[HN Gopher] The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube
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       The Next Chapter for Learning on YouTube
        
       Author : nassimsoftware
       Score  : 170 points
       Date   : 2022-09-09 19:25 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (blog.youtube)
 (TXT) w3m dump (blog.youtube)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | iamcurious wrote:
       | Should YouTubers hop on board of this? Or is the safest bet to
       | assume Google will cancel it?
        
       | ugh123 wrote:
       | I'm pessimistic on their approach to "qualified creators" and
       | what measure or qualifications they use to determine that.
       | 
       | Theres no shortage of quacks, frauds, and fakers ready to "teach"
       | you all they [don't] know on a subject, or worse: spread
       | misinformation in the form of structured "educational" content.
       | 
       | Just take a look at LinkedIn these days...
        
       | w10-1 wrote:
       | This announcement just confuses things. Is it just to warn edtech
       | companies that Google is muscling its way in?
       | 
       | The business model is unclear. There are no ads, so any income
       | comes from more direct revenue sharing or user fees? If the
       | teaching site embeds the video, what does google get?
       | 
       | The technical model is unclear. This is only to watch embedded in
       | a frame on the creator site, and not on youtube? Yet, google
       | wants to control the community tab and do quizzes? It sounds like
       | Google wants to own the entire interaction.
       | 
       | It's unclear how or when to get started, and who this is relevant
       | for. Who is qualified? Who do you contact?
       | 
       | It violates the first rule of youtube: say it in seconds.
       | 
       | And it's written as if the author/director is himself a creator,
       | complete with personal anecdote about his kids. Must we present
       | ourselves as such even for business communications?
       | 
       | I suspect my expectations of google announcements are dated.
        
       | djaychela wrote:
       | I produce Music Tech-based educational content on YT. It started
       | as a hobby and sideline to my main work (which at the time was
       | classroom teaching of the same content). While I'm no longer
       | working in classrooms (pandemic plus other reasons led to this),
       | I'm still producing content, which I think is of good quality and
       | worthwhile.
       | 
       | The issue I have with it is that I refuse to produce attention-
       | grabbing clickbaity titles or thumbnails. I don't like the whole
       | algorithmically-driven race to the bottom of the brain stem, and
       | have zero interest in producing the same. I've had plenty of
       | comments from viewers who say the videos are great and
       | informative, but if I'd just jazz things up a bit then I'd get
       | more views.
       | 
       | I'm just wondering how this will change (if at all) with this new
       | program. It takes a LOT of time to produce decent content, and
       | even more if you're going to provide a course and backup
       | materials etc.. Writing curricula is HARD work, and writing
       | tests, etc., that are actually valid is reasonably challenging
       | and time consuming.
       | 
       | I currently get about PS100 a month from YT, which definitely
       | doesn't reflect the time I put into it (but I know it has other
       | benefits as I sell a fair number of books partly as a result of
       | the viewership). I know that the beasts of the platform (3b1b
       | spring to mind) would do really well from this (and deservedly
       | so), but I do wonder if things really need to change to make YT
       | work well for genuinely-produced non-clickbait educational
       | content.
        
         | movedx wrote:
         | I'm a creator too. I'm small on YouTube (3,880 subs; 6.4k views
         | and about 293 hours watched in the last 28 days), but have a
         | (relatively speaking) large Discord with 3,800 members. I have
         | a mailing list of about 1,600. My goal and focus is to sell,
         | but it's to sell a big package around the idea of IT education.
         | I want to sell to people who want the interaction and
         | community, not just the knowledge dump.
         | 
         | And I'm the same. I won't do the over-the-top, hyped up
         | character who uses the latest trends to grab your attention,
         | like some sort of hollowed out clown that has no real joy in
         | the middle.
         | 
         | Instead, I just focus on writing my online courses, mentoring
         | people, and building a community. If you're interested in the
         | same thing, and I can help, reach out :-)
        
           | arjvik wrote:
           | Wow, nearly 100% of your subs participate in your community?
           | That's amazing.
        
             | kyleee wrote:
             | that's not necessarily implied, the sets may overlap
             | minimally
        
           | vouaobrasil wrote:
           | Hey 3880 subs is pretty good. I'm still on 241. haha. It
           | actually takes a lot of effort to get past 1000 subs/5000
           | watch hours, which is the minimum for monetization.
        
         | tolmasky wrote:
         | You should put a link to your stuff in your Hacker New profile.
        
         | LouisSayers wrote:
         | This reminds me of a saying I've heard from Dean Graziosi
         | (sales type guy).
         | 
         | "Sell them what they want, give them what they need".
         | 
         | I also dislike this whole game where you have to essentially
         | mould yourself into this "mainstream click-baity character",
         | but part of me recognises that if your goal is to sell, then
         | you'd be wise to spend time on presenting your content in a way
         | that is at least initially attention grabbing.
         | 
         | One way to think of it is - you owe it to your audience to save
         | them from worse educational experiences, and the only way to
         | save them is to try to rank higher than these other more click-
         | baity low-value videos.
        
