[HN Gopher] SponsorBlock - Skip over sponsorship segments on You...
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       SponsorBlock - Skip over sponsorship segments on YouTube
        
       Author : bgstry
       Score  : 89 points
       Date   : 2021-04-21 07:04 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (sponsor.ajay.app)
 (TXT) w3m dump (sponsor.ajay.app)
        
       | exikyut wrote:
       | What an excellent application of automating everything you can.
       | Yay!
       | 
       | This is great. I'm already spamming the right arrow key as soon
       | as I realize a video has segued into a "I sold my soul to..."
       | bit. I appreciate creators who quietly make such segments a
       | consistent length and clearly cue them, so I can accurately guess
       | how long to skip :)
       | 
       | As for "but _why???_ ", well, I believe advertising is
       | fundamentally broken because it has no feedback loop. It's "throw
       | money at the wall and see what sticks."
       | 
       | Analytics and THE COOKIE MONSTER YEETS ALL YOUR PERSONAL
       | INFORMATION tries to handwave a feedback loop into existence
       | (with measurability, the appearance of substance etc), but that
       | doesn't really close the loop either.
       | 
       | IMO, the complexity of modern privacy invasion is solely a
       | function of the ridiculously high flotation point advertising
       | confers onto everything it touches. I argue that the apparent
       | success of that complexity is partly due to the fact that we
       | simply cannot reason about it end-to-end, and have to reduce our
       | analysis down to simple numerical metrics such as "X is making 1
       | billion dollars a year" ("wow that sounds successful"); and
       | partly due to the fact that throwing trillions of dollars at a
       | problem _will_ cause parts of that problem to move of the way
       | regardless of how fundamentally unsolvable that problem is, which
       | can give the appearance that the problem is tractable when it is
       | not.
       | 
       | Advertising might be the single most attractive thing in the
       | world (a meta-correlation I find endlessly amusing) right now,
       | but I can't help but see it as infinitely wide and shallow. What
       | scares me is that it's growing faster than people's attempts to
       | properly probe its depths; this will eventually peter out and--
       | oops, someone just popped the balloon.
       | 
       | Perhaps I could acquire sufficient sponsorship to fund a move to
       | Mars before that happens...?
       | 
       | In the meantime, because of the lack of a proper feedback loop,
       | there's a massive disconnect between the fact that the ad
       | industry is growing on one side, while uBlock Origin has
       | "10,000,000+" users on the other.
        
       | Raed667 wrote:
       | I have been using this for a while, and beyond the sponsorship
       | for whatever earbuds-junk or loot-box scam, this also skips those
       | annoying intro sections so many Youtubers add just to pad their
       | watch-time.
       | 
       | 100% recommend
        
       | csdreamer7 wrote:
       | Blocking 3rd party network ads do deprive creators of revenue;
       | but using uBlock Origins does have these important benefits:
       | 
       | *Protects you from malicious attacks through 3rd party ad
       | networks.
       | 
       | *Keeps your browser fast from trackers.
       | 
       | *Stops intrusive ads that literally take up 30% of your screen
       | and move the website around making it difficult to read an
       | article.
       | 
       | But sponsored segments built into the video itself? It has none
       | of these issues. A lot of creators do what they love, but they
       | still need income. If you value the content they create these
       | sponsored posts allow them to keep doing that or you can chip in
       | a few bucks to pay for an ad-free feed.
       | 
       | Video is a lot of work.
       | 
       | Source: made my own DevOps video course that I had to video edit
       | + now part of a video D&D podcast that I thankfully do not have
       | to edit or subtitle.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | Would you ever use a DVR to skip television commercials? To me,
         | it feels similar.
        
         | chrysoprace wrote:
         | If we assume you watch free-to-air TV (not that I do,
         | personally), or at least used to. Do you walk away from the TV
         | while an ad is playing? Or perhaps you have a DVR setup that
         | lets you skip ahead if you're watching on a slight delay.
         | 
         | Is that any different to skipping a sponsorship segment?
        
         | tittenfick wrote:
         | Sponsor elements are extremely intrusive. They entirely
         | interrupt the video you want to see. Here's my case: I don't
         | care how the people make their money. I just refuse to be
         | served any of that.
        
         | heavyset_go wrote:
         | That's cool, but content creators don't get to decide what ads
         | I see or don't see, or what ads I mute or fast forward through.
        
