undefined | Better HN

0 pointsBrian_K_White10mo ago0 comments

I pay for youtube too and it still completely sucks. I hate when people try this bs.

* I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it.

* I pay for youtube but I don't always get to use my account. Other people's houses and devices exist. Other people's accounts exist even on my own device.

* I pay for youtube and still have to get all the baked in ads.

* I pay for youtube and have a wonderful black screen with no suggestions or discoverability because I have history turned off. (the feature does not depend on the history data, because for years this was never a problem, only a few years ago they suddenly decided to essentially penalize people who don't play ball like good little data cows). This even after I partially gave in and subscribed to a bunch of channels, which previously I never did.

* I pay for youtube and still have no control to disable shorts. (don't tell me about browser plugins. The world is far more varied than one browser on one pc. There is no youtube browser plugins for roku or the 100 other platforms that have youtube players. And even on a pc, you're not always on your own pc where you are free to hack on the browser.)

Here is the value you get from paying for youtube:

It's having only 8 of your fingernails pulled out instead of all 10.

0 comments

b00ty4breakfast10mo ago

>...only a few years ago they suddenly decided to essentially penalize people who don't play ball like good little data cows...

I'm extremely skeptical that the company that makes most of it's money on the collection of data isn't still collecting data on your viewing habits (and other assorted account-related activities) just because you clicked a checkbox. I don't have a lot of great evidence to back this up but I would still see videos related to my viewing history in the after-video suggestion grid as recently as a few months ago ( before I realized I could zap it with Ublock)

Brian_K_WhiteOP10mo ago

Absolutely there is no reason to believe they aren't still collecting data.

But the checkbox claims that they aren't logging, and so by clicking it they know your intention is not to cooperate in their fundamental business model.

It's just yet another little deniable dark pattern pressure, making the service suck a little when you don't do what they want.

And my outrage point is you get this dark pattern pressure even while you are actually paying money at the same time.

They make more money from the free users and ads than they do from subscriptions. They actually don't want paying users, they just kind of hsve to offer the option to keep those users pacified.

golergka10mo ago

> * I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it.

The whole point of YouTube is watching your subscriptions or recommendations based on your previous history. What is your use case if you don't even want to be logged into it?

georgebcrawford10mo ago

That's only partially true for me. Recommendations? Not at all.

Subscriptions less and less. I can think of two that I regularly watch, and even those I'll just binge their most recent 2-3 every couple of months.

For me it's Ctrl/CMD+L "y [thing I'm searching for]" Enter.

I've dabbled with tools like PinchFlat to archive/stream via Jellyfin but there's niggles I haven't tackled.

raincole10mo ago

Sure. All you said is completely true. I have a good solution: don't use YouTube then.

Brian_K_WhiteOP10mo ago

My comment was in response to : "You can also pay for YouTube. I do. It’s nice, not crazy expensive. No ads. Creators get paid. Everyone wins."

"then don't use youtube" is a non-sequitur to that.

wkat424210mo ago

But there are still ads. You still get the ones the creators put in. That alone shouldn't happen, there should be a requirement for creators to upload sponsorfree vids that only premium subscribers can see. That would be a whole lot fairer.

After all the creators already get paid more for premium views.

Workaccount210mo ago

You can have zero finger nails pulled out if you don't watch YouTube...

1 more reply

PaulDavisThe1st10mo ago

What does "disable shorts" even mean?

ayewo10mo ago

I think the gp meant YouTube Shorts [1], Google's answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels.

1: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/

detaro10mo ago

presumably "not being shown or suggested Shorts"?

Brian_K_WhiteOP10mo ago

Yes. If I'm paying money, why can't I have what I want instead of what they want to shove at me? I thought paying for it made it nice? It's not like it would be either a technical or ui challenge.

Answer is paying does not make it nice. Paying does one thing, which is significant, but the experience ovarall still sucks, including even that one thing, ads, because you still get ads.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

b00ty4breakfast10mo ago

>...only a few years ago they suddenly decided to essentially penalize people who don't play ball like good little data cows...

Brian_K_WhiteOP10mo ago

Absolutely there is no reason to believe they aren't still collecting data.

But the checkbox claims that they aren't logging, and so by clicking it they know your intention is not to cooperate in their fundamental business model.

It's just yet another little deniable dark pattern pressure, making the service suck a little when you don't do what they want.

And my outrage point is you get this dark pattern pressure even while you are actually paying money at the same time.

They make more money from the free users and ads than they do from subscriptions. They actually don't want paying users, they just kind of hsve to offer the option to keep those users pacified.

golergka10mo ago

> * I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it.

The whole point of YouTube is watching your subscriptions or recommendations based on your previous history. What is your use case if you don't even want to be logged into it?

georgebcrawford10mo ago

That's only partially true for me. Recommendations? Not at all.

Subscriptions less and less. I can think of two that I regularly watch, and even those I'll just binge their most recent 2-3 every couple of months.

For me it's Ctrl/CMD+L "y [thing I'm searching for]" Enter.

I've dabbled with tools like PinchFlat to archive/stream via Jellyfin but there's niggles I haven't tackled.

raincole10mo ago

Sure. All you said is completely true. I have a good solution: don't use YouTube then.

Brian_K_WhiteOP10mo ago

My comment was in response to : "You can also pay for YouTube. I do. It’s nice, not crazy expensive. No ads. Creators get paid. Everyone wins."

"then don't use youtube" is a non-sequitur to that.

wkat424210mo ago

After all the creators already get paid more for premium views.

Workaccount210mo ago

You can have zero finger nails pulled out if you don't watch YouTube...

1 more reply

PaulDavisThe1st10mo ago

What does "disable shorts" even mean?

ayewo10mo ago

I think the gp meant YouTube Shorts [1], Google's answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels.

1: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/

detaro10mo ago

presumably "not being shown or suggested Shorts"?

Brian_K_WhiteOP10mo ago

Yes. If I'm paying money, why can't I have what I want instead of what they want to shove at me? I thought paying for it made it nice? It's not like it would be either a technical or ui challenge.

Answer is paying does not make it nice. Paying does one thing, which is significant, but the experience ovarall still sucks, including even that one thing, ads, because you still get ads.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse