Louis Rossman/FUTO's YouTube app, GrayJay, now supports Sponsorblock... and shames you if you use it

Seriously this was very surprising. I’ve been experimenting with GrayJay since it was announced and I largely think it’s a pretty sweet app. I know there are concerns over how it isn’t “true open source” but it’s a hell of a lot more open than ReVanced. Plus, I like the general design and philosophy of the app.

I updated the YouTube backend recently and to my surprise and delight they had added support for SponsorBlock. However, when I went to enable it, it warned me “turning this on harms creators” and made me click a box before I could continue.

Bruh, you’re literally an ad-blocking YouTube frontend. What kind of mental gymnastics does it take to be facilitating ad-blocking and then at the same time shame the end-user for using an extension which simply automates seeking ahead in videos. Are you seriously gonna tell me that even without Sponsorblock, if I skip ahead past the sponsored ad read in a video, that I’m “harming the creator”?

Player2,

Before getting Sponsorblock, I would always manually skip forward past the integrated advertisements. This tool does the exact same thing but faster and more convenient for me. My conscience is unaffected

bionicjoey,

Precisely! The sponsors have to be aware that some subset of the audiences watching the sponsorees will skip ahead anyway. They can’t seriously believe that they are entitled to our attention.

Firenzebel,

They are aware of it I guess, but probably don’t deal with the issue in an effective way.

There’s a French channel I look at, they make sponsor sequences as well but I don’t skip them because they make those in such a bizarre, ridiculous and remotely funny way I’m even curious to see how bad the sponsor sequence is gonna be.

They alone are the only reason why I set up my sponsorblock to not skip sponsor sequences, but to skip everything else

Blackmist,

The Wadsworth Constant was a thing even from the earliest days of Youtube.

TCB13,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

Bruh, you’re literally an ad-blocking YouTube frontend. What kind of mental gymnastics does it take to be facilitating ad-blocking and then at the same time shame the end-user for using an extension which simply automates seeking ahead in videos.

+1

Firenzebel,

I guess there’s a moral reason behind it.

YouTube is a behemoth of a company so you’d expect most of the ads money to go to the creators but you can be sure it’s not.

They also demonetize videos for stupid reasons more and more, and they use their quasi monopole on the video hosting to push ads down our throats in many ways with less and less control over the type, placement or duration of the ads they greenlight because what are we gonna do? Go on vimeo or dailymotion?

On the other hand, sponsors pay the creators directly or through affiliated links, they work even if the video is demonetized, creators can decide whether or not they agree with the sponsor content and remain somewhat in control of how the sponsor sequence is gonna be in their video since they’re the ones making them.

Morally, you can decide you hate YouTube and its ads while still wanting to support the creators (or not) but all users are not on the same level of technological knowledge and might not know what sponsorblock is gonna block exactly (despite the name) or how to set it up.

For those users, I think it’s not a bad idea to have such a warning/opt-out step in the setup process.

Draconic_NEO,
@Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

This ignores the fact that these apps don’t have the functionality to tell YouTube a video or segment of a video has been watched, therefore they literally can’t make money off these users period, it’s just the way these clients work, they don’t send analytics data to YouTube, so they don’t count views. It’s as if the person paused the video, let it buffer all the way then clicked off without watching.

People can argue semantics about watching or not watching or what it means philosophically but in the end the views aren’t counted by the software on these apps, it doesn’t matter how much or how long you watch something it just doesn’t count the view, because they never receive any tracking data. So in that regard there really is no sense in shaming SponsorBlock usage, if it seems like a problem you shouldn’t be using these apps in the first place because they defeat the money-making part of the segments in and of themselves.

Alimentar,

I’m fairly certain they didn’t want to include it but felt it was the only way to offer the same/better service over revanced.

I’m sure as hell happy about that. I understand the creators need their sponsors but at the same time, I cannot stand ads. Like this I’m keeping his app and frequent it more often.

1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi,

He’s still bitter someone Sponsorblocked his cat segment :-)

sheepishly,
@sheepishly@kbin.social avatar

That's unironically the reason I don't use Sponsorblock, I don't have any control over what people choose to mark as sponsored, what if they make me skip important content like cat segments?

wolfshadowheart,
@wolfshadowheart@kbin.social avatar

You also don't have to set it up to skip automatically, it will play through with a popup option to skip.

fernandorincon,

Sponsorblock has categories and you can choose which to skip.

sheepishly,
@sheepishly@kbin.social avatar

But which category is the cat in??

fernandorincon, (edited )

Not having seen the video I would think it is in filler/off topic

Draconic_NEO,
@Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Also it’s important to report incorrect submissions since if enough people report them they get removed and the users who do this reprimanded.

desmosthenes,
@desmosthenes@lemmy.world avatar

damn y’all get all the cool shit on android :(

KnightontheSun,

Piped works on iOS. Invidious perhaps as well?