           | klabb3 wrote:
           | > but part of me recognises that if your goal is to _sell_ ,
           | then you'd be wise to spend time on presenting your content
           | in a way that is at least initially attention grabbing.
           | 
           | The issue is, I think, exactly that everyone must be at least
           | partially a salesman to get ahead. Is this what we want? Is
           | there a way for YouTube to compensate for clickbaity titles
           | and thumbnails? Are they incentivized to do so?
           | 
           | Thinking back at teachers and teaching that I really liked,
           | they aren't always the best salesmen, but they're always very
           | good communicators, and good at speaking. I don't think that
           | the content promoted by today's engagement machines are
           | optimizing for that.
        
             | tsumnia wrote:
             | Just to add, most of us AREN'T trying to become big YouTube
             | viral influencers. My channel has 2.5k viewers and all my
             | videos were done because I want my in-class students to
             | have a resource to review at home. I got my doctorate and a
             | career as teaching faculty to teach students, not become
             | another Computerphile. I love the channel and link it
             | regularly, but again my passion is in helping people learn
             | in the classroom. The "Thanks!" comments and $100 a year I
             | get from YouTube are just nice bonuses to that end.
        
             | insightcheck wrote:
             | > "The issue is, I think, exactly that everyone must be at
             | least partially a salesman to get ahead. Is this what we
             | want?"
             | 
             | Regardless of what we as a society want, and even if
             | YouTube never existed, it's the reality that salesmanship
             | is always important to some extent.
             | 
             | Persuasive communication is important even outside of
             | business: it's key for academia to get grants, it's
             | important for non-profits to get funding and volunteers,
             | and it's important for individuals who want to improve
             | their lives (even in relationships). I know several people
             | who are technically brilliant, but have abrasive
             | personalities and/or fail to get their point across to key
             | stakeholders, so they don't achieve what they want.
             | 
             | There is a difference between honest salesmanship and sales
             | pitches that include lies or fraud. It's necessary to sell,
             | but you can play the game with some ethics instead of not
             | playing at all and losing out.
        
           | cillian64 wrote:
           | The justification some youtubers (LTT comes to mind) use for
           | clickbait video titles/thumbnails is that they feel that so
           | long as the content itself is good then it doesn't matter
           | what techniques they use to get people to watch it. Their
           | logic is that there's nothing wrong with lying to get someone
           | to watch your video so long as they enjoy it once they do.
           | 
           | To me it the race to the bottom of clickbait video
           | titles/thumbnails feels dishonest and harmful but it's hard
           | to see what to do about it other than manual curation and/or
           | alternative platforms which don't use recommendations to
           | exponentially amplify click rates.
        
           | swatcoder wrote:
           | > if your goal is to sell, then you'd be wise to spend time
           | on presenting your content in a way that is at least
           | initially attention grabbing
           | 
           | Or you bet against fads and hope that your consistent brand
           | will develop an increasingly loyal and appreciative following
           | over the long term.
           | 
           | You could lose that bet, but sometimes cashing in on today's
           | hot trends means washing out and being forgotten when they
           | change. You're making bets every where you look.
        
         | HardlyCurious wrote:
         | There is certainly slimy YouTube tactics for attention and
         | clicks, but not all successful YouTubers are doing slimy
         | things.
         | 
         | If your videos are genuinely interesting and / or useful, you
         | need to be able to convey that fact to users, before they watch
         | it. It isn't too much to ask.
         | 
         | Just imagine a viewer asking you the question, "ok so why
         | should I watch your videos over someone else's?". It is a fair
         | question. And replying back, "you don't get to know that until
         | you watch it" isn't a reasonable response.
        
           | shuntress wrote:
           | I was trying to think of a way to word this same thought.
           | 
           | I would expand on it slightly by adding that _" Good
           | Thumbnails"_ are complicated and are not necessarily _"
           | Clickbait"_.
        
         | kgc wrote:
         | "Race to the bottom of the brainstem" is a great way to put it.
        
           | jasan_s wrote:
        
             | jasan_s wrote:
        
         | shuntress wrote:
         | People will never just spontaneously realize you exist and on
         | their own seek out the media you produce.
         | 
         | They have to discover you _somehow_. The YouTube Algorithm is
         | at least partially concerned with enabling people who would
         | like your channel to discover it.
         | 
         | Regardless of how well you think YouTube does that, you have to
         | admit it's not exactly a simple thing to do. YouTube is trying
         | to maximize ad revenue by maximizing watch time. They are not
         | trying to evenly distribute viewer attention among _" worthy"_
         | channels.
        
         | bergenty wrote:
         | You can start of click bait and then gradually transition into
         | what aligns with your worldview.
        
         | lallysingh wrote:
         | Click bait isn't different than wearing a funny hat to engage
         | students in class.
        
           | serf wrote:
           | > Click bait isn't different than wearing a funny hat to
           | engage students in class.
           | 
           | what are you talking about?
           | 
           | a student gets stuck going to class regardless of how goofy
           | the teacher dresses, whereas I feel an extreme sense of
           | revulsion when I click on a YT link with a meme-thumbnail or
           | a clickbait title.
           | 
           | your analogy fails since in this instance the 'student' gets
           | to decide whether or not they participate in the course.
           | 
           | If I had had the chance to walk out on goofy teachers through
           | high school then -- just as one anecdote -- I wouldn't have
           | graduated.
           | 
           | so, in other words, clickbait 'engagement' style marketing
           | will get your volume numbers up, but the hidden aspect is
           | that there will be a market that pulls entirely away from you
           | -- 'teachers' on YT will need to understand these market
           | dynamics if they're really interested in teaching the masses
           | rather than making money on viewership.
           | 
           | If teachers K-12 were paid according to their student
           | throughput that'd turn into a major humanitarian crisis, imo.
        
