this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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A Boring Dystopia

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YouTube offers virtual trophies so you can feel bad about quitting premium (leminal.space)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I've only used it for three weeks and I have "earned" 19 different "badges" in 9 different categories, if you want an idea.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

yeah that’s… interesting

maybe not dystopic still but idk how thats even getting any ROI lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Man, everything is a game, how will people ever figure out what is reality at this point and get off the dopamine ride express?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

This will not work on some, but it will work on some.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Oh no, I can't get the trophies when using Invidious..... 🙃

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I have YouTube Premium for a while, and I have never seen these badges.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Same

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The psychology on caring about some useless pixels is strange.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Here, have some useless pixels to make you feel better about yourself: 🏅

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Agreed, and please upvote if you agree too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

My entire life is caring about pixels lol.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (4 children)

I had premium... until they started glitching my songs out because every time an ad would have played, they just skipped 15 seconds of the song, and since an ad never played, the trigger never got disarmed, and all of my songs would play for 5 seconds, then skip 15 seconds.

I was willing to pay to rid my life of ads, but instead I just got glitchy garbled music.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I had the same on revanced, thought they found a new way to fight adblock.
Turns out if you clear the cache occasionally it goes away. The youtube app is a piece of trash.

I would switch, but I only use it for music and I haven't seen another frontend support mixes, which I rely on

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Wow that sounds atrocious. Music glitching is such a mood killer. Hope you're in a better place today.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Google bad, UBlock Origin good.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago (3 children)

☝️ + DeArrow to replace clickbait thumbnails.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I have been using dearrow for about a year, cant believe I survived yt without it before.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Hard disagree, the arrows let me know what channels and videos to avoid

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)
  • SponsorBlock (by the same guy) to cut out in video ads
[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

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.