I started a free trial and cancelled it immediately to have no ads while on holiday. Didn’t realize they are offering some illusion of achievements as a “reward” for your attention, doubling as a FOMO weapon for when you want to quit.
Google bad, UBlock Origin good.
☝️ + DeArrow to replace clickbait thumbnails.
- SponsorBlock (by the same guy) to cut out in video ads
I disagree. The main reason to adblock is to stop data collection and such for targeted advertising. Sponsors aren’t targeted and are one of the ethical ways content creators make money. Basically none of the sponsorship goes to YouTube
Yeah, but I don’t want to hear each youtubers cover over the same ad prompt. Plus the youtuber got paid for the ad read already, so me skipping a sponsor read is perfectly fine, I wasn’t gonna click their link anyway.
Yeah maybe you are right but I’m not going to buy anything that I see being advertised so there is no point in me sitting through the ad reads
Meh, I can fast forward ads on my tv so this seems similar. Besides some people are excessive with their ads so they deserve out right bans of their sponsors.
Hard disagree, the arrows let me know what channels and videos to avoid
I have been using dearrow for about a year, cant believe I survived yt without it before.
YouTube ReVanced for Android phones and tablets.
Smarttube for Android TV.
And there’s an array of ways to block ads in a web browser.
I have YouTube Premium for a while, and I have never seen these badges.
Same, this is the first time I’ve heard of them. I guess OP is shown these in some form of A/B testing?
Same
Sigh.
I always get downvoted for these takes but…
Your favorite YouTubers don’t do it for free. They need to eat too.
And sure, absolutely call out shoddy business practices from Google in other areas, call out invasive ads and tracking. Call out their monopoly and all their other abuses!
But this? This is just marketing, and marketing that you are quite free to ignore at that. Is it weird? Sure. But is it dystopian? Hell naw. It’s about creating the funding that allows your content creators to feed themselves.
I am begging you to post stuff like this to [email protected] instead. This is just depressing.
I don’t think many people are aware that premium is used to give revenue to content creators as well. This might be the cause of some downvotes.
I agree that my favorite content creators need to eat too, and I do support them through other, more direct and tangible means like Patreon and merch.
It’s about creating the funding that allows your content creators to feed themselves.
This is not about premium being a thing. This is about virtual shinies being dangled in front of your face to manipulate you in making choices you otherwise might not, and encouraging users to spend as much time on the app as possible. Taking advantage of people that are susceptible to this kind of marketing should not be legal, but that’s just my opinion.
First paragraph is news to me genuinely :0 I thought that was obvious I guess
Without knowing more about the virtual shinies I guess I can’t give a full opinion, so fair. In my head I was comparing them to the “subscriber for 18 months” badges YT and Twitch give you, which aren’t all that destructive.
I’ve only used it for three weeks and I have “earned” 19 different “badges” in 9 different categories, if you want an idea.
yeah that’s… interesting
maybe not dystopic still but idk how thats even getting any ROI lol
My favorites youtubers aren’t getting paid dick without having to downgrade their content with algospeak, even then they’re very vocal about how much they begrudgingly abide by it and push viewers to patreon saying whatever they make there is worth a lot more than what they make from ads
Oh no, I can’t get the trophies when using Invidious… 🙃
Man, everything is a game, how will people ever figure out what is reality at this point and get off the dopamine ride express?
This will not work on some, but it will work on some.
These badges look like someone at Google decided to copy the system from Google Maps / Local Guides in some cases verbatim and it’s just odd, you can tell the idea wasn’t designed for Youtube.
This is also your regular reminder that if you’re avoiding Youtube Premium because it’s too expensive for what it offers instead of just avoiding it completely on principle, then you might look into subscribing using a VPN in a country where it’s cheaper (Usually considerably cheaper).