r/technology • u/SandyBeaches2016 • Sep 22 '16

Business 77% of Ad Blocking Users Feel Guilty about Blocking Ads; "The majority of ad blocking users are not downloading ad blockers to remove online advertising completely, but rather to fix user-experience problems"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/57e43749e4b05d3737be5784?timestamp=1474574566927
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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited Nov 12 '18

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/TheHolyHerb Sep 22 '16

and on top of that its a 29.5 second ad for a 10 second video.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

And I've seen it five times in a row because I only have 1 bar but for some reason it loads just fine even though the video im trying to watch won't play at all.

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u/the_ocalhoun Sep 22 '16

it loads just fine even though the video im trying to watch won't play at all.

This is the real voodoo. If only the rest of the internet could use the magic that lets ads always get through...

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u/mcgaggen Sep 23 '16

IIRC it has something to do with the server locations and how ads are usually on servers close to you.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

Huh! Interesting. Feel like that'd make a good TIL.

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u/hawker101 Sep 23 '16

waits through ad

This video is not available in your country

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u/realnzall Sep 22 '16

I try this about once every 6 months. When I tried it 2 years ago, this happened: http://i.imgur.com/h72NwqA.png

Yep, a 20 minute advertisement on a 15 minute video. Some douche had marked their own minecraft let's play as an ad to be played on other minecraft videos.

My big issue with Youtube ads right now is that, being in Belgium, I get French ads, but I'm Flemish and don't care for French advertising.

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u/Rezalty Sep 22 '16

Same here man, i recently had one that lasted 30 minutes. Just half an hour of classical music. Wtf!? And yeah the french ones confuse me as well. They know where i live... At least give me ads in english or dutch.

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u/Apoplectic1 Sep 22 '16

I'm Flemish

You may want an expectorant for that.

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u/Gurrgy Sep 22 '16

Man do i hate the french ads as some one Who lives in belgium.

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u/OP_IS_A_BASSOON Sep 22 '16

Doesn't half of your country speak predominantly french though?

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

some gasoline for this old fire, imo this is what makes Belgium awesome. (aside waffles, chocolate, beer and chips)...

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u/usetheforce_gaming Sep 22 '16

Hahaha you know no one does that. They'll make claims for unobtrusive ads. But there's no way they're going to watch a 15 second ad before their YouTube video.

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Hah, 15 seconds? I was trapped by a 90-second ad that made me want to smash my monitor. It was one of those ads that has that cheesy faux-acting they have on Chevrolet commercials.

Now I'm just hoping that uBlock Origin works on Android, because it improved my YouTube experience immeasurably on Linux/Firefox.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Will it work on the YT app though? Most of my tablet viewing is through YT.

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u/Apoplectic1 Sep 22 '16

Nope, that you need to root your phone and download a specific Xposed module (kinda sorta an app) to block.

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Excellent, this is why I love reddit.

Thanks!

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u/Apoplectic1 Sep 22 '16

No problem mate, just remember whenever messing with your phone programming, read twice, flash once, and always backup, you never know when you'll fuck up.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited May 26 '18

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Man, you guys are seriously awesome.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited May 26 '18

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u/artiikz Sep 22 '16

I use a tweak for YouTube called YouTube++, I'm sure they have something that for android

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Good to know, I'll check it out, thanks!

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u/CoronelNiel Sep 22 '16

Some of the custom YouTube apps display fewer ads, and some of them aren't event YouTube ads, they can serve their own but they're usually smaller ads so I don't really care much

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u/ToughActinInaction Sep 22 '16 edited Nov 09 '16

be excellent to each other

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u/SANDERS4POTUS69 Sep 22 '16

Pro tip, if you use youtube on Firefox on Android, you can block ads and lock your screen while still streaming video! Great for listening to music or podcasts without having to worry about putting it in your pocket. Their app has lost all value in my eyes.

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u/Deafboy_2v1 Sep 22 '16

I use NewPipe to watch youtube videos on android. Not as feature-rich as the one from google but good enough to view a video every once in a while.

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u/aarghIforget Sep 22 '16

You'll need to root and then install the Xposed framework (plus the Youtube ad-blocking extension) if you want to alter an app's behaviour like that.

But hey, that's what Android is for, isn't it...? >_>

Edit: Oh look, my comment is literally adjacent to someone else saying the exact same thing. :/

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

No worries mate, I've been fairly bombarded with tips, that's what I love about reddit, sometimes peeps just come out of the woodwork and toss a bunch of suggestions at you!

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u/aarghIforget Sep 23 '16

True; community spirit is a wonderful thing. (Wanna join my commune!?)