             | nwienert wrote:
             | You're baking in the assumption that goofy hat is 100%
             | correlated with bad content, but I'd say 30% of my YouTube
             | subscriptions do the goofy hat thing (usually just having
             | somewhat baity thumbnails / titles) yet deliver great
             | content.
             | 
             | And honestly? I don't care. The content is good, and if the
             | hat gets them more viewers then all the better.
        
           | jmathai wrote:
           | You're correct. Now imagine that the vast majority of
           | teachers focused more on wearing funny hats to engage
           | students than teaching them the material - because schools
           | paid them more for that.
           | 
           | Parents would probably be interested in alternatives.
        
           | WaitWaitWha wrote:
           | I disagree.
           | 
           | A click bait, is a _bait_ , a lure in all instances to get
           | something _different_ what is expected.
           | 
           | A fish wanting the worm gets the hook, a fox wanting the
           | meat, gets the snap trap. The clicker wanting the content
           | promised in the title, gets something different, not what is
           | expected.
           | 
           | > ... wearing a funny hat ...
           | 
           | An instructor still delivers all the details and content as
           | expected with or without the funny hat. Not so for click bait
           | videos.
        
             | Dylan16807 wrote:
             | If that's the definition, then the thumbnails we're talking
             | about aren't click-bait.
             | 
             | The thumbnails are doing the funny hat thing.
        
         | charcircuit wrote:
         | Having good thumbnails and tiles is just marketing. If you want
         | to sell or get the word out about what you are offering it
         | helps to have a good marketing effort. Yes, creating the
         | material is a lot of work, but that doesn't mean that marketing
         | is something that doesn't need hard work.
        
           | ant_li0n wrote:
           | The problem is it isn't "good" thumbnails. It's that stupid
           | fucking, "who farted?" face. Or more often for young women,
           | it's "Uh-oh, I did a bad thing" face.
           | 
           | I agree, race to the bottom of the brain stem. I sympathize
           | with GP
        
           | joegahona wrote:
           | It's succumbing to these [1] types of thumbnails that it
           | sounds like the GP is trying to avoid having to do.
           | 
           | Andrew Huberman has tame thumbnail images that are
           | professional and informative. Like others have said, there
           | has to be a middle ground to explore.
           | 
           | [1] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nZQgszA0_80/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oay
           | mwE...
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | The middle ground I've seen is to concede a _bit_ to the
         | clickbaters and make a _few_ clickbait videos that talk about
         | what you do and what 's available in the other videos.
        
         | yamazakiwi wrote:
         | It depends on what you want. Google is optimizing for eye balls
         | so content that warrants more engagement is going to win. 2
         | questions on the end of the spectrum to ask yourself...
         | 
         | Do you want to build a community that is a reflection of your
         | ideas?
         | 
         | Do you want to build revenue by growing your channel regardless
         | of the type of consumer you attract?
        
           | sings wrote:
           | Exactly.
           | 
           | While obviously in a minority, GP should take heart in the
           | fact there are viewers out there, myself included, that will
           | actively avoid videos with click bait title cards.
           | 
           | Silly facial expressions and "you won't believe..." type text
           | are an instant turn-off for me. However, they are obviously
           | effective in engaging a younger audience.
        
             | barkingcat wrote:
             | What exactly does "you won't believe" do?
             | 
             | Whenever people say that I think "of course I don't believe
             | ..." (ie that the topic is stupid, or that the decision of
             | the day by xyz company is weird/bad/good, etc)
             | 
             | why should I believe or not believe in someone who I don't
             | know?
             | 
             | If my mom says "you won't believe me if I told you you are
             | not my son, but adopted" I'd be shocked.
             | 
             | Random youtuber "you won't believe?" - heck I don't believe
             | a word coming out of your mouth! Of Course I DON'T believe
             | you.
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | > content that warrants more engagement is going to win
           | 
           | What does that even mean?
           | 
           | I'd be careful about using the language of silicon value ad
           | companies. It changes how you think. One minute you're
           | talking about content and community and the next thing you
           | know you have metrics and are trying to measure engagement
           | and are now making decisions based off something you could
           | actually measure and not relying on your instincts,
           | experience, and good taste.
           | 
           | Instead, create videos (not content) for your fans / audience
           | based on what you know works. Make it so good, your audience
           | will want to support you.
           | 
           | I think Justin Sandercoe does a good job of this. There is a
           | community on his web site and a community on his YouTube
           | channel, but more importantly he has _fans_ on every guitar
           | forum on the internet. He sells books for people who want
           | them and he has courses you can pay for, but they are mostly
           | guides through his lessons which are all available for free
           | on YouTube or reproductions of copyrighted work which he can
           | 't give away for free.
           | 
           | The most important thing for his success (IMHO) is that he
           | has created a lot of very high quality videos. He doesn't do
           | clickbait titles or images. Just video after video of great
           | stuff.
        