PopShark,

Piped works mediocre at best and the quality settings and buffer is finicky depending on your settings. It’s not worth the hassle imo because it doesn’t even have Sponsorblock. Sadly on iOS I usually just stick to default YouTube app mostly with no Sponsorblock. But soon I want to try some of the modified youtube apps from Altstore.

On Android TV on my sony bedroom tv I recently switched from the default YouTube app to Smarttube which is GOAT tbh I had no idea what I was missing. I wish I could get that but on iOS yaknow?

KnightontheSun,

It does have SponserBlock. You have to tick the box to enable it. Is it great? No, but it served me well enough whilst traveling so as the only option it works. I won’t use the default app. I don’t really watch too many videos on my phone. I wait to watch on a pc at home where I have better quality and control.

Skelectus, (edited )
@Skelectus@suppo.fi avatar

I think they said that they technically don’t block ads. They just don’t implement them. If youtube were to somehow pack ads into the video stream, they wouldn’t go around it. Though I’m sure that in such case an adblock extension would pop up very fast.

Norgur,

Since the app has ties to creators, I get why they disapprove of sponsorblock, but... Why did they implement it if they don't like it?

bionicjoey,

Certainly there was big demand for it. I was hoping they’d eventually implement it as I’d been testing the app out

Draconic_NEO,
@Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I get why they disapprove of sponsorblock

The app strips analytics and watch data preventing views from being counted. So the argument doesn’t logically make sense. They’re trying to make a moral argument out of something that doesn’t and can’t have any impact because the data used to justify watch-time and engagement isn’t provided.

verysoft, (edited )

Just use the NewPipe + Sponsorblock fork.

McFarius,

Did not know this fork exists. Thank you for enlightening my day, Internet stranger.

JohnDClay,

I don’t think newpipe works with recommendations or leaving comments does it?

smallaubergine,

correct, newpipe has no account integration be design for privacy

JohnDClay,

I wonder if one could design an extension that would do a rough recommendation algorithm locally. I use recommendations a ton, so I can’t really switch to newpipe.

wolfshadowheart,
@wolfshadowheart@kbin.social avatar

FWIW I've found Piped (LibreTube on Android) has decent recommendations when you are inside a video. Main feed is just standard, but once you go into a video the suggestions are roughly the same in my experience.

db2,

Commenting on YouTube? Gross.

nameisnotimportant,
@nameisnotimportant@lemmy.ml avatar

I do too and I’ve been wondering why we would need anything else 👍

stifle867,

I’m confused about your stance on ReVanced. It’s about as open-source as you can get github.com/revanced/revanced-patches

bionicjoey,

With ReVanced there is a core underlying app being patched which is not OSS. With GrayJay, the source of the whole thing is source-available

stifle867,

I understand that and wouldn’t have commented if you said that. Instead you said that, quote, ReVanced, end quote, is not open source.

kick_out_the_jams, (edited )

My understanding is that it literally can't be used in an open fashion since it critically requires a proprietary closed base.

Some source code is available but the entire thing is not open source.

ayaya,
@ayaya@lemdro.id avatar

I think you guys are just discussing semantics. Revanced as a project is the patches themselves, so Revanced is open source. But a YouTube app patched with the Revanced patches is not.

kick_out_the_jams,

That's a better way to frame it.

The patch is 'about as open source as you can get' but the actual application is far from it.

stifle867,

Exactly. Could have just said YouTube is closed source from the start when ReVanced is 100% open-source.

brothershamus,
@brothershamus@kbin.social avatar

Well I'm glad that's settled then.

bionicjoey,

Well the app it creates on your device is not open source. The patch is, but the actual software being run isn’t.

Also you can just use actual quotation marks my dude, no need to say “quote end quote” like some kind of Dan Carlin impersonator

noodlejetski,

no it’s not. the modifications are open source, but the base client is the same old closed source Youtube app.

Merwyn,

I may be wrong but from what I’ve heard from some “small” content creator on YouTube the money from the sponsored talks in their video is a much bigger part of their income than money from youtube coming from the YouTube-selected ads that play before/during the video.