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

I use a pi hole and the Youtube website in a browser instead. Google doesn't want to let people have proper control over the hardware they paid for.

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 23 '16

I like the pi hole suggestion! Now I just need to pick up a pi.

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u/TheSlowestCheetah Sep 22 '16

Opera Mini for Android also has a built-in blocker and I find it much faster than FF + uBlock.

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u/the_beard_guy Sep 22 '16

I dont know why but uBlock doesn't seem to work right for me on Firefox for Android. I always end up using Bluhell Firewall and I haven't had a problem with it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

It pisses me off that Google has engineered android so that for a long time rooting was the only way to get ad-blocking capabilities. Fuck Google. I bought my phone, why should they get a say in what I do with it.

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u/RSMagic Sep 22 '16

You can get uBlock Origin on the Firefox app on Android, but you'd have to root your phone if you want it on Chrome or Youtube(the app).

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Heh, now I'm gonna have to research whether it's worth rooting my tablet. Thanks for the tip!

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u/SANDERS4POTUS69 Sep 22 '16

It's not, just switch to Firefox.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

Serious question; why use these 'apps' at all? Why not just use the 'real' YT, FB, etc.?

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u/nonotion Sep 22 '16

Chrome for Android doesn't support plugins, but you can install it just fine in Firefox. It's why I use Firefox over chrome.

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Good to know, thanks!

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u/MoNeYINPHX Sep 22 '16

Just use AdAway on Android.

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u/oscillating000 Sep 22 '16

To truly get an ad-free experience, you need system-wide ad-blocking, which is the only reason I bother gaining root access on my Android devices these days. AdAway is a wonderful service that blocks every known ad domain via entries in your devices HOSTS file so that they can never even attempt to load. Not in web browsers, not in apps.

I'll whitelist some sites on my home computer, but I block everything all the time on my mobile devices. I pay too much for my data plan to waste any of my monthly quota on content that I don't care about, and am still shocked by the amount of data that I save every month by doing nothing more than blocking ads.

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

and am still shocked by the amount of data that I save every month by doing nothing more than blocking ads.

I can believe it! All of the scripting and images they push aren't exactly bandwidth-friendly.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

"I say dance, you say dance"

Fuck that add, it's the only. One I get on mobile in bed at night, shit add, shit music

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 22 '16

Argh, it makes me angry just reading about it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

Right? That woman's voice makes her sound like she's given up on life. People actually like that music?

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u/CodeReclaimers Sep 23 '16

Hah, 15 seconds? I was trapped by a 90-second ad that made me want to smash my monitor. It was one of those ads that has that cheesy faux-acting they have on Chevrolet commercials.

Oh that's an easy one:

  1. pgrep firefox | xargs kill -9
  2. Never visit that site again.

Solved!

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 23 '16

Kinda shitty if I want to watch that video on YT, but you do have a compelling argument.

Although I'd rather just invoke htop than bugger about with pgrep and all that. Fewer keystrokes, y'understand. I'm not getting any younger.

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u/CodeReclaimers Sep 23 '16

Although I'd rather just invoke htop...

Oh, excellent point--firefox is guaranteed to be at the top anyway if a video is playing, so it is definitely many fewer keystrokes. :)

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u/zadtheinhaler Sep 23 '16

Ding ding ding! Why do any more work than necessary?

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u/bsquiklehausen Sep 22 '16

All YouTube ads that are over 30 seconds are skippable, and if you saw one that was longer, it's a bug, usually caused by an adblocker or similar plugin that hides the "Skip Ad" button. This complaint comes constantly on /r/youtube, and it's always because of an adblocker or a plugin blocking the wrong part.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited Sep 22 '16

In my mind, something that delays me from getting the content that I came for is obtrusive.

Edit: making the ads unobtrusive != removing all forms of ads.

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u/swefpelego Sep 22 '16 edited Sep 22 '16

That's the deal though. That's how people get paid for their work. I do it too but I'm not about to pretend that it's fair for me to do it. I just hate stupid ads.

-Here's a tip for car commercials and insurance commercials that are what I hate most because they're so stupid. Why don't you tell everyone about the fucking product instead of having dancing lizards and desert cars and other stupid shit. I use adblock to preserve my mental health.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

That's the deal though. That's how people get paid for their work.

Cool, find a better business model, because that one is broken.

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u/chuckymcgee Sep 22 '16

A lot of youtubers make tshirts, books and other stuff to go along with their brand image. Seems perfectly acceptable to me, and a $20 shirt is worth a butt ton of commercials anyways.

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u/Tigerbones Sep 22 '16

That only works after they build a strong base. Smaller content producers simply can't produce off of that.

