YouTube is starting to do this as well. For example they've made it so that accounts with less than 1000 subscribers can't do live streams any more. Not coincidentally, 1000 subscribers is the threshold for monetization (i.e., when ads start getting shown on all the account's videos).
A lot of smaller channels are upset about it, since live streams were one of the ways they were /getting/ to 1000 subscribers in the first place, but you can't fight the platform :(
Another YT issue I personally find annoying as someone who has recorded a LOT of programming tutorials is all the garbage that pops up on the lower part of the screen whenever the viewer presses pause. A lot of times they're hitting pause because they want to read what I'm typing in the terminal.
In the past, YT allowed creators to prevent this behavior and recommended videos in general by appending a ?rel=0 to an embed or via the API. Last year, they removed that option.
It's frustrating that they claim to be explicitly trying to promote educational content, but then they degrade the experience for educational viewers, regardless of the preference of the viewer or creator.
YES. Video recommendations covering the screen while I pause to try and read something. Is it really that niche of a use case that the user is pausing the video to better view something in said video?! How many more places do we need to shove recommendation systems down the users throat.
It makes sense if you consider the possibility that through the anonymity of analytics YT is optimizing it’s website to keep children glued to tablets/smartphones. When a user pauses, show them something else to watch, they might be bored and about to start playing roblox. Also, if they switch videos it gives you more views to give to your creators, and you can lead the next vid with an ad. Need to get more ads to those impressionable little eyes!
It's not mere possibility, it's reality. The service's incentives do not align with the users', they are pursuing engagement as opposed to utility. It is actually counterproductive to YouTube's bottom line for the content to be deep and meaningful, they make more money when it's fleeting and superficial. This is the natural outcome of the attention economy.
Ugh it makes me so sad to see glassy-eyed toddlers glued to their tablets. This has to have some kind of long term cognitive impact on their attention spans. We're basically doing an experiment on an entire generation by turning them into dopamine addicts with the attention span of a goldfish. I know my attention span and ability to focus has absolutely tanked in the last decade because of the modern internet.
I'm not sure if it's YT or the channel creators, but I've noticed a lot videos are popping up the 'Also check out these videos' thing at the end of their videos (as an overlay, not part of the video), and it covers up the actual video content with no way to hide/remove it.
I get more and more frustrated by YouTube's monetization attempts every day. Educational and other serious content creators need to start moving to more quality-focused platforms like Vimeo (which unfortunately isn't free, but at least it doesn't have ads!). Leave YouTube for the teenage influencers and inane children's content.
> A lot of times they're hitting pause because they want to read what I'm typing in the terminal.
In the DOS days the Pause button on your keyboard would actually stop the text being scrolled (if you had a multi-page output). I wonder if Windows (or well any desktop OS) can have a feature where that button would freeze frame the display.
Yeah that's one of the reasons I download most content I intend to study from YouTube and watch it with a decent media player. Another major reason is ability to go frame-by-frame forward and back which is implemented in the YouTube player but doesn't work reliably.
mpv can stream directly from youtube (and tons of other websites) using youtube-dl. Combine that with a browser plugin to play a link or the curent page in mpv. Infinitely better experience than watching in the browser.
YouTube is definitely doing this. If you watch a video without being signed in, it now displays a popover (over the video) that says "You're signed out of YouTube. Sign in to like videos, comment, and subscribe. [GOT IT]"
That's playing with fire. If/when Google figures out what you're doing, they'll nuke your entire Google presence- YouTube, Gmail, everything- with no recourse.
About $90ish after some cursory searching. I wouldn't do it, though, seems like a great way to get a nasty surprise in the future when the bots get terminated.
The sad part about the sub requirement is that many forms of content are valuable but not sub-worthy.
If you create a video on how to fix a ‘93 Hyundai’s brakes and next week how to fix your vintage garage door, I’m not going to sub. It’s not « feedable » content
Maybe I would if it was entertaining in a time-wasting way, but that shouldn’t be a requirement.
ChrisFix isn’t going to make a brake-change video for every car out there.
A lot of smaller channels are upset about it, since live streams were one of the ways they were /getting/ to 1000 subscribers in the first place, but you can't fight the platform :(