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.
this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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A Boring Dystopia
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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.
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
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.
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