             | yamazakiwi wrote:
             | >Make it so good, your audience will want to support you.
             | 
             | You used the same type of voice you criticized, I'm
             | confused why you're projecting this narrative onto my
             | comment.
             | 
             | I'm obviously pointing out that clickbait content will get
             | more engagement. I'm trying to make the OP ask themselves
             | what they want... which I believe is very clear.
        
               | [deleted]
        
         | sedivy94 wrote:
         | I think there exists a middle ground that doesn't devalue your
         | content, sell your soul, sacrifice your authenticity, keep up
         | with the joneses, etc. That being said, hard pass on the
         | clickbaity thumbnails and titles. When folks suggest "jazzing
         | things up", they might be looking for some vlogging and
         | conversational segments. You, as a personality, are just as
         | marketable and appealing as the content you produce. You are
         | the brand.
         | 
         | An example of an overcorrection would be posting short one-off
         | videos that address specific problems and solutions with titles
         | such as "When Should I Apply Reverb?" or "My Top 5 VST
         | Plugins". If producing lectures is your strong suit, well, we
         | need more of that...
        
         | heartbreak wrote:
         | Would you consider Daniel Naroditsky's educational content to
         | be clickbait? If not, that might be a decent middle ground to
         | target.
        
         | lancesells wrote:
         | Could you share your channel? Always interested in educational
         | music content.
        
         | Pr0ject217 wrote:
         | Would you mind sharing a link to your content? Thank you.
        
       | TaupeRanger wrote:
       | Can't wait for Google to kill this feature set 9 months after
       | release.
        
       | svnpenn wrote:
       | YouTube killed learning on their platform, when they killed the
       | downvote.
       | 
       | They removed the one metric that people had to signal that
       | content is crap. So now people have to trust that "the algorithm"
       | is filtering out all the junk. Which of course we know doesn't
       | happen. The algorithm only cares about engagement, it doesn't
       | care if the content is of good quality or even truthful.
        
         | Koshkin wrote:
         | > _content is crap_
         | 
         | But that would be just someone's personal opinion (or worse).
         | Why should I care? Besides, people discuss things on forums,
         | and a more detailed review is more useful than a simple vote.
         | Finally, it is often not that hard to see whether the
         | presentation or the content is worth your while from the first
         | few minutes of watching it. (There are, of course, some cases
         | when watching is made difficult because of the presenter's
         | excessive showing their face or gesticulation, or having a
         | distracting accent, but even those do not necessarily deserve
         | being called "crap.")
        
           | svnpenn wrote:
           | Is this a serious comment? Your comment here is so obviously
           | misguided that it borders on comedy. If you're serious, I can
           | give a serious reply.
        
         | pferdone wrote:
         | Yeah, how will I know a course is worth it without visible user
         | feedback?
        
       | asciimov wrote:
       | As a kid that grew up poor, all I can think about is great...
       | another way to divide the haves and the have-nots.
       | 
       | Society benefits when education is free. Keeping educational
       | content behind a paywall just speaks to greed.
        
       | ddlutz wrote:
       | I'm surprised it's taken this long, honestly. Seeing other sites
       | which in some ways just clone Youtubes functionality but are
       | focused on education, where creators can make courses and sell
       | them (Udemy for example), it just makes sense to me.
        
         | forbiddenvoid wrote:
         | When you say 'clone Youtube's functionality' do you just mean
         | host and play videos? That's a pretty narrow definition, and
         | one that I don't think YouTube deserves to have a monopoly on.
        
       | UmbertoNoEco wrote:
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | If you're making educational content to be embedded into another
       | site, you don't need YouTube. Because you are not using Google
       | for video discovery. So put your video elsewhere. Vimeo,
       | PeerTube, etc. Preferably multiple places.
       | 
       | Relying on Google to maintain a non ad supported product is very
       | risky. Basing a business on it is suicidal. See the infamous list
       | of dead Google services.[1]
       | 
       | [1] https://killedbygoogle.com/
        
         | amadvance wrote:
         | Youtube allows unlimited videos with unlimited size and with
         | good quality completely for free. You can also keep ads
         | disabled if you want. No other service is even comparable.
        
       | throw_m239339 wrote:
       | Youtube, please fix your search function. Only show me the
       | content I'm searching for, not something completely unrelated to
       | my search "just in case I like it", also work on your
       | recommendation system cause it still sucks... and stop trying to
       | shove "shorts" don't my throat as well... There is a good reason
       | I use Youtube and not Tik Tok...
        
         | cphoover wrote:
         | this so much...
        
       | balls187 wrote:
       | Ukrainian version sounds cool.
       | 
       | But also sounds like major pandering to me.
        
       | bluehat974 wrote:
       | I hope they will propose dynamic exercices like Khanacademy
        
       | an1sotropy wrote:
       | Youtube has great individual creators like 3blue1brown, but I'm
       | skeptical that youtube itself will supply the additional human
       | curation and editing role required to make an educational
       | resource that is consistently coherent and useful across a range
       | of topics (like say, khanacademy.org).
       | 
       | I'm also curious what benefits youtube would provide a
       | creator/educator like, say, musician Charles Cornell, who is
       | already perfectly able to sell his course that he advertises in
       | his youtube videos.
        
         | robertlagrant wrote:
         | Try Crash Course.
        