         | damsta wrote:
         | > Blocking 3rd party network ads do deprive creators of revenue
         | 
         | That is true and if you are using this extension consider
         | disabling "Sponsor" auto skip.
        
         | em-bee wrote:
         | i agree with your points except:
         | 
         |  _Stops intrusive ads that literally take up 30% of your screen
         | and move the website around making it difficult to read an
         | article. But sponsored segments built into the video itself? It
         | has none of these issues._
         | 
         | any ad disrupts the viewing experience and makes a video
         | difficult/annoying to view.
         | 
         | also, the impact of sponsor sections can only be measured based
         | on the total views of the video, regardless of whether people
         | actually see the ad or not. if i am not interested in the ad,
         | then blocking it from view makes absolutely no difference
         | (whereas adblock not loading an ad may reduce the exposure
         | count) (correction: apparently youtube does show engagement
         | over time, so it may be possible to figure out how many people
         | skip ads)
        
           | TurplePurtle wrote:
           | > the impact of sponsor sections can only be measured based
           | on the total views of the video
           | 
           | I don't think that's true at all.
           | 
           | 1. There are video analytics to measure what parts of the
           | video were watched.
           | 
           | 2. Even if you generally dislike ads, there is a chance that
           | you will see an ad you are interested in that you will check
           | out, which will contribute to the ad's effectiveness, and can
           | be measured. If you automatically block ads, the
           | effectiveness becomes 0 in all cases.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Past related threads:
       | 
       |  _Show HN: SponsorBlock - Skip YouTube Sponsorships, Intros,
       | Outros and More_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23533858
       | - June 2020 (2 comments)
       | 
       |  _An open-source browser extension to auto-skip sponsored
       | segments on YouTube_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21743196 - Dec 2019 (101
       | comments)
       | 
       |  _Show HN: SponsorBlock - Skip sponsorship segments of YouTube
       | videos_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20778926 - Aug
       | 2019 (137 comments)
        
       | londons_explore wrote:
       | With a million labelled examples, it ought to be possible to use
       | machine learning to detect sponsorships.
       | 
       | A simple version using the auto-generated captions should be
       | pretty straightforward - I'm sure a machine learning model can
       | figure out how to detect "This video is supported by..."
        
         | kartoshechka wrote:
         | Some channels make a lengthy sketch with sponsor "reveal" at
         | the very end
        
         | ajayyy wrote:
         | Check out https://ai.neuralblock.app/
         | 
         | All the data is public, so anyone can try!
         | 
         | I still think this will remain human-made for the foreseeable
         | future, as an AI will probably never be able to make the
         | millisecond-precise segments that it currenty has
        
       | antiterra wrote:
       | I'd suggest paying for things like https://watchnebula.com/ or a
       | creator's ad-free patreon version of videos is maybe a better
       | path than trying to game the ad system? Or at least in
       | conjunction with it.
        
         | input_sh wrote:
         | Happily paying for Nebula as a creator-owned platform. I don't
         | feel the slightest shred of guilt for cutting Google as a
         | middleman nor for using an ad-block.
         | 
         | Super happy it's a thing and have thoroughly enjoyed some of
         | the Nebula originals.
        
         | ajayyy wrote:
         | If Nebula existed before I created SponsorBlock, there is a
         | high chance that I would have never created it. Though, I am
         | happy that I ended up making it though, as there are other
         | annoyances to skip like "interaction reminders" and intros.
         | 
         | I think paying for sponsor-free videos is the best way out.
        
         | anticristi wrote:
         | How much does Nebula cost? I got to the "enter your card to
         | start your free trial" step, and I still have no clue how much
         | they charge.
        
           | colejohnson66 wrote:
           | On the linked page, under the "start free trial" button,
           | there's this:
           | 
           | > 7-day free trial
           | 
           | > then $5 per month or $50 per year
        
             | plushpuffin wrote:
             | You can get a much better deal than that. Sign up for
             | Curiosity Stream using a promoted bundle link and you get
             | Nebula free with it. It's only $12/year this way.
             | 
             | Here's one from the LegalEagle guy:
             | https://curiositystream.com/legaleagle/
        
           | ajayyy wrote:
           | You are not supposed to buy nebula though the nebula website.
           | You are supposed to buy it through a creator referral link in
           | a bundle with CuriosityStream.
           | 
           | The price on the website has to be higher as to encourage you
           | to use a referral, and to always make you get a "deal" from
           | the sponsorship.
        
