Just out of curiosity, what is it EXACTLY about ads on YouTube that you dislike? Is it that they exist at all? That there are too many of them? That they’re unskippable? What would you, specifically, find to be a tolerable amount of ads? If you were Chief Ad Engineer at YouTube, how would you structure the ads system?
I have my thoughts on the matter, but I want to know what YOU think.
this is like a soulless manager or some ai bot trying to figure why the human brain hates terrible interruptions
What would you, specifically, find to be a tolerable amount of ads?
Ads are a brainwashing technique designed to turn my baser instincts against myself for someone else’s gain. And they’re unwanted content that disrupts the flow of the content I’ve chosen to watch.
The ad industry is parasitic. I have avoided ads since they first hit the web. Initially, I would not visit or remain on any web page with an ad. When that became untenable, I installed ad blockers. I presently download YT videos to view locally to avoid ads. When that stops working, I will stop watching YT videos.
I pay to skip ads on podcasts if I like and enjoy the content. I skip them on the ones I don’t pay for. If the ad model is particularly obnoxious and I don’t like a show enough to pay, I stop listening.
Ads bad. If I want to support a creator I will do so personally not via watching ads. I’ll stop watching YT before I suffer through a single ad.
Is it that they exist at all? That there are too many of them? That they’re unskippable?
Yes, and they’re in the middle of the video. And they spy on my internet use to manipulate me through targeted ads.
If you were Chief Ad Engineer at YouTube, how would you structure the ads system?
There should be more ways to avoid them. I don’t use YouTube enough to justify a premium sub, but I would be interested in paying either for specific channels or watch time.
There is no tolerable amount of ads, because not only are they an awful experience, they explicitly drive user hostile growth and decisions in the future (ie enshitification).
I used to pay for YouTube to avoid ads, before I got sick of Google and refused to give them any more money. Now I use a pihole and a browser based adblocker, as well as 3rd party front ends, because fuck Google. I don’t give a shit if I’m denying them income.
I hate the official YouTube app. I have YouTube Premium but that’s because I use YT Music mostly (have been using on and off since GPM days). But shorts shoved in your face, subscription page jumbled with updates, comments and videos (I only want videos) ; no way to choose a system wide video quality (app only has High or Data Saver option; one needs to manually toggle for each video ; contrary, NewPipe has this basic feature).
There is also the donate button on multiple YouTube videos (Atleast give me the option to remove/customize that button/other buttons on that ribbon). Why are paying users subject to worse UI?
Oh, and these people throttle stuff on Firefox and have probably been doing since times immemorial.
I have been wondering if I should let YT Premium lapse and not renew it. I tried Spotify Premium once and whilst it’s 3rd party support is phenomenal, it has its own bugs (and they are similarly slow despite their forums being full with bug reports as well). Almost like I should hoard my own music from ahem, sources.
to me I still use the paid version because, for me it’s not that expensive on the family plan, and I do want the content creators to get paid. I do hate the monopoly etc… but as far as I can tell it’s one that can’t really be broken. Far as I can see no other site can actually arrange a system in which creators get paid any substantial amount.
also do have to note the inevitable put up or shut up part of nature. There’s basically only 2 options of systems when it comes to the internet, either we deal with ads or we pay for services. Until a magical extra option appears I’m OK with paying to avoid ads.
If it we weren’t Google, I’d be ok with paying too. As it is, the content creators will have to get by with their individual sponsorships, rather than getting ad revenue from me.
I pay to avoid ads on Amazon Prime… Now i have to endure unskippable ads every 10 minutes, and my annual fee is up over 50% since i started.
Fuck them. No matter what, these mercantilists will extract everything they can, and they will break any promise or contract they sign as soon as it bemefits them. We, however, cannot do the same.
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The ads aren’t targeted properly for one thing. I see ads for stuff that would never apply to me. Such a waste of money.
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Many of the videos already have a sponsor, so they are double-dipping.
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Also I’m not going to sit through 60 seconds of ads for a five minute video. Get real.
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And don’t lie to me about “Watch this long ad break and we won’t show you more ads during this program.”
I think Prime has the right idea of front loading the ads at the beginning of the program instead of interrupting thinks every few minutes.
I’d pay for ad-free YouTube if it didn’t cost as much as HBO. Charge $3 to $5 a month and I’d consider it. Otherwise I’ll just mute the TV, or skip the programming altogether.
