumber 1y ago
  Why should sponsor care sent viewers who block their advertising? I’ve been a premium member for about 15 years.
  - stetrain 1y ago
    Ad blockers and Premium don’t block embedded sponsorships in the videos themselves, which are a common way for creators to monetize their videos.
    - hirako2000 1y ago
      Some do. With crowd funded submissions on where the placement starts and ends.
    - girvo 1y ago
      Premium absolutely does, via YouTube's new "Jump Forward" feature.
    - tcfhgj 1y ago
      sponsorblock does
    - Braxton1980 1y ago
      There's a new skip method for premium members (which I have) where you can skip commonly skipped sections as recorded by other users. For example- if a video has a section about their sponsor from 3:30 to 4:10 and I press the right seek button twice around 3:30 the jump will be to 4:10. It also displays an alert that it's using the feature.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
easygenes 1y ago
This is a bit too blunt a look at it. YouTube exists as an ecosystem with increasing competition. View and subscriber counts are their core incentive and feedback systems they have with the actual producers that make their whole ecosystem work. Without those there's no real reason for people to put videos there. This as an open and celebrated system drives producers to advertise for YouTube via the almost-compulsory every-video mention of liking and subscribing and forwarding videos to friends. Youtube is well aware of this, hence things like the iconic long running physical play button trophy delivery system. I'd also say more broadly that making such sweeping claims for YouTube as a collective entity not caring at all about viewers is too reductive. It's more defensible and relatable to claim that, though there may be many people working for YouTube because they deeply care about a mission of democratizing multimedia publishing, the incentives and structures around it being a PBC often lead to decisions which drown out that care from corporate heads who are more profit than mission driven.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
stetrain 1y ago
Videos are often monetized via sponsor placements in the videos themselves. The creator of the video would like an accurate view count to report to their sponsors. This is completely separate from the YouTube platform ads and monetization which is what the ad blockers are blocking.
- xeromal 1y ago
  I can't reply to your deeper comment but there is a youtube specific extension that blocks ads to sponsor placements by skipping them. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone?hl=en https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-yo... Has 2 million users which isn't a ton but just mentioning that it is used and it works well.
  - hirako2000 1y ago
    And this ships as a plugin to some unofficial YouTube player. The actual number is far higher.
  - slaymaker1907 1y ago
    There is also kind of a built in sponsorblock for YouTube on mobile. If you double tap to skip 5s repeatedly, a button quickly pops up to skip ahead (not explicitly about sponsor segments, but I'm sure this is what it is used for 99% of the time).
    - mvdtnz 1y ago
      FYI this is a premium-only feature. It's one that I am very thankful for. I pay a pretty penny for youtube and I don't appreciate "creators" end-running around that to peddle their shitty AG1 supplements or woodworking tools I can't buy in my country.
- xp84 1y ago
  This is the best counterargument I've seen for why YouTubers might be vexed by this, however I've felt it was pretty fair to expect that adblocked views don't really "count" in the "game" that you can argue YouTube is operating with the "View Count" metric and therefore I don't see much room for anyone to feel indignant or wronged. Imagine a creator whose viewers all watched with ads blocked (and without YT Premium either). That creator is, objectively speaking not partnering with Google in any way, they're just using the platform as a free CDN. So the failure of Google to provide that person with accurate metrics for him to operate his business (that Google isn't a part of) isn't all that offensive. So someone losing visibility to their "views" if it's because of non-monetized views (adblocked ones) seems proportionally fair. There's always self-hosting your videos, but yes, that's expensive. It's a tradeoff the content creator has to make: A cut of your revenue + a ton of content restrictions, in exchange for discoverability + free CDN.
manquer 1y ago
> View counts are for monetization Agree, however view counts, i.e. metrics tracked by YT, or by sponsors,creators in fancy dashboards isn't the view counter we are shown and nobody is questioning how those are implemented. The View Counter means very specific UI component in YT interface shown to regular users. > view counter isn't for you Disagree, View counter is a important decision making input along with the thumbnail, title and duration of the video on if a user will click on the video to watch them. It is in effect an advertisement for the video. If that wasn't the case, then YouTube wouldn't be showing them in every list view and next to every thumbnail. When the numbers no longer represent what the users think they represent I would say it is not far from false advertising. A fair amount of people on here and I have both YT Premium and also use some adblocker, should our views be counted or not according to this point of view? .
- Braxton1980 1y ago
  I'm so glad other people here pay for premium because on Tiktok and Reddit a common joke is how few people pay for YT. My Verizon cell phone plan offers it at a slightly discounted $10 a month. For a completely ad free (ads from Youtube) experience it's well worth it considering how many car and tech videos I watch. It also offers a higher bitrate 1080p option on some videos which is a cherry on top.
  - xp84 1y ago
    Yeah it's absurd to me how much people bitch about YouTube advertising and don't pay. To me, either you don't watch enough YouTube for the complaints to be warranted, or you do watch a lot, and you're just torturing yourself to save $15 and blaming YouTube for your choice. It's like complaining about a Quarter Pounder "not coming with cheese" and constantly trying to steal cheese, when you could just pay the dollar and get cheese every time.
    - smnthermes 1y ago
      Or they just don't want to support a dodgy advertising company.
Braxton1980 1y ago
>You, a viewer, are nearly irrelevant to YouTube. You exist purely as a revenue source How are these two statements not contradictions?
- rmunn 1y ago
  Rephrase it as "Youtube doesn't care about you, just about putting ads in front of your face" and it's not a contradiction. As long as you don't get irritated enough to go away and stop using Youtube entirely, they don't care about improving your viewing experience. Another way to phrase it is the classic line "If you're not paying for it, you aren't the customer, you're the product."
ruszki 1y ago
If I understand well, my view is not counted as a YouTube Premium subscriber. I’m not sure that anybody is happy with that. Also there is zero good reason to have a separate API for this. Even Google knows this, because Google Analytics has an adblocker proof solution for at least a decade.
- tracker1 1y ago
  It's counted as a view, and beyond that, in general the content creator gets a higher payout from Premium viewers than from ad viewing users.
  - xp84 1y ago
    I'd worry that if this is really caused by an adblocker, it's possible YT uses these same view counting mechanism that's being blocked to increment their Premium views, meaning Premium subscribers who don't explicitly turn their blocker off on YouTube could be being undercounted. If so that should be fixed, for Premium viewership, as that's not really fair to anyone.
    - tracker1 1y ago
      That is hard for me to even say... 95% of my viewing is via my NVidia Shield TV box attached to my TV. I only occasionally will view a tutorial or hit YouTube Music from my computer or phone.
jowea 1y ago
Why are view counts displayed prominently in the UI then? Every suggested video shows it's view count as a sort of social proof.