       | willhinsa wrote:
       | Can we go back to the chapter on YouTube where we had downvotes
       | so we can tell whether or not a video is going to be high quality
       | and informative or not?
        
         | movedx wrote:
         | I don't understand YouTube's move to remove the downvote button
         | - cyber bullying? What I will say though is it actually hasn't
         | stopped me from being able to identify a bad video. If a "bad"
         | video had 1,000 upvotes and (previously) had 10,000 downvotes,
         | combined with a high view count and engage via the comments,
         | just removing the downvotes still tells me everything I need to
         | know: 1,000 upvotes on a high view count video with high
         | engagement? Probably a bad video.
         | 
         | But again, I don't know why they removed it? /shrug
        
           | moffkalast wrote:
           | We all know why they removed it, they were butthurt over
           | their cringe rewinds consistently getting downvoted into
           | oblivion. /s
        
             | cwkoss wrote:
             | I think it was less Youtube's ego and more the ego's of its
             | advertiser and IP-hoarding-company patrons
        
         | PartiallyTyped wrote:
         | FWIW there's an addon [1] that can help with this.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.returnyoutubedislike.com
        
       | arberx wrote:
       | Are Google announcements a little underwhelming in general?
       | 
       | I never hear about a new product or changes from them.
        
         | colinmhayes wrote:
         | I think that's because they barely release new products.
        
         | sp332 wrote:
         | They're tightening up and cancelling more projects.
         | https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/google-ceo-hints-...
        
         | DistractionRect wrote:
         | I would say so, unless it's something they are betting big on
         | like with Google+, I often only learn about a new google
         | service when I hear it's being killed. I've always found it odd
         | that for an advertising company they don't seem to do a good
         | job at plugging their own services.
        
       | alexb_ wrote:
       | Maybe I'm wrong for immediately thinking of the worst case
       | scenario, but the moment I saw "Pay To Watch" I immediately
       | thought about those garbage courses that will give you the
       | "secret" to making gazillions of dollars in the stock market. I
       | wonder how YouTube is going to approach content like that. This
       | definitely won't just start with "qualified creators", and even
       | if it does, the people deciding who is qualified may not be 100%
       | accurate (or even worse, being "qualified" gives more legitimacy
       | to a scam product).
        
       | Entinel wrote:
       | I am affiliated with a few Youtubers from a wide variety of
       | topics and the general gist I have gotten from all of them is
       | that they don't want to charge for content nor they do really
       | want to do sponsorships or Patreon. They just want their CPMs to
       | not be absolute garbage like they used to be.
        
         | sp332 wrote:
         | This says they're not putting ads on these videos though?
        
           | Entinel wrote:
           | Yes? That doesn't contradict what I'm saying. Youtube isn't
           | putting ads on the paid courses but that doesn't help most
           | Youtubers. Youtubers that want to sell courses are already
           | doing that on Udemy and Teachable. What Youtubers want is
           | their CPM on their regular videos to not be in the toilet.
        
       | Jemm wrote:
       | Can we please now have a UI that doesn't cover the content when
       | paused.
        
         | thewebcount wrote:
         | Dear lord, yes, please! I have so much space on my screen. Just
         | please leave the video as the creator made it!
        
       | kache_ wrote:
       | I've learned so much from youtube, I've routinely provided tips
       | to people who generate great content. It's awesome to see them
       | invest more into this :)
        
       | CobrastanJorji wrote:
       | > Every day, people come to YouTube to learn something new.
       | 
       | True.
       | 
       | > shows content on commonly used education apps without
       | distractions like ads, external links or recommendations
       | 
       | External links seem important on educational files, and I kind of
       | like recommendations when I'm browsing educational stuff, but
       | whoo, no ads on educational stuff? That's great!
       | 
       | > Next year, qualified creators can begin offering free or paid
       | 
       | There it is.
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | Just to play Devil's Advocate (and I can't believe that I'm
         | arguing for YouTube here): Why shouldn't they charge for a
         | useful service? And it does sound like they're removing other
         | major problems with using their platform for this purpose.
        
           | tmpz22 wrote:
           | Problem: Creators want to be paid more for their content
           | (great content, good content, bad content, etc)
           | 
           | Solution proposed by Google: Lets charge customers who view
           | this content so that we can pay creators more without losing
           | revenue.
           | 
           | Solution proposed by Consumers: Lets give creators a larger
           | share of youtube's profits. We're already paying for the
           | service by offering our data, our youtube premium
           | subscriptions, and other forms of MTX monetization.
           | 
           | TLDR; Youtube is double dipping in the guacamole bowl,
           | despite having billions of pounds of guacamole.
        
             | green_on_black wrote:
             | Solution proposed by shareholders: Why do you think you're
             | entitled to our profits?
        
               | EarlKing wrote:
               | Solution proposed by viewers: Why do you think you're
               | entitled to my attention? [ _installs adblock_ ]
        
               | Miraste wrote:
               | Solution proposed by Google: Force through Manifest v3,
               | coincidentally make blocking YouTube ads impossible
        
               | moffkalast wrote:
               | Solution proposed by viewers: Firefox is now the
               | definitive Youtube viewing platform.
        