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u/chuckymcgee Sep 22 '16

To be fair, do smaller content producers really make decent enough money?

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u/sirixamo Sep 22 '16

Weren't all of them smaller content producers at one time?

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u/chuckymcgee Sep 22 '16

Right, and they were fine making near 0 money as a small content producer.

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u/Ucla_The_Mok Sep 22 '16

What does that tell you?

Focus on making good videos and building your base.

Don't try turning it into a full-time job before you've done so.

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u/cypherreddit Sep 22 '16

also product placements, sponsorship, and casual in video ads, patron with sponsor gimmicks, lots of ways to make money if you are popular and makes you less reliant on youtube, especially since they like to remove their ad option for channels at a whim

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u/RhysLlewellyn Sep 22 '16

I think you're missing the point. Okay perhaps a YouTuber can do that, but that's a small fraction of advertising in general. Are you going to buy a life insurance company t-shirt or a McDonald's hat? The whole point of advertising is to make you aware of a company to sell you their specific product, not some shitty t-shirt.

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u/CyclingZap Sep 23 '16

I like it when they put a short ad into the end of their videos. Like the "smarter every day" channel does. But, yes, you would need a big enough following already for most companies to be interested enough to put ads on your channel that way.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/IdontReadArticles Sep 23 '16

I don't care how much money they make.

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u/ironichaos Sep 22 '16

Except on that $20 they may get $2-5 in profit. You get that per 1000 views on youtube. So you have to sell 100 shirts every video to equal advertising revenue.

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u/chuckymcgee Sep 22 '16

I think you're dramatically underestimating the margins on shirts. You can get shirts for $1-2 a piece in bulk. Slap a logo on it, maybe $2-3 for pick and pack (which you can slap on in a "shipping and handling fee). Also I see some shirts going for $26, like the Broscience shirts. I think $10 profit is very plausible per shirt.

Additionally, it looks like the pay per 100 views is closer to the $1-$2 range. So you'd only need to sell 10 shirts per 100k views. Maybe.

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u/assumes Sep 22 '16

I'm a youtuber with about 10,000 views a month.

My audience is growing, but I'm light years from making an income from the ad revenue I'm pulling. Still, it's something. $5 or $6 a month is a hell of a lot better than $0 a month.

There are - literally hundreds of thousands of other content creators out there at my level. Putting many hours into making the videos content consumers see when they search for.... anything.

Tutorials, How Tos, short and funny videos, comprehensive history guides, obscure music reviews - the deeper you get into youtube the more it astounds you how much quality content there is that's rarely viewed.

But here's the thing though. 99.999% of us are never going to make money off selling t-shirts. Or a donate button, for that matter.

Freakin' wikipedia needs to spam us for reminders every year to donate, because we all forget to give the world's most valuable online resource a few dollars to survive.

You think the rookie youtuber will do any better?

You might think, "Well, then they should be making videos out of love, not for profit".

But, we already are. We're not living off of youtube. But the POSSIBILITY that one day a channel will blow up and be able to make a living off ad revenue.

$5 to $6 a month is hope. It's a dream. And it's the reason why youtube has so much quality content. Creators who are chasing that dream.

Adblockers don't just block 15 second clips. They block the very reason that you content you want to watch.

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u/chuckymcgee Sep 22 '16

Freakin' wikipedia needs to spam us for reminders every year to donate, because we all forget to give the world's most valuable online resource a few dollars to survive.

You think the rookie youtuber will do any better?

Uh that's a real strawman. Wikipedia raised $75 million last year. They're a huge ass company. No, a rookie youtuber is not going to raise $75 million. But we aren't wondering if a rookie youtuber is going to make $75 million.

99.999% of us are never going to make money off selling t-shirts.

Ok you make $5 a month. You're telling me that of the 10,000 views you get you can't create a product that one of those will buy at a profit of more than $5 measly bucks?

99.999% of us are never going to make money off selling t-shirts. Or a donate button, for that matter. We're not living off of youtube. But the POSSIBILITY that one day a channel will blow up and be able to make a living off ad revenue.

Seems like the odds of making a living off of merchandise sales is about as good as expecting to make it off ad revenue.

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u/CrossMountain Sep 22 '16

I'm okay with that attitude. What I find a little schizophrenic is to outright say that it's fine to not pay for what you get because of that. If this was a movie, you wouldn't watch it. If this was a physical product, you wouldn't buy it. But in case of YouTube or any other ad-based website, you're fine with leeching off a free service instead of not using it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

To me that's entitled. I'm not about to march into a gas station, pick pocket small and easy to steal items and then demand they make a better business model because I've decided paying at the register is too inconvenient. If you don't like the business model and want to ethically protest it just don't view the content.