       | vages wrote:
       | I get the technical justification for doing this: You own your
       | player, so you should be able to control it in whatever way you
       | want. But as consumers, how do we expect the uploader to get paid
       | for their work if we use both Adblock and Sponsor-skip (for the
       | lack of a better word)?
       | 
       | Pay to watch is, of course, an option, but that leads to
       | discrimination based on income - unequally distributed between
       | parts of the world and individuals in the same part of the world.
       | (Yes, I am aware that the sponsorship system leads the creators
       | to cater to the more well-off within each bubble, so it's still a
       | bit discriminatory.)
       | 
       | Any ideas or objections?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | zeta0134 wrote:
         | Personally, I just pay content creators as directly as
         | possible. If they have a YouTube subscription option available
         | I'll do that, but most of them seem to have a Patreon instead.
         | If I like someone's content, a couple of bucks a month (or a
         | video, or whatever) is more than worth it to me.
        
           | qshaman wrote:
           | I have the right to watch or not whatever I want , in the
           | same way publishers have the right to add sponsorship content
           | on their videos, same applies to ads , if you don't want to
           | see ads use an adblocker or skip the sponsorship part with an
           | app like this one. If creators don't like it , they should
           | find another way of monetizing their work. Shaming people
           | into watching ads is disgusting and wrong.
        
             | spockz wrote:
             | I think it strongly depends on your legislative region
             | whether you are allowed to watch whatever you want on your
             | own terms if the content has been published under different
             | terms.
             | 
             | When you use YouTube you accept the terms and conditions
             | (at least the parts that apply in your jurisdiction) which
             | (probably) should state that you are not allowed to
             | circumvent ads. If you do so you are in violation. Not sure
             | what the consequences of that are though.
        
             | delecti wrote:
             | > I have the right to watch or not whatever I want
             | 
             | You don't though. You have the right to _not_ watch
             | whatever you want, but if content is published with the
             | value proposition that the ads and /or sponsorships are the
             | price of admission, then it's hard to argue that you have
             | the right to access the content anyway. Some publishers try
             | to enforce restrictions like that, mostly ineffectively,
             | and it's probably only because of technical challenges that
             | more don't.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | anoncake wrote:
               | No. If content is published for 0EUR, it's free. If you
               | want money, charge for it. That's the only business model
               | that ensures that businesses serve their customers and
               | thus the only legitimate one.
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | Ads and sponsorships are two ways that creators can earn a
         | living, but there's additional ones; YT subscriptions, Patreon
         | and selling merchandise comes to mind.
         | 
         | Anyway the sponsors won't know (unless I'm mistaken) if a
         | viewer skipped that segment, so the creator will get paid
         | anyway.
        
           | chii wrote:
           | the sponsors will have metrics to measure the conversion rate
           | from ad-rolls in their sponsored videos. They will pay
           | initially, but over time, less and less as the ads become
           | less and less effective.
        
         | axiosgunnar wrote:
         | By your logic, high-income viewers (such as most of the HN
         | users) are currently paying *more* for viewing videos than the
         | average viewer since their attention is worth more.
        
         | gsich wrote:
         | Does Youtube track if I skip the ad segment? Or better: do the
         | uploaders know how many users saw the ad?
        
         | donw wrote:
         | I am curious if direct revenue shares are a sustainable model.
         | 
         | E.g., I pay some money -- $10/month. I can choose to pay more.
         | A fraction of that is divided evenly amongst all the videos
         | I've watched. Creators get a check at the end of the month.
         | 
         | This wouldn't rake in billions of advertiser money. But I think
         | it would sustain a very decent business, and be better for
         | society in general.
         | 
         | This does need to be voluntary: I need to be able to choose to
         | not pay and not watch (or watch with ads, as an alternative).
         | And you need to be very transparent about the rules from the
         | get-go, as well as about how those rules get changed, and apply
         | those rules equally, lest you sacrifice the trust of both your
         | viewers and creators.
        
           | Mindwipe wrote:
           | That is literally how YouTube Premium works today, but people
           | seem to feel entitled to watch without paying any money and
           | blocking the ads.
        