             | systemvoltage wrote:
             | > having billions of pounds of guacamole.
             | 
             | We've determined by our standards that you have too much
             | guacamole. But, we refuse to see the hypocrisy of this
             | hand-wavy standard that we've got way too much guacamole
             | ourselves compared to another arbitrary entity. We also
             | think, based on our own subjective assessment that
             | guacomole is bad for you and you must reduce consumption.
             | Correct strategy according to our experts is that we need
             | to coerce those who have too much guacomole (again based on
             | our subjective assessment) must give it to those who we
             | think do not have enough. It is morally approved by insert-
             | current-virtue-thing.
             | 
             | Subjectivism has taken over objectivism.
        
             | jahewson wrote:
             | But the new paid videos are ad-free, so the user would no
             | longer be offering anything monetizable. A company offering
             | free, ad-free video streaming does not turn a profit.
        
               | forbiddenvoid wrote:
               | That's a pretty big assumption that offering this service
               | would not result in these users also spending more time
               | on other, non-education related content on YouTube that
               | is monetized. There are also other ways to monetize the
               | product.
               | 
               | I think that two things can both be true: creators should
               | be paid for their work, commensurate with the value they
               | provide, and learning should be free (or of negligible
               | cost) to the person doing the learning. There are
               | exceptions to the latter when there isn't a platform
               | involved, like personalized tutoring or coaching, but in
               | general.
               | 
               | YouTube can achieve both of those goals, and advertising
               | is not the only solution. What bothers me most about this
               | announcement is that they aren't doing anything _new_.
               | This is basically a carbon copy of Udemy's value prop,
               | leveraged by YT's existing massive scale. Other than the
               | videos being hosted on YouTube, it doesn't do anything
               | that other platforms haven't already been doing for
               | years.
        
             | lern_too_spel wrote:
             | Both options are available. I don't see the issue here.
        
             | colinmhayes wrote:
             | Then go to a different video hosting service I guess.
        
             | Bloating wrote:
             | Its almost like we're forced to watch their ads, as if
             | Youtube is the only way to occupy our minds
        
           | asciimov wrote:
           | In what way do I get to know the quality of the content ahead
           | of time?
           | 
           | Some community measure of the content quality perhaps?
           | Something opposite of a Like button?
        
         | nabakin wrote:
         | By no external links or recommendations, I think they're
         | talking about the links to other videos they show after the
         | video being currently watched has finished because they are
         | talking about the embedded YouTube player
        
         | scifibestfi wrote:
         | The "qualified" part is sus.
         | 
         | But otherwise isn't being able to charge directly a good thing
         | assuming creators remove ads and any product placement?
        
           | Bilal_io wrote:
           | Probably what they meant by that is a beta by invitation
           | only. That may lead to an open beta based on metrics and not
           | hand picked creators, and eventually open to anyone who wants
           | to participate. But I am just speculating.
        
         | lb4r wrote:
         | Many creators of educational content on Youtube already have
         | paid content alongside their free. Except, the paid is
         | currently hosted on other platforms like Udemy and Patreon. As
         | long it's not an exclusive deal which forces them to only use
         | YouTube, I don't really see that many problems with it. In the
         | end, it will likely draw in more creators, which translates to
         | more educational content, both free and paid, and hopefully
         | better, as competition grows.
        
         | towaway15463 wrote:
         | As long as they offer both and not one or the other this should
         | be ok. I'm hoping this allows creators to build more in depth
         | courses consisting of a large number of videos. Right now I
         | mostly have to go to Udemy et al for that sort of thing. Being
         | able to preview some of a course on YouTube with ads and then
         | buy the whole thing if I like it sounds like a win. I'll
         | reserve judgment until it launches though, it is an Alphabet
         | product after all.
        
           | 7speter wrote:
           | >Right now I mostly have to go to Udemy et al for that sort
           | of thing.
           | 
           | So pretty much, with launching a model where viewers might
           | pay, Youtube is launching a Udemy competitor, no?
        
         | derefr wrote:
         | The alternative isn't these creators giving their content away;
         | the alternative is these creators using one of the dozens of
         | paid-video-course hosting platforms that have sprung up. This
         | isn't going to put a paywall in front of any content that
         | didn't already have a paywall in front of it.
        
           | zwaps wrote:
           | On your very last point, you seem to be wrong. These
           | commercial platforms are neither accessible for everyone, nor
           | do they offer the sort of reach as youtube. The choice then
           | is paid content somewhere, or ads on youtube.
           | 
           | By contrast, you now can chose between ads and no ads, both
           | on youtube (and the former likely with algorithmic support).
           | 
           | That's a different calculus that - as it seems to me - should
           | imply more paid content than before, contradicting your
           | statement.
        
           | moffkalast wrote:
           | Well maybe, but on the other hand this makes pay walling far
           | more trivial and accessible, so it'll likely be even more
           | common.
           | 
           | Google just wants that Nebula money.
        
         | mertd wrote:
         | How should the creators be rewarded for their effort?
        
           | Bloating wrote:
           | with Thumbs Up, of course. Do you kno whow much effort it
           | takes to login and click?
        
           | eimrine wrote:
           | More subscribers for increasing their revenue from other
           | videos, maybe yt-premium or even some protection against
           | infamous random ban because of needness to support learning
           | materials.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | jahewson wrote:
             | > More subscribers for increasing their revenue from other
             | videos
             | 
             | That's not an answer as much as it's moving the question.
        