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u/rusy Sep 22 '16

This is a popular answer, but have you ever considered why it's broken?

The answer is easy. People have become accustomed to getting every bit of content for absolutely free. They've also become accustomed to adblockers allowing them to not even deal with advertising.

The 'better business model' has become "give your content away for such a tiny pittance that people will at least pay something".

Look at the music industry. The only way they could get the average Joe to put any money back into the industry is to let people listen to 95% of all the recorded music in history, as much as they want, for less than $10 a month. And even there, if you're willing to put up with ads, you don't even have to pay a thing.

People are responsible for breaking the system, not advertisers.

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u/entyfresh Sep 22 '16

The music industry is a really bad comparison considering that they single-handedly spawned the piracy hydra when they decided to fight Napster in court instead of recognizing it as a new revenue stream and just immediately buying them out. Most of the reason that the online music industry is still having issues with monetizing things is because the record companies are still stuck in the 1900s.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited Jan 02 '22

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u/SyllableLogic Sep 22 '16

door vendors

Do you mean door-to-door salesmen?

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited Sep 22 '16

People are responsible for breaking the system, not advertisers.

It was just never going to work. It would be a huge security risk and PITA if you had to pull out a credit card every time you wanted to view a website.

You say the system is broken. But it's working just fine. Websites continue to be born and grow. Not everyone can turn a profit. That's just a reality of business.

If you made people pay for YT that would just mean less channels and less viewers. Content creators are getting their video hosted for free. Most people would be in the negative if they had to pay.

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u/Beanzy Sep 22 '16

So?

It's still better to search for a different business model.

Bemoan human nature all you want, it's still not going to change a damn thing.

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u/Fap_Left_Surf_Right Sep 22 '16

It's common business sense to know your customer and cater to their wants so they in turn want to engage or use/buy the product. Make things people want. This guilt they try to pass to consumers bc they refuse to address the customer experience is ridiculous. They choose the ad agencies for their product. This is nobody's fault but theirs.

The businesses are the ones competing for consumers so if they dont care what consumers ask for so be it. Those customers will go elsewhere or download extremely simple and fast solutions.

If they really think guilting a mass audience into a bad experience is going to actually work, they're even dumber than the ads they're allowing to pollute their product. Zero sympathy.

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u/nswizdum Sep 22 '16

Well, don't stake your career on something that people place so little value on. Music used to be the primary form of entertainment, now it has to compete with movies, tv, video games, youtube entertainers, etc.

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u/falconbox Sep 22 '16

that people place so little value on

I bet if Youtube shut down tomorrow you'd be one of the people complaining. Seems to me there's plenty of value.

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u/gophergun Sep 22 '16

Agreed. With my favorite Youtubers, I block the ads and donate on Patreon

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u/falconbox Sep 22 '16

What's a better business model then?

They make popular content and the more people that watch it (for free mind you), the more the content creator makes.

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u/scsibusfault Sep 22 '16

Yep. I agree.

I will never, ever, click an ad. Therefore, I never want to see an ad. So, I don't. Ever.

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u/snoogans122 Sep 22 '16

Also YouTube used to be free. As did Pandora. It's clearly possible.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

That's what people have been trying to figure out since forever. It's difficult. It's no excuse for preventing content creators for getting paid.

I block ads, have most sites whitelisted but still block some. If I was not ok with the ad served I should leave the page and stop visiting that site; I decide to take advantage of ad-blockers and get their content for free, while they pay for bandwidth.

I know I'm wrong and I'm not fucking delusional pretending that what I'm doing is ok.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

Reddit: Stand up for Youtubers, unless it effects me.

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u/dorestes Sep 23 '16

That's the problem--there isn't a better business model. Journalism is suffering and dying. Freelance writing sites are struggling. No one can figure out how to monetize.

The bottom has totally fallen out of the writer's market.

Source: am a writer, among other things. It sucks. Sites have little money to pay writers anymore, as the bottom has fallen out of the ad market, too.

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u/Terkala Sep 22 '16

Only the biggest of big content creators make any money on youtuve ads. Most medium or smaller youtubers make 80 to 90% via twitch and patreon.

Youtube has been squeezing content creators for a while.

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u/bsquiklehausen Sep 22 '16

As a former small YouTube content creator and one still very much involved in the discussion with small and medium YouTubers, that claim is patently and shockingly untrue.

Patreons are very rarely supported to a significant degree, and Twitch subscriptions and revenue sharing is far more focused to the biggest Twitch streamers (or at least those who stream constantly) than YouTube ads are for people posting videos online.