             | Nextgrid wrote:
             | I can't blame people for not giving money and personal
             | information (signing up to Premium requires creating a
             | Google account and provide _true_ personal information for
             | billing purposes) to a hostile company that makes its money
             | on stalking users.
        
               | throwaway3699 wrote:
               | So, basically, ads are more private than subscriptions?
        
               | Nextgrid wrote:
               | When it comes from a hostile company, yes.
               | 
               | You can mitigate the privacy impact of ads with
               | countermeasures such as ad-blockers or provide fake
               | personal information if asked.
               | 
               | You can't easily do so with paid services because you
               | need to provide real information for the payment to be
               | processed. This requires mutual trust on both sides of
               | the transaction.
        
             | anoncake wrote:
             | Of course. I'm entitled to block ads and I'm entitled to
             | watch things that are offered for free without paying. If
             | you want to be paid for something, don't give it away for
             | free.
        
             | donw wrote:
             | Maybe. But Google has sacrificed trust.
             | 
             | Look at the comments under "YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Gets
             | 'Freedom Expression' Award Sponsored by YouTube"[1]. And
             | this is on Hacker News, probably one of the more Google-
             | friendly communities you'll find online.
             | 
             | This is how you kill a vibrant community of creators.
             | 
             | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26880582
        
             | franciscop wrote:
             | Will the sponsored bits be skipped if you pay for Youtube
             | Premium? Or would you get to both pay AND be shown the
             | sponsored segments?
        
               | axiosgunnar wrote:
               | Great question and we all know the answer.
        
         | cyborgx7 wrote:
         | Advertising is bad and I will oppose it in all its forms. What
         | other system for financing the content does or doesn't exist is
         | irrelevant to the my decision to block as much advertising out
         | of my perception as I can.
         | 
         | That said, Patreon seems to be working very well for a lot of
         | people making high quality content.
        
           | antiterra wrote:
           | That reads an awful lot like: "If a content creator's
           | patronage is not in the form I prefer, I deserve to
           | circumvent that patronage and consume their content anyway.
           | It's irrelevant to me how & if they are compensated."
        
             | tittenfick wrote:
             | I fully agree with that statement.
        
             | ddevault wrote:
             | Correct.
        
             | intergalplan wrote:
             | Yes.
             | 
             | I also buy almost all my books used. Sometimes I flip past
             | two-page-spread ads in magazines without looking at them. I
             | use ad-blockers. Back when I watched TV with ads, I'd go
             | take a whizz during ad breaks. I'd fast-forward past
             | trailers in front of VHS movies.
             | 
             | Thug life, then?
        
         | ThatPlayer wrote:
         | Personally I do pay for YouTube Premium, so videos I watch do
         | make money (and do not have ads for me). As for in-video
         | sponsor segments, I doubt the actual sponsors get any analytics
         | about when they're skipped or not.
        
           | spockz wrote:
           | Does YouTube share a part of your premium/fee to the creators
           | based on what you watched? That is actually pretty neat.
        
             | ajayyy wrote:
             | Creators are paid "a majority" of revenue from YouTube
             | premium based on watch time.
        
             | creato wrote:
             | That is my assumption and it would be shocking if that were
             | not the case. This is the case for ad revenue. Youtube
             | premium replaces ad revenue with a fee.
             | 
             | The interesting question I'd like to know the answer to is
             | if creators get more money per ad impression or per premium
             | subscriber view.
        
           | DeusExMachina wrote:
           | They surely get analytics on how well a sponsorship works
           | since they use dedicated URLs. And if a sponsorship does not
           | produce a return on the investment, the sponsor will stop
           | giving money to the content creator.
        
             | throwaway3699 wrote:
             | I would also guess there's some watch time data access
             | through the YouTube API, too. Plus tracked links in those
             | cards at the corner of a video.
        
               | ThatPlayer wrote:
               | YouTube does show the creator/uploader engagement
               | throughout the video, so you can tell if there are less
               | viewers for sponsor segments. My point is that info isn't
               | necessarily shared through to the advertiser
        
           | heavyset_go wrote:
           | > _(and do not have ads for me)_
           | 
           | The sponsor segments are ads. You're getting doubled-dipped.
        
             | ThatPlayer wrote:
             | And that's why I've been using this sponsor block plugin.
        