Also, this part do not give any money to YouTube and do not use/collect any data on you.

nicetriangle,
@nicetriangle@kbin.social avatar

How would anybody confirm whether the sponsor ads are being watched or not?

crunchpaste,
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I believe YouTube provides analytics on this to the creator which may be shared with a potential sponsor before a deal is made.

nicetriangle,
@nicetriangle@kbin.social avatar

Ah TIL. Thanks for the details.

crunchpaste,
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Take it with a grain of salt, as I can’t provide any sources and I’m not a YouTube content creator. I just remember some channels sharing than.

howrar,

Can confirm. I upload YouTube videos and it shows me stats on which parts of the video people watch.

bionicjoey,

The point remains, all Sponsorblock does is skip the video ahead. Something most rational people do anyway even without the extension. And creators to my knowledge don’t get paid based on the number of views their sponsored sections get.

NuXCOM_90Percent,

They do and they don’t.

I am not aware of any creators who get sponsorships paid in impressions. Albeit, I don’t really talk to anyone who goes hard on tiktok or instagram so there is that.

But it is not at all uncommon for a sponsorship deal to include some metrics. They want to know retention rate, how often people skip past your sponsor bits, etc. And youtube DOES record that. Many videos will have a little chart if you mouse over the tracking bar that shows the most rewatched portions.

And if you can demonstrate that people tend to actually watch your sponsored segments? You often can get a MUCH bigger check. Its why a lot of mid-tier creators will do a skit for their sponsored segment. And why the really big ones completely phone it in because they know the vast majority of their watches are people who can’t go to sleep without having Ninja talk about how he can’t be around women who aren’t his wife.

Dasnap, (edited )
@Dasnap@lemmy.world avatar

If I’m not buying the crap that sponsors them anyway then how does it affect the creator if I skip the section? I assume the success of the sponsor is based off referrals but again, I’m not buying their crap or using referral links.

Infiltrated_ad8271,
@Infiltrated_ad8271@kbin.social avatar

Same for me, and it's not even just about sponsors as there are many other categories. How does it help the creators to tell me for the umpteenth time to subscribe or something about a bell, when I don't even have a google account?

Sponsorblock is a wonder, I wouldn't watch certain channels without it anymore.

bionicjoey,

Precisely. Basically every company that markets themselves using YouTube sponsorships is a scam anyway.

bighatchester,

That’s a bit of a blanket statement. The way people talk about ads and sponsorships makes it sound like you want the people making the videos you are watching to fail and stop making videos. Or do you contribute to the channels you watch another way to ensure they can keep making money ?

bionicjoey,

I use Patreon and Nebula yes. But I don’t think creators should feel entitled to people watching the ad section of their videos. And advertisers shouldn’t feel entitled to have their ads be seen.

NuXCOM_90Percent,

Can already summarize the following conversation:

  • “I donate to patreons of creators I like so I refuse to watch ads”
  • “Okay. So you found the Patreon of the random dude who recorded himself swapping out a bathtub spout and made the single most useful video in human history?”
  • “I donate to patreons of creators I like so I refuse to watch ads”
  • “Also, I assume you only have a few in rotation. Does that mean you only watch videos by four or five creators and space them out?”
  • “I donate to patreons of creators I like so I refuse to watch ads”

It is no different than “If the game is worth buying, I’ll buy it” back in the day. It is people who feel the need to ethically justify their piracy making up random and nonsensical conditions, that are often refuted by the creators themselves, as to why they can’t even be bothered to alt tab out of a game to fast forward through learning that hello fresh have DISRUPTED tv dinners.

bionicjoey,

Sponsorblock simply jumps the video ahead automatically. If you’re okay with doing it manually, you should have no objection to a simple labour-saving device in the form of a browser plugin

NuXCOM_90Percent,

People are lazy and labor makes a big difference.

For example. There are some youtube channels with REALLY predatory and messed up sponsorships that I always skip. The videos are interesting enough, but I am not dealing with that. Thus, I’ll watch them on a side monitor while I work but not while I play a video game.

Contrast that with other creators where I don’t mind leaving the sponsor segment running.

And while I have never understood the rationale of it, I know there are a lot of people who will just leave a youtube playlist on while they go to sleep. Which… has potentials for subliminal advertising but also means the creator gets some free metrics saying their viewers don’t skip ads.