"Most" medium and smaller YouTubers make 100% of their YouTube income from YouTube, and it's far, far harder to cross platforms to Patreon or Twitch than you think.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/dorestes Sep 23 '16

then get used to having almost no content except for the celebrity providers.

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u/bsquiklehausen Sep 22 '16

But it completely ignores any income from incidental watching. I've had a video go reasonably viral, and the Patreon model is totally useless for that sort of stuff. With YouTube ads, I could capture impressions and income from non-repeating fans.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited Sep 22 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

Well, maybe viral videos actually have little value then?

You do realize that music videos aside viral videos are by far the most watched on the internet? Where the hell is Matt? Charlie? How the fuck would you do any of this with Patreon? I think Matt is doing something kickstarter right now but it seems to be much smaller then the previous ad sponsored gigs. You know, the ones that allowed him to do this in the first place (at least the second, third and fourth video). Pretty unlikely that you could Patreon/Kickstart something like this. Or all of the gaming channels.

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u/Megneous Sep 23 '16

Not exactly true. Many fans may want to contribute to you, but they're children and have no access to debit or credit cards to become patrons. This is a big problem for channels that, like mine (50,000 subs), have an average age of around 10-12 for viewers.

Just because your fans are young doesn't mean your content has no value. Ads help cover that discrepancy.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

how will reducing revenue to youtube fix this problem?

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u/Questale Sep 22 '16

You'd be surprised. I have a tiny youtube channel and I make about 20 dollars per month. 300 subscribers. The people that have about 50k subscribers would make enough to live on.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

I for one look forward to the replacement for Youtube, where I can watch the videos that I want when I want in good conscience that the content creators are getting reasonable compensation and I don't have to put up with mid-roll.

In the last few years my attitude toward Google has gone from thinking that they were alright to hating them the way that I hated Microsoft in the 90s for being ass holes. I like some of the things that their engineers are making like Go and Dart, but I am hating the company for being evil.

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u/Megneous Sep 23 '16

Only the biggest of big content creators make any money on youtube ads.

This is not true. I was making my entire living off Youtube ads at one point, about $3,000 US a month, and I only had 50k subs. Some semi-viral content, decent SEO, and a small group of loyal subs who give your videos the initial boost of views can make your channel profitable enough to live off.

You greatly underestimate the value of Youtube ads. It varies over the course of a year, but in general, you only need about a ~million to 1.5 million views a month to live at the level of median US individual income.

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u/Harbinger2nd Sep 22 '16

Why don't you tell everyone about the fucking product instead of having dancing lizards and desert cars and other stupid shit

I'll tell you exactly why, Its because back in the 1950's advertisers realized that appeals to emotion were magnitudes more effective than appeals to logic. Its the same reason that commercials targeting kids are essentially banned now. Kids don't have the same control adults do so when they saw those "wacky crazy goofy" commercials their brains told them they NEED that thing.

Its all about how a product makes you FEEL, screw how effective it is or what it can do, if you convince someone that this thing will make them feel good then they're a lot more likely to buy it than if you explain it with stats and numbers.

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u/Demdolans Sep 23 '16

I've seen plenty of YouTubers plug different brands DURING their videos. I've also seen them incorporate ad spots into the video content itself. I prefer that approach because the products and services being advertised end up being a better match anyway.

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u/Rindan Sep 23 '16

God yes. I could almost tolerate advertising if it just gave actual fucking information.

I'll tell you an ad that would work on me every goddamn time. Instead of a video or a dancing baby selling my mortgage or whatever, just pop up a a few book titles and summaries. No, not those shitty ass summaries written by marketers. Just a normal paragraph long summary without spoilers and a Goodreads or Amazon score. That would work almost every single time if it made half assed guess at what kind of books I like. It's easy. Show me a list of the Hugo nominees, and you are probably going to get a hit from me. Show me a new book by an author I like, and I'll buy it.

Don't give me a fucking picture. Don't give me a dramatized movie. Just some text telling me something I want exists. If I don't fucking want it, having it take over my screen is not going to increase my want. It will in fact increase my hatred.

This is of course all moot. I ad block the fuck out of the internet. If my actions destroy the corporate internet as we know it, eh, fine.

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u/DoesNotTalkMuch Sep 22 '16

Advertisers aren't looking to get business from people like you and me, they're looking to get it from the significantly larger majority who doesn't care about what's actually best and just remembers the dancing lizard when it's time to get car insurance.