           | Mindwipe wrote:
           | > As for in-video sponsor segments, I doubt the actual
           | sponsors get any analytics about when they're skipped or not.
           | 
           | LOLLLLL
        
         | Mindwipe wrote:
         | Ultimately there's only one inevitable consequence of this -
         | YouTube will move to using Widevine on all YouTube streams to
         | stop it happening.
        
           | ajayyy wrote:
           | SponsorBlock would work fine with Widevine. In fact, I am
           | planning on expanding it to some other sites that have DRM.
        
           | Nextgrid wrote:
           | As far as I understand Widewine "protects" (quotes because
           | piracy websites are proof of the contrary) the video content
           | but wouldn't prevent the player being controlled to skip past
           | ads.
        
             | spockz wrote:
             | Well technically you could only send the data to be
             | buffered up until the sponsored content and only continue
             | sending the stream after the content was supposed to be
             | finished. Or a bit earlier to ensure smooth playback. If
             | the sponsored content is blocked at least the player will
             | not be able to continue until the time for the content or
             | ad has passed.
             | 
             | I can imagine people on a radio would be fine to have sound
             | muted automatically during ads. But how many will wait for
             | a video to continue after 30s of nothingness?
        
         | Nextgrid wrote:
         | > But as consumers, how do we expect the uploader to get paid
         | for their work if we use both Adblock and Sponsor-skip
         | 
         | Sponsors and advertisers should realize that nobody wants to
         | hear about the _same_ product on _every single video_ , have
         | pages with more ads than content and have their privacy
         | compromised - there's a middle ground where both sides can be
         | happy, but the problem is that one side is continuously
         | overstepping its bounds, causing the other to develop powerful
         | countermeasures.
        
       | soganess wrote:
       | It is great to see this getting more traction!
       | 
       | To the larger discussion brewing: I honestly don't understand all
       | the pushback on here. Why should I have any type of moral
       | imperative to support revenue streams I find bad for the
       | industry/society/brains? Simply because the creator decided it
       | was the right choice? People decide things I disagree with all
       | the time, if I have I the power to choose differently, I do. Not
       | liking that I reversed a video creator's choice is one thing, but
       | the accusations of theft (or general moral failings) are another.
       | 
       | Truthfully, if I had the power to make baked-in adverts
       | unprofitable for all Youtube/podcasts/whatever, I would. If
       | anything, I feel some obligation to keep ads out of as many
       | spaces as I can. There are lots of way to make money, selling
       | viewer's eyeballs/ears to the ad industry doesn't have to be the
       | default one and shouldn't be protected like some deep creative
       | choice.
       | 
       | Of course, I want my favorite creator to make money; people have
       | to eat. Alternative sources, such as asking for patroonships or
       | donations, I'm amenable to. I even support a couple smaller
       | channels I think make special content. Unlike baked-in ads,
       | donations are non-compulsory and in my control.
       | 
       | At a more base level, you don't get my eyeballs without my
       | computer, internet, etc. I have a stake in viewership and I
       | choose to modulate what is in my control. If that modulation
       | offends the creator, they do not have to allow it and I will stop
       | watching, but that (currently) means taking their content off
       | mainstream (vs premium) YouTube and lowering viewership. I
       | generally pay for content, but even if I didn't, I can't imagine
       | going out of my way to pirate videos of people fixing old C64s
       | (something I genuinely enjoy).
       | 
       | Morality is complicated.
        
       | maa5444 wrote:
       | I use YouTube Vance on mobile .. fyi
        
       | cyborgx7 wrote:
       | And this post got censored off the frontpage of HN.
        
       | staticelf wrote:
       | Wow, I immediately downloaded the extension and went to a Linus
       | Tech Tips video because they are notorious to have this kind of
       | ads and wow it worked perfectly from the get go.
       | 
       | Very impressive extension I have to say!
        
       | Jack000 wrote:
       | - the more people that use adblock/sponsor block, the less
       | effective ads are in general (lower advertiser ROI for each ad)
       | 
       | - if ROI for ads drop, ad sellers (eg. youtubers) have to reduce
       | the price charged to advertisers
       | 
       | - given that ad budgets are more or less constant (companies will
       | always need to reach customers) there will simply be more ads,
       | since each ad view is now worth less.
       | 
       | - if ads become completely ineffective (eg. reddit) ads will
       | simply become disguised as content to get past people's filter
       | (aka content marketing, submarine articles etc)
        
         | heavyset_go wrote:
         | > _- if ads become completely ineffective (eg. reddit) ads will
         | simply become disguised as content to get past people 's filter
         | (aka content marketing, submarine articles etc)_
         | 
         | There's no "if" here. This type of advertising exists across
         | all platforms and content distribution channels, and has
         | existed for centuries. Whether or not ads are blocked does
         | nothing to stop it.
        
