- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
I saw today new “merch” section below comments. I’m a premium users for a reason, I want 0 ads.
I just canceled my subscription and moved to yattee / invidious for good.
I don’t agree with the commenters in this thread.
An ad is an ad.
I don’t care if they’re for the youtuber’s own stuff. I don’t care what their cut is from youtube premium, they can take that up with youtube. I don’t want to see any ads of any kind if I’m paying for the content. Especially considering how much premium costs.
Disclaimer; I don’t use youtube premium, I use youtube in browsers that allow adblockers, and on android I use firefox with ublock.
Sponsorblock has been incredible.
no ads, $10/month
no ads except for the channel shop, $12/month
no ads except for the channel shop and products/companies mentioned in the video, $15/month
no ads except for the channel shop, products/companies mentioned in the video, and products/companies associated with concepts mentioned in the video, $20/month
no ads except for the channel shop, products/companies mentioned in the video, products/companies associated with concepts mentioned in the video, and products/companies we think you might be interested in based on your viewing history, $25/month
ads, $35/month
Reading through these comments, I can’t help but think there’s astroturfing happening here when every single comment seems to be saying the same thing nearly verbatim:
“This is a huge overreaction!”
“Most channels have excellent merch products!”
“I like seeing merch ads on videos I watch!”
It’s one thing to have links in the description or creators mentioning their merch in the video. It’s a whole other thing to have a banner in the client advertising products that take up nearly the same amount of screen space as the video itself. All these naysayers seemed to have been able to easily navigate to these shops and purchase merchandise before youtube started pushing it in our faces, so why is it necessary now, especially on accounts that are paying for premium? Should we also just accept additional ads outside the video from corporate sponsors since they also fund the channel directly? Where do you draw the line?
I mean. I like seeing merch from my favorite creators and sometimes I buy it. T-shirts are cool. It’s easier for me to know what’s available if there are thumbnails large enough for me to actually see the product.
And these links appear below the video, they are not intrusive to the watching experience in any way whatsoever. So yeah, I genuinely think this is a huge overreaction.
I pay for premium and not even once have I thought anything other than “oh cool, this channel has merch”
No one here is astroturfing lol. People just don’t agree with you.
This community is not large enough or significant enough for any sort of concerted astroturfing.
Most people see it favorably to actually support creators they follow. Not this guy though, fuck the content creators trying to provide you content and try to make a living out of it.
They’re already getting the YouTube premium revenue and I doubt that they didn’t spend at least 10 seconds advertising it in their videos.
Oh, you have a serious source that indicate how youtube premium revenues are shared between the platform, the right holders, and the content creators, including how it is split between what you watch and what you don’t care about?
According to the YouTube content creator ‘The Spiffing Brit’ the revenue he receives per view from YouTube premium is higher than and revenue. So obviously it does help support the creator, though I’m sure YouTube makes more money off of it.
Being “higher than ad revenue” on YouTube is a stupidly low bar. Ad revenue for videos has been plummeting like a rock for years. That’s why basically every big channel now either has merch, patron, or paid sponsorships / ads recorded by the creator as part of the video completely unrelated to YouTube.
It’s pretty wild how many people in this thread (and in general) don’t see youtubers as a business selling a product.
Its great if you want to buy stuff from your favorite content creators shop, but the shop is there to make money. It makes money for their business. What do we call it when a business goes out of their way to show consumers their products in the hopes that they’ll purchase something? an advertisement. This isn’t something debatable lol, it’s literally the definition of the word.
Its awesome if you wanna support your favorite content creators, it’s totally OK if you don’t personally mind seeing their shop below the video, a simple toggle would let you keep that. But an ad is an ad, and people are right to be frustrated that they’re being shown ads when they specifically paid extra money not to be shown them.
YouTube is also showing products below video listings in the home page. Even before you click on it.
See here:
I pay for YT Premium. This is excessive.
Because youtubers make products with love. /s
%100 agree.
Has anyone brought up how this is just like tipping? Youtube wants me to pay them (rather than the creator) but they decide how much the creator gets and then if I care about that creators brand I can buy creator merch.
I’m fine with the merch window in the sidebar, although lately they’ve added an overlay on desktop that appears over the video (even in fullscreen) that I think is going to get annoying real quick if they keep it around. If I’m watching a video from a creator, there’s a good chance I’ll be interested in their merch, and having a standard place for creators to show off merch without having to shill it in every video, is a feature worth having IMO. But I don’t want anything overlayed on the video - especially in fullscreen, and if anything it makes me less likely to support the creator by buying merch - even though the overlay is almost certainly something Google added without any opt-in from creators.
You meant yattee?
Yes
Merch section comes up with uBO as well.
uBO
I have no idea what that means but my first guess is universal body odor?
uBlock Origin
Ubosoft, maker of games like Far crow, Assassin’s Cricket and Rainbow six chicks.
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ve also been free of those adblock warnings.
FF + ubo
It’s not something g that uBO blocks from my understanding. Very few YouTuber even have it.
Right click -> block element
is it only me for who ublock origin does not work anymore? i tried adding filters and updating it
It works for me on Firefox with all other blocking software disabled (YouTube Enhanser and Sponcerblock)
You can enable sponsorblock fine.
It was recommended I disable it by the uBO team. I was getting the warning otherwise.
This all could be solved with a simple toggle for premium users to choose if they want to see these ads or not.
Yeah this might be a good option, but relies on Google Not making it a pain/using dark patterns to do so. . . Which ultimately they’re incentivized to do.
I am against abusive youtube ads (long unskippable ads, more than 2 ads per video etc) but to me, merch is fine. Merch allows viewers to directly support youtubers since they get the largest percentage of profit from merc sales vs from youtube views. Many of them take the effort to make their merch ads interesting and funny too.
I mean, I’d fucking hope so.
Because you are paying YouTube for no ads not the channel.
I smell tipping culture here.
What? So buying sports team stuff is tipping culture? Im very confused by what you mean
Youtube is the one displaying these new ads though.
That’s a bit of an extreme take on the topic… not wanting ads from the broadcaster is one thing, not wanting to be separately presented with the promotional items of the youtuber himself is something else. I like seeing what the guys I follow are putting out. Maybe a 2nd option in ads content would be appropriate for you but don’t throw everyone in the same bag…
An ad is an ad. If YouTube premium’s point is to remove ads then this should be included. Otherwise what’s the point? We should all just go back to using ad blockers.
We should not pay for content twice. Viewing ads is paying for content. Paying for premium is paying for content.
It’s less ads and more your youtuber’s shop… you pay YouTube premium to get rid of their ads but you don’t pay your content creator… maybe if there was a subscription patreon-like it would be equivalent.
it’s an ad for the shop. i paid for no ads. i didn’t pay for “no ads except those we think you’d like to see”, i paid for no ads.
Ooh guess you’ll have to adblocker + premium