What that ALSO means is that channels with better skits or less shitty sponsors get watched, whereas the worse don’t. As opposed to everything getting skipped no matter what.

brothershamus,
@brothershamus@kbin.social avatar

Jesus christ

bighatchester,

I will skip through sponsor spots if they are really long but I also have YouTube premium because I want to support the YouTubers that I watch alot without seeing ads . I’m just always surprised by the amount of people that will put a lot of effort into making sure they don’t see any ads of any kind but will also refuse to pay anything .

NuXCOM_90Percent,

Personally? I am excited for when one of these “alternate youtubes” start charging a fee. And people pay it

Like, fuck reddit for a lot of reasons. But I still find it completely insane that people were paying a third party to not view ads on reddit.

bighatchester,

I bought sync for Reddit a few years ago but as a one time fee and it wasn’t really to get rid of ads but to support the developer. I wouldn’t pay a monthly fee . I have sync for Lemmy now but don’t pay any fees because there was no one time fee option.

Hubi,

Nah, I watch a lot of videos about cars and most sponsors are legitimate businesses and some that I’ve bought from before.

VPNs and apps on the other hand…

bionicjoey, (edited )

Yeah, VPNs, mobile games, subscription services…

But yeah, some smaller and more niche channels might advertise real useful products, but that’s very much in the minority

Edit: FWIW I have bought exactly one product which I learned about from a YouTube sponsorship. It was a set of Sleephones I heard about from an ASMR maker. They’ve made a huge difference for my sleep and the company that makes them is pretty good about selling replacement parts

bighatchester,

I’m a big fan of my ridge wallet that I heard about through various YouTubers. I actually lost mine on a busy road and it got run over by a bunch of cars and when I relocated thanks to my tile tracker that I also heard about from YouTubers it was still perfectly fine other than some scratches. I swear I’m not sponsored lol .

PopShark,

Thing about those modern sleek more compact wallets just make me feel like I couldn’t use them because they wouldn’t fit every use case I have for my wallet. Like I guess if you only have a couple debit/credit cards plus ID and otherwise use like apple or android pay and I guess hardly ever or never use cash. I mean use in a typical everyday transaction, sure they can hold like folded up bills neatly but did everyone forget change exists? In every use of cash id have to stuff coins in some free pocket and a lot of circulating bills aren’t exactly as crisp and foldable as a stock certificate lol

bighatchester,

I have 8 cards in mine and could probably fit another one or two . And have put a couple hundred dollars of 20s in my wallet. For change it mostly just goes in the center part of my car. Plus there is no Penny’s since I’m in Canada. Lonnie’s and quarters all go in my laundry change holder when I get home. So it works perfect for my usage atleast.

Spitfire,
@Spitfire@pawb.social avatar

Exactly, I wouldn’t be buying anything sponsored anyway, and I’d just skip ahead myself if SponsorBlock didn’t exist.

ZeroHora,
@ZeroHora@lemmy.ml avatar

I think it depends on the deal they have made. If YouTubers only get paid when someone actually buys a product, then NordVPN pays cents to each Youtuber

crunchpaste,
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I believe this is because sponsor segments are like traditional TV ads. They don’t use trackers, they are not targeted and they respect your privacy.

xep, (edited )

They don’t use trackers, they are not targeted and they respect your privacy.

In that case it won't matter to anyone that I skipped them.

joyjoy, (edited )

They don’t use trackers,

Well, they can see whether you watched them or not. So technically still tracked. At least in the official youtube app.

EnderofGames,

They can see the percentage of people who watched that part of the video, as part of the video analytics. This doesn’t track the user, though, at least not if you have history turned off, or are using another front end.

crunchpaste,
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

And I’d guess that’s done in the backend instead of the frontend. They should be able to know how many times their server steamed a part of a video.

Draconic_NEO, (edited )
@Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Well when a video is buffered it’s loaded in memory but not viewed yet, they can’t count loading the video as a view or they’d count the whole video as viewed if you simply buffered it in full, it would also screw up that watched timestamps feature to see which part has been played back most.

So yes they can count how many times it has been streamed but they also need to know you’ve watched it because sitting on pause while the video buffers all the way through isn’t a view, it isn’t watching those segments, but it does stream them from the servers, in the same way Newpipe and Grayjay does. Which is how a video can register no views despite being watched on something like NewPipe.

crunchpaste, (edited )
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

As I’ve mentioned in another thread, I believe YouTube provides analytics on this (hence the “most replayed” parts for some videos), and I’m certain I’ve seen some creators mention sposors requiring that information before a deal is made. So it may really hurt some small youtubers that can’t rely on merchandise sales.

