Gripe of the Day: YouTube

Silvaire

En-Route
Joined
Oct 10, 2012
Messages
4,612
Display Name

Display name:
Silvaire
Something that just sort of blossomed out of nowhere YouTube really took off. Like Facebook and Twitter, not things that I would have betted on at the time. But then, I'm just an old man so what do I know?

Well, I know that YouTube is startin' to **** me off. First the commercials started as pretty benign, but slowly like the frog in the pot scheme there were more of them. I have abandoned a few email accounts because of the onslaught of spam that just becomes a chore to filter through.

So I've been going through the same thing now with YouTube where I try to click "Don't recommend this channel" on all of the garbage that shows up but it's just like you're early feeble attempts to block spam calls on your phone, it doesn't work because duhhh... they never use the same number.

So hell there's my gripe of the day.
 
Back in the good old days, youtube was pretty good, no ads. Since the great "wokeness" it has really started to suck. Adds in the beginning and adds every 10 minutes, some you can't skip. I used to have an unmonitised channel but when they started plastering my videos with adds, I stopped making videos. Like everything google touches, it turns to ****.
 
Yes, but I have several videos that will show me how to change out the air compressor on my model/year car.
I would love an alternative but…
 
That's what ad blockers are for. Depending on your browser, there are several free options that take care of the problem.
 
Ad blockers for ads embedded within the YouTube video being shown?
 
Something that just sort of blossomed out of nowhere YouTube really took off. Like Facebook and Twitter, not things that I would have betted on at the time. But then, I'm just an old man so what do I know?

Well, I know that YouTube is startin' to **** me off. First the commercials started as pretty benign, but slowly like the frog in the pot scheme there were more of them. I have abandoned a few email accounts because of the onslaught of spam that just becomes a chore to filter through.

So I've been going through the same thing now with YouTube where I try to click "Don't recommend this channel" on all of the garbage that shows up but it's just like you're early feeble attempts to block spam calls on your phone, it doesn't work because duhhh... they never use the same number.

So hell there's my gripe of the day.

I thought everyone uses a ad blocker, I do on every computer, phone and I pad. Free and easy to use. There are some sites that won't let you use them with ad blockers, I don't use them. Their loss not mine.
https://adblockplus.org/
 
I discovered that like ads in websites, I simply began to ignore them. Even the interruptions were null.

But, as @Gary Ward mentioned, ad blockers can help. I don't see the ads on my PC and, if I really want to get rid if them on my iPad (where I watch most of them), I just watch in the Duck Duck Go browser rather than the YouTube app.
 
There’s an ad blocker that keeps you from getting embedded commercials?
 
There’s an ad blocker that keeps you from getting embedded commercials?
There are a couple of ways to do that. One is to use a browser extension that does just that. There are a few, but I am not sure of how well they work. The other way would be to use a VPN, making it look like you are connected from a place like Cambodia or inner Mongolia (YouTube doesn't like most VPNs, but Protonvpn seems to work quite well for me). Since the ads on YouTube are geotargeted, and there are no paying advertisers for viewers in inner Mongolia, the videos will be uninterrupted. This is the system I generally use, mainly because I always have a VPN on anyway.
 
uBlock Origin works well as a Chrome extension. I see none of the embedded ads on YouTube and can skip to wherever I want on the video.
 
The people that create content for YouTube and similar platforms don't deserve to be paid. They should be giving us what we want, when we want it, for nothing more than the satisfaction that comes from reading the negative comments.
Nice use of sarcasm!

I watch enough YouTube videos that I decided to pay for their premium service, which eliminates the ads, at least in the stuff I've been watching.
 
The worst part about YouTube ads is watching Grammarly change a grammatically correct sentence to an incorrect one because it "sounds better."
 
Yes. I watch YT on my television, not signed in. Then they can't (or at least don't) use what you watch to send you emails). I have my laptop open, and mute during the commercials. My big gripe is that most of the commercials had an option to Skip after about 5 secs. Now, you have to have them on until they end.
 
I used to go to Youtube for simple time killing entertainment or for short informational or how-to videos. Today's creators have learned from Hollywood how to stretch out and fill a video with minutes of worthless content and teasers to keep you watching, or just straight clickbait titles and thumbnails. Its really gotten annoying. I use Tiktok for time killing, haha!
 
but slowly like the frog in the pot scheme there were more of them.
I suspect the intent may be to drive people to pay for YouTube Premium.
Or, perhaps, the thinking doesn't go beyond the "more commercials must mean more money" without considering the effects of supply and demand. A year or two ago, Google decided to "help" the creators by automatically inserting mid-roll ads in any video over 8 minutes to increase your revenue (at least that's what they claimed). And, while I don't have actual data, a lot of the "big name" creators are commenting about revenue going down - hardly a surprise...
 
So, if we all use a VPN “relocating” us to another location that doesn’t have a market and no pushed ads, than YouTube will see all the new traffic from that location and will start targeting it for ads. That means we’ll have to keep moving around. That sounds like fun.

Yes, YouTuber’s content is motivated eventually, if not immediately, by their ability to increase viewership and revenue. No surprises there.

$11.99 to stop getting ads? No thanks.
 