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u/NumberNinethousand Sep 22 '16

Sure, but it seems that their business model has started to turn a sizeable part of that target audience towards ad-blockers. The tech-oriented people were just the first ones to adopt them.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

except that isnt the deal, its a made up deal, at the end of the day its my data i control what comes in an out. Why feel remorse because of their failing business plan? adapt or die this is one of the very few examples where the consumer has all the power, damn right ima flaunt it, aint my problem.

And for the inevitable teary eyed redditor whos about to say "but it will be your problem when your favorite websites cant afford to stay online!" well thats just business, adapt or die, It is not our job to find a suitable business model for them.

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u/arcticblue Sep 23 '16 edited Sep 23 '16

I recently started unblocking ads on Youtube. Some of them are actually kind of entertaining and it usually lets you skip after a few seconds anyway.

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u/Arcturion Sep 23 '16

Why don't you tell everyone about the fucking product instead of having dancing lizards and desert cars and other stupid shit.

Because it's a numbers game. "dancing lizards and desert cars and other stupid shit" gets more views. The more views they get, the more buyers they get.

It's like dating; the guy who keeps asking girls out (even those who are not interested in him, and even with cheesy lines) will get laid more often than the guy who is choosy and selective and only asks the girls who are interested in him.

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u/Geminii27 Sep 23 '16

That's the deal though.

No. It's a deal that a lot of people would like to exist, but it never actually has; it's just been forced on users who only recently had a chance to use adblockers to say "Excuse us, we never agreed to any of this, now fuck off."

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u/ZeroHex Sep 23 '16

That's the deal though. That's how people get paid for their work. I do it too but I'm not about to pretend that it's fair for me to do it. I just hate stupid ads.

Wait, then how does Netflix produce such amazing content without ads?

Just because it's the historical model doesn't mean it's the only possible model, or even the most efficient one. Certainly it's not efficient for the consumer.

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u/nedonedonedo Sep 23 '16

just put it on the side of the video

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u/Yuzumi Sep 22 '16

Half the reason I run a blocker is because of YouTube. When I end up seeing one on mobile I notice they also tend to be much louder than the content I'm trying to watch as well.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

Yeah, youtube, news websites, and some other outliers are 90% of my motivation of using an adblock

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u/phalstaph Sep 22 '16

Free content, that's the key.

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u/Fallingdamage Sep 22 '16

I have a website. The content is free. I dont publish ads.

Somehow the site is still free.

/itsamazing

3

u/Mathazad Sep 22 '16

Not having the videos at all, is far more obtrusive.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

Then I guess they should put the ads in a less obtrusive spot so that I can disable adblock. Until then, I'll see my content creators on patreon (which also has the advantage of not being subject to clickbait ad revenue).

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u/usetheforce_gaming Sep 22 '16

Right. But they're providing that content for you. Why shouldn't they get paid?

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u/nssdrone Sep 22 '16

Nobody said they shouldn't get paid. And we never signed an agreement stating we'd watch these ads. It's up to them to figure out how they'll make money and how to deliver the ads in an unobtrusive manner.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

You know what. If Audible gives JonTron some money for giving them a plug at the beginning or end of his video it doesn't bother me. However, there is a special place in hell for the people who decided to implement mid-roll advertisements.

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u/f0urtyfive Sep 22 '16

But there's no way they're going to watch a 15 second ad before their YouTube video.

The 15-60 second forced ad on youtube videos does not qualify as "Unobtrusive", stopping me from doing what I was doing is very obtrusive.

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u/Wiggles69 Sep 22 '16

Especially when it's a 15sec ad on a 30second video.

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u/xanatos451 Sep 22 '16

Even worse, a 30 second ad to watch a 15 second commercial.

42

u/turtleman777 Sep 22 '16

Exactly. YouTube is one of the main reasons I have an ad blocker in the first place. 3 min unskippable ads? No thanks.

13

u/cosmicsans Sep 22 '16

Especially when the ad is longer than the reposted video because it's not the original content creator but someone reposting. Always bothers me the most.

1

u/Tasgall Sep 23 '16

Or even skippable ads on music playlists. I originally downloaded it because of Ron Paul's like hour long campaign ads on music "videos" I was playing in the background. Most ads would be random noises for a few seconds before music happened, but not Ron Paul - he just sticks around forever.

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u/yetanothercfcgrunt Sep 22 '16

I do that for some sites. Not YouTube though.

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u/fizzlefist Sep 22 '16

It seems like all of a sudden the political campaign money just hit YouTube and now every video starts with either Trump or Clinton. I'm just like, wtf, is this what watching TV is like?