         | ceres wrote:
         | What's a submarine article? Can't find the term on google.
        
           | have_faith wrote:
           | http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
        
         | FreeFull wrote:
         | Are the people who tend to use adblock likely to actually
         | engage with the ads with adblock off?
        
           | deadmutex wrote:
           | What is your definition of engagement? clicking on it? buying
           | a product after clicking on it? or recognizing the brand when
           | you are buying a product weeks after seeing the ad?
        
           | stock_toaster wrote:
           | Yeah, I always wondered if adblockers actually _improved_ per
           | ad engagement, as users of an adblocker are opting themselves
           | out of advertisement (thereby removing themselves from
           | "inventory"), and seem like they would be less likely overall
           | to engage with ads, and thus the adblocker usage is reducing
           | the number of non-engaging users.
           | 
           | Sure, overall "inventory" would go down, but I would expect
           | for ads that actually make it to users, per-ad engagement/ROI
           | (and thus "value") to go up.
           | 
           | ----
           | 
           | Unless ad networks are charging advertisers for ad units that
           | aren't actually shown to anybody, which smells an awful lot
           | like grift to me!
           | 
           | (effectively charging for hidden ad units to inflate numbers)
        
             | seniorivn wrote:
             | I block ads because I don't have ad blindness, when I watch
             | ads I focus my attention on it like on normal content
             | people who are used to seeing ads don't notice most of ads
        
           | hemloc_io wrote:
           | I've always wondered this.
           | 
           | To add a datapoint, I've used adblock forever, but in places
           | where I do see ads I've never had the thought to click on
           | them, just get past them as quickly as possible.
           | 
           | Other people in my family however have bought things through
           | Instagram/Facebook ads, so there are at least SOME people
           | buying things through ads. They also have never bothered to
           | install adblock.
           | 
           | Conversion rates for ads are super small in my experience
           | anyway so driving conversion up should(?) balance the price
           | out the price of people using adblock who would not see
           | anything, and would not click if they did.
        
       | cyborgx7 wrote:
       | I have wanted something like this for podcasts built into
       | AntennaPod. Thanks for letting me know about this.
        
         | h4waii wrote:
         | Unfortunately it seems AntennaPod won't add it at this point in
         | time.
         | 
         | https://github.com/AntennaPod/AntennaPod/issues/4159
         | 
         | https://forum.antennapod.org/t/ability-to-skip-ads-in-the-po...
        
       | franciscop wrote:
       | I've been using it for a year and it works amazingly well:
       | 
       | - It blocks all of the popular videos out there I've tried
       | 
       | - For the freshest videos, I find the UI to be super-easy to
       | submit a new video; you press a button when the sponsor segment
       | starts, another button when it ends, then pick the category and
       | click "upload"
        
       | grawprog wrote:
       | I'm not going to bash this or anything, I see why people dislike
       | the sponsor segments, it's advertising after all, but as someone
       | who honestly could not afford to donate to every single channel I
       | enjoy watching, I'm glad content creators have a way to make
       | money while still providing content essentially for free. I'd
       | rather sit and watch a silly ad than just not have access to the
       | content because I couldn't afford to donate that month or
       | something.
        
         | moistbar wrote:
         | There's at least one Youtuber that I enjoy who actually makes
         | decent ads. I'd hate to skip over them because they're usually
         | funny.
        
           | icanhackit wrote:
           | Internet Comment Etiquette with Erik and Internet Historian
           | come to mind. Nord VPN Man and Raycon Man ads are the
           | highlight of the latter's videos.
        
         | toss1 wrote:
         | Similar, I've actually found that they are producing useful
         | adverts, but I'm in niche high-performance manufacturing, so
         | once it figured that out... Also, I'm happy to give a bit of
         | sponsorship funds to creators I like, as long as I can skip the
         | obnoxious adverts in <5sec (that's more than I need to sort
         | useful from chaff).
        