ianbutler 1y ago

It's for sponsors too so yes a total view count is important since creators use views to negotiate deals. I have adblock[0], but I still watch sponsor spots. 0: I just side step this entirely these days by paying for premium.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
nandomrumber 1y ago
Why should sponsor care sent viewers who block their advertising? I’ve been a premium member for about 15 years.
- stetrain 1y ago
  Ad blockers and Premium don’t block embedded sponsorships in the videos themselves, which are a common way for creators to monetize their videos.
  - hirako2000 1y ago
    Some do. With crowd funded submissions on where the placement starts and ends.
  - girvo 1y ago
    Premium absolutely does, via YouTube's new "Jump Forward" feature.
  - tcfhgj 1y ago
    sponsorblock does
  - Braxton1980 1y ago
    There's a new skip method for premium members (which I have) where you can skip commonly skipped sections as recorded by other users. For example- if a video has a section about their sponsor from 3:30 to 4:10 and I press the right seek button twice around 3:30 the jump will be to 4:10. It also displays an alert that it's using the feature.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]

easygenes 1y ago

This is a bit too blunt a look at it. YouTube exists as an ecosystem with increasing competition. View and subscriber counts are their core incentive and feedback systems they have with the actual producers that make their whole ecosystem work. Without those there's no real reason for people to put videos there. This as an open and celebrated system drives producers to advertise for YouTube via the almost-compulsory every-video mention of liking and subscribing and forwarding videos to friends. Youtube is well aware of this, hence things like the iconic long running physical play button trophy delivery system. I'd also say more broadly that making such sweeping claims for YouTube as a collective entity not caring at all about viewers is too reductive. It's more defensible and relatable to claim that, though there may be many people working for YouTube because they deeply care about a mission of democratizing multimedia publishing, the incentives and structures around it being a PBC often lead to decisions which drown out that care from corporate heads who are more profit than mission driven.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

stetrain 1y ago

Videos are often monetized via sponsor placements in the videos themselves. The creator of the video would like an accurate view count to report to their sponsors. This is completely separate from the YouTube platform ads and monetization which is what the ad blockers are blocking.