       | 101008 wrote:
       | Off-topic, but since when .youtube is a valid TLD? And any
       | company can apply to have their own TLD?
        
         | sp332 wrote:
         | Yes, it's been 10 years since ICANN opened it up and let anyone
         | with $185,000 apply for a new TLD. https://www.cern/
        
         | avian wrote:
         | Privately owned top-level domains have existed for almost 10
         | years now:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_top-level_domain#Expan...
        
       | TimTheTinker wrote:
       | Does it bother anyone else that YouTube has its own TLD
       | (.youtube)?
       | 
       | TLDs used to carry a lot of weight, and used to signify something
       | besides individual entities/companies... but it feels to me like
       | that designation is becoming rather diluted.
        
         | Ayesh wrote:
         | Oh yeah, that's what I was just about to comment.
         | 
         | One can arrange their own TLD for under $200,000 initial fee,
         | plus around $25,000 a year (IIRC).
         | 
         | I imagine there will be a whole TLD auction game, but among
         | those with deep pockets and governed by an organization that
         | doesn't seem to take their job seriously. ICANN looks like a
         | cash grab nowadays to me. I don't mean any offense to the
         | engineers behind it, just that the administration seems quite
         | greedy.
        
         | 9dev wrote:
         | It bothers me that we still have those useless suffixes
         | attached to domains. What does ,,org", ,,com", ,,net" even mean
         | to the average user? Nothing. It's nothing but a pointless
         | ritual at this point, and after ICANN chose to add thousands of
         | generic domains, they don't have any significance left at all,
         | except that nice names are very expensive now. It would be
         | easier for everybody if we simply removed that extra step that
         | is TLD names.
        
           | nephanth wrote:
           | Regional TLDs like .us .uk .fr .ru etc. do make sense though
        
             | HideousKojima wrote:
             | Until they're useful for making a catchy address, like
             | me.ga (which wasn't hosted in Gabon)
        
           | moffkalast wrote:
           | I still don't know why ICANN gets to tell people what they
           | can or cannot have as their TLD name. It's just a string, it
           | doesn't cost anything more to compare on the DNS server if
           | it's custom or standard.
        
             | SpicyLemonZest wrote:
             | I don't know if every ICANN restriction can be justified
             | from first principles, but there definitely has to be some
             | strategy to ensure nobody sets up a .(U+0585)rg TLD.
        
         | asciimov wrote:
         | Nope. It does not bother me at all as I don't care for the
         | people that profit from sitting on domain names.
        
         | HellsMaddy wrote:
         | The full list: https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db
         | 
         | Interestingly, a number of corporations that registered their
         | own TLDs seem to have since let them go. You can see them by
         | searching for "Not assigned" on that page.
        
         | vsareto wrote:
         | It hasn't for a while
         | 
         | https://icannwiki.org/.ninja
        
         | maerF0x0 wrote:
         | apple and many others have em too.
         | 
         | Nearly no one knows the meaning of .com
         | 
         | also the US centric monopoly of .gov is probably antithetical
         | to many early internet ideals.
        
           | sofixa wrote:
           | > also the US centric monopoly of .gov is probably
           | antithetical to many early internet ideals.
           | 
           | .edu is much worse IMO.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | Personally, I'm quite happy with the proliferation of top level
         | domains. It seems like the alternative was a completely
         | unnecessary layer of indirection; it's not like every .com was
         | a company or every company used a .com, so they weren't even
         | strongly meaningful before.
        
       | Ralo wrote:
       | Fantastic, so all those tutorial video you've been watching for
       | free on Youtube?
       | 
       | That's now a course for $14.99, BUT DONT YOU WORRY
       | 
       | you get a quiz with it now.
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | Yaaaaaay...
        
       | mindcrime wrote:
       | _Next year, qualified creators can begin offering free or paid
       | Courses to provide in-depth, structured learning experiences for
       | viewers. Viewers who choose to buy a Course can watch the video
       | ad-free and play it in the background._
       | 
       | So you're cloning Udemy? Meh. Not much to be excited about so
       | far.
       | 
       |  _Finally, to help learners apply what they've learned, we're
       | introducing Quizzes -- a new way for creators to help viewers
       | test their knowledge._
       | 
       | That could be somewhat useful, but..
       | 
       |  _For example, a math creator who recently posted a series on
       | algebra can create a Quiz on the Community tab to ask their
       | viewers a question related to a concept taught in their latest
       | video._
       | 
       | Does anybody ever actually visit the "Community" tab of a
       | channel? Why add this extra friction? Hasn't the technology
       | progressed to the point that quizzes could be integrated right
       | into the video player? For that matter, why not have "adaptive"
       | videos where your quiz results can affect the video that you see
       | (like triggering an extra in-depth explanation for notoriously
       | tricky topic if the quiz taker scores below a certain level,
       | etc.).
       | 
       | I hope this works out and provides some value, but I have my
       | doubts as it stands.
        
         | sbierwagen wrote:
         | >Does anybody ever actually visit the "Community" tab of a
         | channel?
         | 
         | They don't want creators funneling users to external sites like
         | Patreon. They want 100% of their income going through Youtube.
         | 
         | Same reason they roll out the "most replayed" feature, to make
         | it easier to skip in-video sponsor segments.
        