           | paranoidrobot wrote:
           | This is about skipping sponsorship ads that are part of the
           | content, inserted by the creator. The "This video was
           | sponsored by <VPN Company>. For x% off, go to
           | <vpnco.org/whatever> and enter My Channel Name" type things.
        
             | nerdponx wrote:
             | Right. And I have no problems with this stuff being stuck
             | into content that I pay $0 for, as long as it's not
             | obnoxious.
        
       | rPlayer6554 wrote:
       | I understand people don't like ads, but at some point doesn't
       | someone have to pay creators for content? This feels just like
       | stealing: I don't know how you can justify it: sponsor spots
       | don't track you and they don't slow down your computer. Yes they
       | are a minor inconvenience but they make the content you watch
       | possible.
        
         | kcb wrote:
         | Personally I pay for YouTube Premium. So as far as I'm
         | concerned covers my support for the creators of the video I
         | watch. Ad free is the selling point of YouTube Premium after
         | all.
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | It's not stealing because the creators will get paid anyway.
         | Second, said creators have minimal expenses because YT pays for
         | the hosting. Third, ad and sponsorship blocking represents only
         | a small fraction of users. It's a fraction to, say, people
         | sharing their netflix account.
        
           | jasode wrote:
           | _> It's not stealing because the creators will get paid
           | anyway. _
           | 
           | This isn't always true. As several sibling comments already
           | mentioned, this "native advertising" of embedded sponsor spot
           | via the Youtube personality as spokesperson -- is often _"
           | paid based on performance"_ which means the affiliate url
           | links mentioned in the ad are _measured for clicks resulting
           | in new customers_.
           | 
           | I'm not commenting on morals of using a plugin but just
           | correcting a misconception about arrangements of payment for
           | content creators.
        
             | Raed667 wrote:
             | I would have never clicked on an affiliate link. So no harm
             | done by that logic.
        
         | Nextgrid wrote:
         | The problem with sponsor spots is that they're the same every
         | single video, there's just not enough diversity on the market.
         | 
         | Is it bad to be skipping a sponsor segment because you've seen
         | it dozens of times? Is it bad if you're already a happy user of
         | the advertised product? Etc.
        
           | rPlayer6554 wrote:
           | I don't think manual skipping is bad. If you take the time to
           | manually skip you probably weren't going to buy the product
           | anyways. It's automatic skipping that I have an issue with.
           | It doesn't give the creator even a chance to pitch the
           | product and their affiliate code (which makes them money)
        
         | londons_explore wrote:
         | YouTubers who have both sponsor spots _and_ adverts are the
         | ones to be blocking...
        
         | bassdropvroom wrote:
         | For these sponsored contents it doesn't really matter though.
         | The content creator has already been paid, so whether you watch
         | the segment or not, they won't lose or make money.
        
           | dageshi wrote:
           | They will if the practice becomes common place. Advertisers
           | will know what percentage are just skipping automatically and
           | reprice the spots value accordingly.
        
           | rPlayer6554 wrote:
           | That's not true. Many get money based on how many clicks an
           | affiliate link gets or how much an offer code is used. At the
           | minimum this data is used to determine if the company decides
           | to continue buying ads from the creator.
        
           | q3k wrote:
           | I could see it escalate into an arms race: if the new norm
           | for watching videos will be to automatically skip sponsored
           | segments by some popular software, the sponsorship offers
           | will either dry up, or the resulting sponsorships will be
           | designed to be more difficult to skip (eg. by making content
           | creators incorporate them throughout the video in many small
           | chunks, or as overlaid audio/video, ...).
           | 
           | Similar to what happened to web ads in communities that tend
           | to run adblockers: more and more obnoxious advertising
           | (intersitial ads, animated ads, etc.), advertising
           | incorporated into content (ads-as-content like on Reddit),
           | cross-site tracking and retargeting.
           | 
           | I tend to manually skip sponsored segments (especially for
           | snake oil like VPN services!), but I'm not sure if writing
           | automated software for this is the right thing to do in the
           | long term.
        