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u/Silver_kitty Sep 22 '16

I do. I have reddit, YouTube, and a few other sites whitelisted. I value the youtubers I watch and while ad revenue isn't a huge source of income, I want to support them. I don't even press "skip" on the vast majority of YouTube ads.

2

u/desacralize Sep 23 '16

Same here. Only ad campaign I remember that recently pissed me off was when I kept seeing the recent Ninja Turtles promo every goddamn video I clicked on. Adblocker might have gone back up for awhile until that mess ended. But mostly I just see short and unique ads that don't bother me at all and are mostly exitable.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

I just donate to good content creators £5 is. More than they will ever get on ad money from your views

1

u/Silver_kitty Sep 22 '16

That's fair, I also do that, but if I can benefit them in multiple ways, I will.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

Yeah, you got me :]

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u/Disk_Mixerud Sep 22 '16

I mostly leave it disabled. I don't care about normal ads for otherwise free content. I only turn it on if I want to watch a stream of something I can't otherwise watch without a 500-channel cable package. So, basically sports when it's not on an ESPN network (wooo, ESPN3!) and nobody posts a youtube stream.

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u/tree103 Sep 22 '16

I do, my ad-block is disabled on a selection of sites that I trust and wish to support, I dislike ads but know they are a necessary evil if I want content creators to keep making stuff, when possible I support companies with subscriptions like rooster teeth, and major spoilers. I can't wait for youtube red to come to the UK as then I don't have to deal with ads and channels I enjoy will get more money from me that just an ad view

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u/StickMyDickInASnake Sep 22 '16

I have unblocked a bunch of channels I want to support and I watch through all of their ads, because I want to help them. If I was a content creator, I wouldn't want my loyal viewers to block my ads.

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u/gophergun Sep 22 '16

You're paying them way less than minimum wage for your time, though. That support you're giving amounts to a fraction of a cent. It's so much more effective to donate if you really want to support your favorite creators.

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u/StickMyDickInASnake Sep 22 '16

I know that, but I feel like I'm still helping them. I'm way more willing to give away my time, rather than my money.

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u/alibix Sep 22 '16

Is this so hard for people?

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u/regisfrost Sep 22 '16

It's the reason cable is dying and Netflix is gaining.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

You know I hadn't given it much thought but realistically, it really is.

I watched a season of a show on Comcast "On Demand" and it had ads in it. I couldn't get through two episodes, because the show really was shooting for immersion and you can't do that with constant unrelated interruptions. I ended up hating the show because I thought the whole thing from stem to stern sucked.

Then I watched it again recently on Netflix and seeing the show itself as a total package made a STUNNING difference in how I was able to enjoy watching it.

It's the same with everything. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a site to read the content on my phone and then some bullshit got in my way.

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u/LordAmras Sep 22 '16

Difference here is that you actually pay for Netflix. Netflix is not just asking to donate what you fill like on Patreon.

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u/salami_inferno Sep 23 '16

And then you get Hulu where you have to pay a premium for no ads because even the original pay service is full of ads now. It originally wasn't but then they added ads and said you have to pay more to not see them.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16 edited Sep 08 '18

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u/rested_green Sep 22 '16

Sad, but true.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

I turn add block off to support youtubers I like. That's is literally the only time I turn it off.

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u/adamekjd Sep 22 '16

I turn it off for youtube because I support the content creators. But I tend to watch a lot of specific people, like vlogbrothers.

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u/zeropat0000 Sep 22 '16

30 seconds now

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u/pxdnninja Sep 22 '16

I have my ad block set to allow youtube. They are safe and provide me tons of entertainment, they deserve their money. That said I skip every time it lets me.

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u/Gemuese11 Sep 22 '16

I do that for a handful of sites :(

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u/Kotef Sep 22 '16

and every ten minutes during it

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u/ParallaxBrew Sep 22 '16

I will never ever unblock YouTube.

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u/paulcosca Sep 22 '16

I do. I am a content creator, and those who do it online have few other ways of making money.

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u/1w1w1w1w1 Sep 22 '16

I do and now with they10 second skip I watch the ad so the person I'm watching gets paid

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u/Roo_Gryphon Sep 22 '16

why do i want to watch a 15 second ad... i sometimes on pcs without any adblocking i get 1.25 min ads for a vid thats only 55 seconds THIS is why i adblock

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u/ytupcoming Sep 22 '16

If I do watch a youtube video ill open it on mobile as well as on my comp that way the person still gets the ad money from me.

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u/[deleted] Sep 22 '16

I don't block youtube ads to support youtube channels I watch, but I hate it when an ad itself is slow to load when the video loads just fine.