I'm not really sure what the gripe is here. Everything costs money, so if you're not paying for it, then someone else is, and that means you're subjected to what the people paying for it want. Whenever I watch "regular" television, I'm aghast at how many advertisements there are, and how it seems to be more advertisements than show itself. It's the worst if you're watching a movie on TV. By comparison, YouTube is much, much better. And if you want their Premium service, you can get rid of ads. I won't pay for it, so I accept the ads.

Note that the ads are also how they monetize channels, and the channels have some level of control over how much you can be forced to watch their ads.

Frankly, I actually really like what YouTube and streaming have done for both advertisements and content. The fact that now you can make an episode of anything as long as makes sense as opposed to having to edit it to fit a particular block of time is nice. Similarly, they have ads that have fixed periods of time, but it's also nice that if an advertiser wants to produce something longer (and if it's of interest enough to watch it) that they can do these longer ads. Do I ever watch them? No, I hit "skip" as soon as I can, but I like the fact that there's the option for those companies to make something more in-depth that actually explains what they do.
 
I think the World is about to end. I agree with The Ted.

Even you can be right sometimes, Michael.

It's typically when you're agreeing with me, so it doesn't happen much, but nobody can fault you for being correct occasionally.
 
There are a couple of ways to do that. One is to use a browser extension that does just that. There are a few, but I am not sure of how well they work. The other way would be to use a VPN, making it look like you are connected from a place like Cambodia or inner Mongolia (YouTube doesn't like most VPNs, but Protonvpn seems to work quite well for me). Since the ads on YouTube are geotargeted, and there are no paying advertisers for viewers in inner Mongolia, the videos will be uninterrupted. This is the system I generally use, mainly because I always have a VPN on anyway.

This really illustrated that you don't understand his complaint. A YouTube channel embedding content into their video is not something you can easily avoid with a VPN, because it's (sometimes) almost indistinguishable from the actual content.

That being said, there were a couple of extensions/apps that were attempting to determine which sections were advertisement focused and try to simplify skipping that part of the video. At check, it wasn't perfect but was usable.
 
It is come to my attention that at some point, I accidentally fat-fingered the Like button on the OP. This error has been corrected.

I am cheap and enjoy being able to get things for free. If that means sitting through a couple ads then that's okay with me. If it ever become not okay, I am free to choose to pay for a premium subscription.
 
I pay the $10/ month to never see ads.

It feels stupid to have to do that but Ted is right everything on the screen has to be paid for by someone.
My gripe is that I have to go turn off midroll and non skippable ads as YT turns those on by default.
When they made that decision, they retroactively turned them on in prior videos.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ted
I pay the $10/ month to never see ads.

It feels stupid to have to do that but Ted is right everything on the screen has to be paid for by someone.
My gripe is that I have to go turn off midroll and non skippable ads as YT turns those on by default.
When they made that decision, they retroactively turned them on in prior videos.


I only watch your videos for the ads
 
It feels stupid to have to do that but Ted is right everything on the screen has to be paid for by someone.

I pay for the MotorTrend channel and I consider it worth every penny. YouTube would be about 3x what MotorTrend charges for content that I can already watch, just to get rid of the ads, so I'll stick to the ads.

And Bryan, I leave ads going during your video to help your monetization stats - I expect a cut of the $0.002 you've been monetized because of that. ;)
 
With that kind of earnings potential, you might be able to afford a tank of gas by the time you die.

That reminded me, a buddy of mine took a multi year unpaid LOA from a legacy to hang out and YT full time. Biggest flex i ever saw, but you know them #YOLO crowd!
 
That reminded me, a buddy of mine took a multi year unpaid LOA from a legacy to hang out and YT full time. Biggest flex i ever saw, but you know them #YOLO crowd!
Well, we're waiting. How did it turn out?

And the complaint is rather easy, for those who claim not to understand. Most of us recognize there is a cost to everything. I understand the content creator does what he does in order to obtain money. But there is a price limit to what I am willing to pay. One commercial, okay. But multiple commercials I can't skip, together with in-content ads are too much. So, I do something else. The genius of the free market.
 
And the complaint is rather easy, for those who claim not to understand. Most of us recognize there is a cost to everything. I understand the content creator does what he does in order to obtain money. But there is a price limit to what I am willing to pay. One commercial, okay. But multiple commercials I can't skip, together with in-content ads are too much. So, I do something else. The genius of the free market.

A concept hard for some to understand - you can always just close the browser window, turn off the TV, etc. etc.
 
Well, we're waiting. How did it turn out?

Dunno yet, cat just started it last month. He's been at it for a few years, decent following from where I sit, as an influencer culture agnostic that is.
 
I pay for the MotorTrend channel and I consider it worth every penny. YouTube would be about 3x what MotorTrend charges for content that I can already watch, just to get rid of the ads, so I'll stick to the ads.

And Bryan, I leave ads going during your video to help your monetization stats - I expect a cut of the $0.002 you've been monetized because of that. ;)
I'll start cutting up pennies in my garage.
 
I'll start cutting up pennies in my garage.

"Use this ONE SIMPLE TRICK that the FAA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW to more efficiently convert money into AvGas"
 
Back
Top