           | DeusExMachina wrote:
           | That's a too simplistic view and not how sponsorships work.
           | The sponsor expects a return on the investment. If a
           | sponsorship does not generate revenue, that content creator
           | will stop getting sponsorships because their audience is
           | worthless.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | disiplus wrote:
         | i pay for youtube premium, i don't want ads, if you bake it in
         | your video i'm still seeing ads i don't want. And it's ads
         | about VPN that are allways the same. I don't want that.
        
         | stephen_g wrote:
         | That is the bit that makes me a little uneasy for running
         | uBlock Origin with basically no exceptions, but then again, ad
         | tech continues to prove to be so abusive again and again that I
         | quickly get over it.
         | 
         | I figure that $1 a month on Patreon is worth hundreds of times
         | more to a creator than the ad revenue I'm depriving them of,
         | and buying any merch probably thousands of times.
        
         | tomjen3 wrote:
         | Does it make much of a difference if I manually skip it? Those
         | sponsor segments are always for terrible products.
        
         | jeltz wrote:
         | To me the issue is the constant races to create more and more
         | annoying ads. I do not mind ads which are relevant and not too
         | annoying, but every time advertisers find a new medium they
         | abuse it as much as they can to squeeze every cent out of the
         | channel even if it ruins it for everyone.
        
         | eska wrote:
         | I watched a video by a successful streamer giving advice to new
         | streamers on how to build a career in that industry. He said
         | that all these ads and partner programs aren't even worth it,
         | unless you're one of the top 1%. The pay is relatively low (the
         | platform takes a large cut) and you often have to sign over
         | exclusive rights. He said that donations (using external
         | services) and most importantly Patreon are the best way to go.
         | So I just block all ads and sponsor segments, and donate a few
         | bucks here or there.
        
         | qshaman wrote:
         | How is this stealing? They can charge for the video if they
         | don't want people to see it for free. People have the right to
         | not watch ads.
        
         | nfoz wrote:
         | > I understand people don't like ads, but at some point doesn't
         | someone have to pay creators for content?
         | 
         | No, the role of "content creator paid by impression and
         | dependent on people not being able to skip intrusive segments
         | of videos that they watch" has no intrinsic right or need to
         | exist. There are lots of other ways for civilization to
         | develop.
        
         | dredmorbius wrote:
         | It's an error to see "ads or creators don't get paid" as the
         | only option here.
         | 
         | OECD per-capita spend on all publishing runs about $100/person,
         | roughly the same as per-capita ads spend within the same
         | countries, itself a tax of sorts.
         | 
         | A natural gateway exists --- not a perfect one, but good enough
         | at the level of the ISP provider.
         | 
         | Aggregation, not disintegrations, is the general trend in
         | payment systems. Both buyers and sellers benefit from
         | predictable flows, income or revenues.
         | 
         | Regionally-pro-rated payments allocate costs according to
         | ability to pay, which for information goods is a net social
         | benefit.
         | 
         | Rolling an information access fee into fixed line and mobile
         | internet service, with an indexing of content accessed and a
         | tier-and-bid based reimbursement schedule for publishers, seems
         | to me the most viable path forward to something vaguely
         | resembling a content tax, without actually going through a
         | content tax mechanism. It would ensure universal access to
         | readers and the public, compensation for creators, and the
         | ability for those actually engaged in the process of creating
         | new works to access the materials they need, legally and
         | lawfully, answering in part the "why should I pay for
         | information I don't use" objection: the inforation you do use
         | is itself predicated on information you don't access directly
         | yourself. The other answer to this rather tired objection is
         | that you live in the world created by information access or
         | denial of access, and in general, access to high-quality,
         | relevant, useful information should be a net positive.
         | 
         | I'd proposed this years ago (and many others have similar
         | suggestions), though noting ISPs as a logical collection
         | tollgate is a new realisation.
         | 
         | https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1uotb3/a_modes...
        
       | gadders wrote:
       | Someone needs to build similar functionality into a podcast
       | player.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | exikyut wrote:
         | Go on, ping the developer and let them know.
         | 
         | Earlier is better to expand something like this to $everything,
         | like what happened to youtube-dl, precisely because the
         | codebase is less mature and it's easier to rip things to bits
         | earlier than later.
        
           | Nextgrid wrote:
           | Integrating this into youtube-dl would be great.
        
             | ThatPlayer wrote:
             | Youtube-dlp, a fork of youtube-dl has intergrations to use
             | this database already.
             | 
             | https://github.com/yt-dlp/SponSkrub
        
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