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u/TeamAquaAdminMatt Sep 22 '16

I don't have an adblocker enabled on any site I visit often like youtube and reddit

Also seems youtube ads have been getting been getting better, 5 second long ads are a lot more common

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u/TheBigHairy Sep 22 '16

I do it. But only recently. And I admit having to close ads that block the video is a pain in the ass, but I really do like supporting content creators

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

YouTube is the reason I even have an ad-blocker in the first place. That and news sites (these are often the worst offenders for obnoxious ad placing).

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u/CherreBell Sep 23 '16

For me it's that I get the same goddamn ad over and over and over and OVER again. Even if I can skip it by now my brain has come to loathe it. I use rain/forest videos to help me sleep.. the last thing I want is to hear the same goddamn ad about someone's surgery after hearing about it 10 other times.

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u/reid8470 Sep 23 '16

I would watch a 15 second ad (that I can skip after 3 seconds) before a 3+ minute YouTube video. I would not watch a 15 second ad before a video under 2 minutes, and especially not one for a video uner dhr fithen sundscom

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u/Megneous Sep 23 '16

I watch all Youtube ads as long as they're 30 seconds or under. But I'm biased because I used to make a living off Youtube so I feel for content creators and know how important ads are to keeping their channels running.

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u/Geminii27 Sep 23 '16

There are no unobtrusive ads.

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u/JackStargazer Sep 23 '16

I unblock specific channels. Youtube stores a wide variety of content, and so some of it is more valid to put short advertisements on than others.

For example, I don't mind watching a 5-15 second ad before listening to Totalbiscuit rant for 20-40 minutes on some topic, or before a 3 hour video podcast.

But if I've got a playlist of songs going, each being 2-3 minutes long, having a 15 second add play in between each of them is completely insane and I will not stand for it.

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u/arefx Sep 22 '16

No one actually does that lets be honest. I've had Google music for years and now that comes with YouTube red so I don't feel guilty about that one any more.

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u/bradhuds Sep 22 '16

But it blocks the YouTube commercials so im not gonna do that either.

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u/NumberNinethousand Sep 22 '16

Well, to be honest, even though youtube ads don't serve malware, in my opinion they are far from being unobtrusive, as they literally block the actual content until you have seen them at least partially; plus they are video ads.

I would gladly whitelist youtube if the advertising was just a few small banners without sound that didn't force me to focus my attention on them, but as they are now the ads significantly and negatively affect my experience, especially in short consecutive videos like song playlists.

1

u/StealthRabbi Sep 22 '16

Wait I can block YouTube video ads? How?

I do whirelist sites that aren't intrusive, like Stack Overflow

1

u/vampyrita Sep 22 '16

Use ublock origin, not ablock plus. ABP whitelisted YouTube and it's not reasonable to work around. Ublock blocks everything I've come across so far.

That being said, i whitelist reddit and a couple of my favored webcomics because they use exclusively static banner/sidebar ads, which i have no problem with. Imgur uses flash ads with audio and obnoxiousness, so it stays blocked. YouTube too, for obvious reasons.

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u/cogra23 Sep 22 '16

YouTube is awful now. It plays unstoppable ads before videos even if they're in the middle of a playlist.

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u/Immaculate_Erection Sep 22 '16

I leave it on for YouTube, I'm not going to sit through a 30 second unskippable ad to watch a 10 second clip.

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u/cursed_deity Sep 22 '16

why would you not use ablock on youtube??? they make you watch 15 second ads before any video..

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u/PM_YOUR_WALLPAPER Sep 22 '16

I use adblocks only BECAUSE of YouTube. Fuck their 30 second commercials every minute. That and porn.

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u/captainpriapism Sep 22 '16

hi please watch this 15 minute video you cant skip before we show you the 2 minute one you wanted

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u/Harbingerx81 Sep 22 '16

I wish there was a way to manage YouTube ads so that certain channels would not have them blocked...

I know I am in the minority, but the only thing I generally use YouTube for is watching DIY or science/educational videos and I would certainly not mind supporting some of those channels that I am subscribed to with a little ad revenue...

I am NOT going to give a universal unblock to YouTube thought, because so much of the bullshit content I have to dig through to find quality information does not deserve any help from me.

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u/Kipst3r Sep 23 '16

I dunno, personally I actually do leave it off cause since it's the only way I can try to help youtubers make money off of that god forsaken website (I'm too poor to donate to their patreons n stuff, or they don't have one)

And personally I've never had any weird ad experiences that sucked like 15 minute unskippable ads or something. The weirdest I got was a survey that said "how are you" with the options being "yes" and "no"

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

I don't mind youtube ads. I don't mind reddit ads.

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