         | jasonlotito wrote:
         | > Does anybody ever actually visit the "Community" tab of a
         | channel?
         | 
         | Yes.
        
         | bombcar wrote:
         | > Does anybody ever actually visit the "Community" tab of a
         | channel?
         | 
         | Channels have community tabs?
        
       | cafed00d wrote:
       | YouTube has had the content and engineering UI to beat Coursera
       | or iTunes U since 2009. As a nerdy little kid from Bangalore, I
       | remember _really_ learning how to write code from Mehran Sahami's
       | programming paradigms videos from back in the day. (While we're
       | on the subject of Mehran-appreiciate: we're all still geometers
       | living in the times of Euclid OR we're all coders living in the
       | times of Mehran? :)).
       | 
       | Couple that with benefits of YT Premium, there's a ton of
       | engaging features they can build here that very likely make it a
       | super sustainable product long term. I'm super excited!
        
       | maerF0x0 wrote:
       | I'm wary to rescind educational truth and censorship to YT.
        
       | outside1234 wrote:
       | Good stuff - I could have never imagined how much I could learn
       | through YouTube - it has basically taken my Spanish from a very
       | rudimentary level to being able to almost watch Netflix series
       | without subtitles (via Dreaming Spanish, which is hosted on
       | YouTube).
        
       | sergiotapia wrote:
       | Tiktok has replaced youtube for me. Shorter form video means less
       | of a chance to sell me junk, more "in the flesh" content from
       | real people.
       | 
       | For example I wanted to find a specific room on a cruise ship and
       | someone recorded it in 30 seconds on tiktok. The _specific_ room!
       | Youtube is becoming cable TV, too many grifters and long form
       | content for no reason other than to make a buck.
       | 
       | On tiktok, I found great content for replacing a toilet flush
       | mechanism, drilling pilot holes into wood to hang lights, a
       | cruiseship stateroom walkthrough, CPU benchmarks, GPU benchmarks,
       | Anker charging device review, it doesn't stop there.
       | 
       | Google should most definitely be afraid. They are losing this
       | game.
        
       | cobertos wrote:
       | > shows content on commonly used education apps without
       | distractions like ads, external links or recommendations
       | 
       | It's almost like they know how addicting their recommendations
       | and other "distractions" are. They have to make a separate
       | product to actually create a healthy environment for learning.
        
         | ballenf wrote:
         | I think it's more so that many schools use unofficial YouTube
         | frontends that already hide ads & recommendations. The
         | elementary schools in my area do anyway.
        
       | thenerdhead wrote:
       | Maybe just me, but I'm not really excited for established
       | YouTubers to sell more stuff and expand their empires. It's
       | already a winner-take-all game of attention.
       | 
       | The beauty of YouTube is finding like a retired professor who
       | puts up their lectures on an account with a couple thousand
       | subscribers.
       | 
       | It is not having a click-bait worthy thumbnail, over-produced
       | video, and barely learning anything while being mindlessly
       | entertained.
       | 
       | YouTube will kill many services in the process like skillshare,
       | udemy, etc. They will continue to get bigger and bigger or this
       | will fail miraculously.
        
         | an1sotropy wrote:
         | They might (do that kind of killing), but I'd also like to
         | think that good educators are a segment that will be wary and
         | savvy enough to steer clear of something that doesn't support
         | the learning that they want to foster, so other learning
         | platforms will endure. Basically I don't think that selling
         | education works like selling ads. But I'm not objective (being
         | an educator).
        
       | ytyl wrote:
       | I spend hours per week learning on youtube. The strength of it is
       | finding 10 year old obscure videos with gems that aren't covered
       | by big content houses. I've gone hundreds of hours deep into
       | subjects I would not have if I had to pay and sign up and quiz
       | and be quantized. All the while taking ads in the face like a
       | good boy. I've always worried about the day Youtube starts
       | killing (what I think is) its best feature, and I think we are
       | finally there.
        
       | jrm4 wrote:
       | Yeah, I don't need details and we don't need this.
       | 
       | The real issue is, the world loves and perhaps needs "universal
       | video hosting," something like "the open web" but for video.
       | Right now, "Youtube" is that.
       | 
       | And they're not a completely awful steward of it, but we need
       | better. The for-profit model is not ideal.
        
       | lizardactivist wrote:
       | A lot of noise in the signal over there. I find YouTube to be
       | full to the brim with absolutely brain-rotting stuff like
       | "Brightside!", "Quickfacts!", "Get smarter every day!", and stuff
       | that is more on the dumb trivia side than actual, usable
       | knowledge.
        
       | orsenthil wrote:
       | To me it feels like youtube is trying to do some Udemy here.
        
       | adamc wrote:
       | If you have to _buy_ the course to get access to this, I am not
       | sure it will matter. I watch lots of youtube videos, and I pay
       | for courses from places like udemy, but... I don 't see myself as
       | converting the things I already pay a youtube subscription (or a
       | Nebula subscription, etc.) to watch into paid courses.
       | 
       | If it's cheap enough to temp companies like udemy to use it,
       | fine, but then if would effectively be invisible to me. I don't
       | _care_ how udemy hosts their videos.
        
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