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My take on ads is this: I’ve been using the internet since 1989 - before search engines, advertising, SLIP/PPP/ADSL, etc.
When ads began to appear on websites in the late 90s, I was OK with it. A banner ad here, etc. Then they started to move. And flash. And make noise. And then popups, and pop-unders.
At that point I started to BLOCK THEM ALL. If your business model is a game of distraction from the site I’m visiting, then fuck you, your family, and anyone you’ve ever met.
Moving on to UI web-based stuff, the demise of excellent sites like AltaVista (with its superior search syntax) and the growth of Goooooooogle (with its astonishingly and intentionally shit search syntax), the progress and intention was obvious.
There was a brief period where Google, etc, provided what people wanted. But that time has passed. Now it’s all in on GIGO: garbage in, garbage out.
tl;dr: Once advertisers started to behave like gambling sites, they were yeeted to the hell in which they belong.
I despise ads, it’s brainwashing and psychological manipulation. No amount is tolerable. I have refused jobs at advertising companies even when I had money problems and needed to eat. If I were working for Google, I would quit.
I know many people, including me, that fall victim to the manipulation of advertising.
Back in the olden days, it was “here is my product, and this is the price, if you like it buy from this store” Now it’s not just the actual ad, it’s product placement in tv and movies, celebrity endorsement, influencers, and all that.
Just remember that advertising costs money, and that is in the price of the product. Products that don’t advertise can easily be better value.
Back in the olden days, it was “here is my product, and this is the price, if you like it buy from this store”
When exactly are these olden days you refer to? I ask because most “modern” advertising practices have long-since been in place for over a century now; the only things that’ve changed are the delivery method and frequency.
Asking a question and answering it in the next sentence… is there a word for that?
There are lots of local brands that don’t advertise that are better than nationally-known brands, at a much lower cost.
Products that don’t advertise can easily be better value.
This is exactly my reasoning in refusing to do business with service providers that (in my view) over-advertise (looking at you Geico, Progressive, United Health, Taco Bell, other major advertisers)…
Any service provider doing that much advertising is telling me 2 things with every ad: First, you already obviously have too much money and, Second, you obviously don’t need my money.
Fuck you and your “brand recognition”.
🙄 🤡 🖕 💩
Don’t forget the third thing ads tell you: ‘Our product is, at best, no better than our competitors’, and quite possibly much worse, otherwise we wouldn’t have to spend so much on controlling our reputation.’
There were a time when I wanted to study marketing. I always love how Coca-Cola doesn’t try to make you buy its product, it’s just there, it doesnt say “buy!”, “we cheap!”, “we are better than the others!” or any bullshit. That dream ended when I learned what SEO was and what was doing to internet.
Coca-cola definitely advertises, famously Santa Claus, but did you also know they do more subversive things like trying to shift the blame for obesity onto the victims?
The YouTube engineers working on advertising are tasked with maximizing revenue, not making the user experience better.
It’s a de-facto monopoly and the only way to get better user experience is through adblock.
All of that shit and more like they’re attack vectors for malware and scams.
It’s not the ads I hate, it’s the data harvesting I hate. Static ads without trackers don’t exist on YouTube, unfortunately.
I understand that we exist under capitalism and that it costs money to host and distribute these videos.
I’m willing to pay for access to this service by letting an ad play (probably while I’m pouring a glass of water in another room and have my speakers off).
What gets me is a 3 minute ad on a 44 second video. Interrupting the middle of a sentence with an ad is also annoying. Placing a 30 second ad in the middle of a song can also fuck right off.
Find an appropriate spot for your ad, and make it’s length sensible with regards to the length of the content I’m watching. Or just don’t offer an ad supported tier of your service.
^ this. All of it. It’s death by a thousands cuts and just shows the incredible amount of greed they have (not shareholder value, it’s bloody greed).
The inability to rewind without activating ads was what really got me back in the day. Nobody wants to call over their friend to watch something cool/funny, only to have the clip trigger an ad when they restart it.
Fuck I hate this.
I run into this most often on sites for TV shows and movies myself.
But then how will the normies pay for premium to not see ads
Advertising is pollution
Full stop.
Every marketer is trying to coerce you into a decision you wouldn’t arrive at on your own by limiting the information available and lying to you.
If I were chief ad engineer at YouTube i would probably be afraid of anyone knowing what I did for money.
You know facilitating the theft of people’s money by targeting them with brainwashing.
If you’re a marketer. Get a real job pal.