xeromal 1y ago
I can't reply to your deeper comment but there is a youtube specific extension that blocks ads to sponsor placements by skipping them. https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-youtube/mnjggcdmjocbbbhaepdhchncahnbgone?hl=en https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sponsorblock-for-yo... Has 2 million users which isn't a ton but just mentioning that it is used and it works well.
- hirako2000 1y ago
  And this ships as a plugin to some unofficial YouTube player. The actual number is far higher.
- slaymaker1907 1y ago
  There is also kind of a built in sponsorblock for YouTube on mobile. If you double tap to skip 5s repeatedly, a button quickly pops up to skip ahead (not explicitly about sponsor segments, but I'm sure this is what it is used for 99% of the time).
  - mvdtnz 1y ago
    FYI this is a premium-only feature. It's one that I am very thankful for. I pay a pretty penny for youtube and I don't appreciate "creators" end-running around that to peddle their shitty AG1 supplements or woodworking tools I can't buy in my country.
xp84 1y ago
This is the best counterargument I've seen for why YouTubers might be vexed by this, however I've felt it was pretty fair to expect that adblocked views don't really "count" in the "game" that you can argue YouTube is operating with the "View Count" metric and therefore I don't see much room for anyone to feel indignant or wronged. Imagine a creator whose viewers all watched with ads blocked (and without YT Premium either). That creator is, objectively speaking not partnering with Google in any way, they're just using the platform as a free CDN. So the failure of Google to provide that person with accurate metrics for him to operate his business (that Google isn't a part of) isn't all that offensive. So someone losing visibility to their "views" if it's because of non-monetized views (adblocked ones) seems proportionally fair. There's always self-hosting your videos, but yes, that's expensive. It's a tradeoff the content creator has to make: A cut of your revenue + a ton of content restrictions, in exchange for discoverability + free CDN.

manquer 1y ago

> View counts are for monetization Agree, however view counts, i.e. metrics tracked by YT, or by sponsors,creators in fancy dashboards isn't the view counter we are shown and nobody is questioning how those are implemented. The View Counter means very specific UI component in YT interface shown to regular users. > view counter isn't for you Disagree, View counter is a important decision making input along with the thumbnail, title and duration of the video on if a user will click on the video to watch them. It is in effect an advertisement for the video. If that wasn't the case, then YouTube wouldn't be showing them in every list view and next to every thumbnail. When the numbers no longer represent what the users think they represent I would say it is not far from false advertising. A fair amount of people on here and I have both YT Premium and also use some adblocker, should our views be counted or not according to this point of view? .

Braxton1980 1y ago
I'm so glad other people here pay for premium because on Tiktok and Reddit a common joke is how few people pay for YT. My Verizon cell phone plan offers it at a slightly discounted $10 a month. For a completely ad free (ads from Youtube) experience it's well worth it considering how many car and tech videos I watch. It also offers a higher bitrate 1080p option on some videos which is a cherry on top.
- xp84 1y ago
  Yeah it's absurd to me how much people bitch about YouTube advertising and don't pay. To me, either you don't watch enough YouTube for the complaints to be warranted, or you do watch a lot, and you're just torturing yourself to save $15 and blaming YouTube for your choice. It's like complaining about a Quarter Pounder "not coming with cheese" and constantly trying to steal cheese, when you could just pay the dollar and get cheese every time.
  - smnthermes 1y ago
    Or they just don't want to support a dodgy advertising company.

Braxton1980 1y ago

>You, a viewer, are nearly irrelevant to YouTube. You exist purely as a revenue source How are these two statements not contradictions?

rmunn 1y ago
Rephrase it as "Youtube doesn't care about you, just about putting ads in front of your face" and it's not a contradiction. As long as you don't get irritated enough to go away and stop using Youtube entirely, they don't care about improving your viewing experience. Another way to phrase it is the classic line "If you're not paying for it, you aren't the customer, you're the product."

ruszki 1y ago

If I understand well, my view is not counted as a YouTube Premium subscriber. I’m not sure that anybody is happy with that. Also there is zero good reason to have a separate API for this. Even Google knows this, because Google Analytics has an adblocker proof solution for at least a decade.

tracker1 1y ago
It's counted as a view, and beyond that, in general the content creator gets a higher payout from Premium viewers than from ad viewing users.
- xp84 1y ago
  I'd worry that if this is really caused by an adblocker, it's possible YT uses these same view counting mechanism that's being blocked to increment their Premium views, meaning Premium subscribers who don't explicitly turn their blocker off on YouTube could be being undercounted. If so that should be fixed, for Premium viewership, as that's not really fair to anyone.
  - tracker1 1y ago
    That is hard for me to even say... 95% of my viewing is via my NVidia Shield TV box attached to my TV. I only occasionally will view a tutorial or hit YouTube Music from my computer or phone.

jowea 1y ago

Why are view counts displayed prominently in the UI then? Every suggested video shows it's view count as a sort of social proof.