That said, I personally use sponsorblock as I don’t feel like wasting my life on nordvpn ads, but I have to admit sponsor segments are a whole lot better than regular YouTube ads.

Edit: And as I far as I know they pay much better than regular ads.

MigratingtoLemmy,

I wish there was an add-on that could fake a view for the sponsored segment for the creator but skip it for the user. I.e. every time the user skips a sponsored segment, the extension adds a view for the sponsored segment for the creator, so they get paid whilst we skip their segment.

Scrollone,

The most replayed section won’t count your view anyway since you’re watching through an unofficial app that doesn’t send tracking data to YouTube

Draconic_NEO,
@Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

It’s true that YouTube does track the most watched portions of a video, but in the case of clients like NewPipe or this one the way the video is parsed it doesn’t send the analytic data necessary, so it likely doesn’t even count views, let alone watched segments.

infectoid,
@infectoid@lemmy.world avatar

I manually skip all sponsored segments except for the Internet Historian ones.

sexy_peach,

You thief!! /s

infectoid, (edited )
@infectoid@lemmy.world avatar

Pretty much. I watch all the NordVPN Man ads and don’t even sign up for a 12 month discount and the first month free. I’m basically a criminal.

Also Mullvad FTW.

PopShark,

My man Windscribe always forgotten about

SchizoDenji,

Localscriptman also does really creative ones.

WarmApplePieShrek,

And Some More News

Apollo2323,

You are right! I used to hate on sponsors but now I understand that they are way better than targeted ads.

Chais,
@Chais@sh.itjust.works avatar

I don’t care for those, either.

Mac,

I skipped over therlm for years before using sponsorblock anyway.

bionicjoey,

If that was their reasoning, they should say that rather than vaccuously claiming that it “harms creators”

half_built_pyramids,

Vaccumoulsy

crunchpaste,
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Well, it does harm creators, as they may get less money. The same goes for adblockers.

Then again I don’t really understand why would you care about being “shamed”, especially by a company that charges money for a frontend using YouTube’s (extremely expensive) servers for free.

bionicjoey,

Then again I don’t really understand why would you care about being “shamed”, especially by a company that charges money for a frontend using YouTube’s (extremely expensive) servers for free.

To paraphrase Norm MacDonald: the worst part is the hypocrisy 😅

EnderofGames,

“extremely expensive” is a bit of an overstatement.

Youtube proper, not the rest of Google, is tens of billions in the black, annually.

They reached this level of control over the market by running without video ads for a long time, forcing competitors to close out or not even open into the market without similar money backing. Turning around now and forcing tracking and ads should open them up to antitrust suits.

It’s all arbitrage. If you can afford YouTube Premium’s price, and don’t mind the tracking, go for it. But all this ad blocking and alternative front ends MIGHT come to half a billion annually. uBlock has around 15 million installs, each installed user- assuming all separate and unique and blocking YouTube- would have to deny YouTube $1000 annually for it to be affecting their revenue.

Kir,

They don’t respect my attention and time, thought

crunchpaste,
@crunchpaste@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I completely agree with you, and that’s the reason I block them as well. I was just trying to give an explaination for the app’s behaviour.

NuXCOM_90Percent,

I mean, the person making the video you are watching respected your time to the point they put in 10-100x the amount of time it takes you to watch that video to make it.

And the sponsor ad is how they afford said time commitment.

brothershamus,
@brothershamus@kbin.social avatar

Then they fucked up.

glimse,

Skip it all you want but don’t act like it’s such a terrible inconvenience. Creating high quality content is a full time job and people gotta eat

Auli,

No people think everything should be free.

Dirk_Darkly,

Shit, I didn’t realize the only way some people can eat is by making Youtube videos.

glimse,

Shit, I didn’t realize there were 48 hours in a day.

Sorry, you’re right. Creators should work their 9-5 and then spend another 8 hours a day making videos for us out of the goodness of their hearts. I now think it’s disgusting that these people try to monetize their hard work

I think it’s ironic that the argument is both “sponsor segments don’t respect my time!” AND “I have no respect for the time of the creators”

Dirk_Darkly,

Nobody needs YouTube videos nor is anyone compelled to make them. I’m guessing you don’t remember when YouTube was completely free and people just made videos for fun?

Now people quit jobs that support them to do something fun and try to make monry off that. Which is fine, but we’re not required to support their hobby. Stop acting like people have no other option in their life except to make reaction videos, video essays, meme compilations, etc.

glimse,

If nobody needs them then why are they complaining? Just don’t watch it. Your problem is solved!

Videos on YouTube are so much better than the era you’re remembering. If nordvpn or whoever sponsoring videos is the way for creators to continue making great things on a regular schedule, I’m not gonna make a huff when they take a minute to acknowledge them. I skip most of them, too, but I’m not venting about what a terrible inconvenience it is.

And sorry for not specifying that I wasn’t speaking about reaction videos and meme compilations when I said “high quality”, I thought it that would be pretty damn clear but I guess we watch different things on YouTube

Stop acting like it’s morally wrong to get paid for your work. If there’s a market for it, why shouldn’t people do it full time? Should Hollywood work for free, too?

brothershamus,
@brothershamus@kbin.social avatar

Okay let's get this straight: No Ads. Ever. Period. Capisce?

Create, don't create, steal, don't steal, jerk off, don't jerk off - don't care. NO. ADS. THE END.

glimse,

Ok

Kir,

Seriously, this. Advetising based economy is hell. what’s next? a punch in the face every 5 minutes of watching? And don’t you dare cover your face, because the creators deserve compensation and punch-a-face insertion by big corporation is the only way they got!

WarmApplePieShrek,

It is.

Kir,

Everytime the same argument. I don’t want to see ads never ever, period. They are useless and annoying at best, sometimes plain evil manipulation.

I recognize the need of income for creators, and they can ask for money in the form of donation/subscription and other methods. I am paying and will pay for everything I want to support. If you decide that your way to sustain yourself is by shoving up fake opinions and useless noise in order to manipulate me into buying something, I don’t accept it. It’s as simple as that.

glimse,

If the creators you like choose to monetize with sponsors, you can choose not to watch them instead of complaining about it on a forum. Or go create the content you like yourself.

I don’t like ads either and have stopped watching several channels because of how they use them.

“Every time the same argument” is right - “my time is valuable but the creator’s time is not!”

AeroLemming,

Instead of not watching them, you can just use SponsorBlock!

glimse,

Go for it! I’m not holding that against anyone. I’m railing against the entitlement of saying it’s “not respectful of the viewer’s time” to have sponsored segments.

Like I said elsewhere, I think that stance is ironic because it’s not respecting the creator’s time and effort. “I want you to spend hours and hours making videos for me but I don’t want you to make money from it”

AeroLemming,

Yeah, I see video monetization as running on a similar model to that of free to play games. The majority of people either don’t make you any money or only very little money, but they boost your engagement and popularity metrics so that you get more ‘whales’ that do things like donating on Patreon, choosing to watch sponsors and use affiliate codes, and buying merch.

Ads are only the worth the actual amount of business they generate. I know that a lot of people don’t realize that even if they never intentionally buy something from an ad, the familiarity of seeing things in an ad makes them more likely to pick it over something else down the line. However, this still only works if you have any disposable income and don’t immediately hit mute, close your eyes, and count to 30 when an ad comes on. A lot of people using ad blockers would just devalue the ads themselves if they were forced to watch them. The people with the money just pay for Premium.

ColeSloth,

It’s also under control of what the creator placed in the video. Youtube can insert commercials into your video, even if you chose not to monetize it.

YeOldGrim,

On one hand true, on the other, a lot of those sponsorships advertise dubious things at best. I love the channels that just shill their own merch, but being entirely fair, you need to be at a certain revenue threshold to afford making said merch.

The problem with those, 3rd party sponsorships is that they’re usually just either mobile games, F2P(P2W) MMOs, overpriced basic products or software advertised in the FUD way. Sorry, I don’t care for Raid Shadow Legends, War Thunder, Manscaped or NordVPN. Especially the last one and the ones like it grind my gears because the sponsorships for that kind of product are borderline misinformation.

All of them, in some way, can be considered somewhat predatory. I’d rather buy a silly hat or a plushie, thank you very much.

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    Attempt #

    Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 4198400 bytes) in /var/www/kbin/kbin/vendor/symfony/http-kernel/Profiler/FileProfilerStorage.php on line 171

    Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 528384 bytes) in /var/www/kbin/kbin/vendor/symfony/monolog-bridge/Processor/DebugProcessor.php on line 81