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Comment by ajayyy | Hacker News Reader

I don't fully agree with you. There are some channels that do sponsorships well: Jay Foreman, Tom Scott, etc.

There are some that do it terribly: Kursgesagt recently, Wendover productions (I hate deceptive segues), etc.

You can see more about my thoughts on this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20780728

I guess it's a personal choice, but I prefer tracked ads that are properly labeled and not deceptive to integrated sponsorships and product placement any day. The real fear is that an extension like this will encourage even more deceptive and hard to skip sponsors (embeded product placement).

- Developer

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I dunno, I find LTT and Wendover’s sponsorship segues to be pretty ham-fisted and obvious. They’re always like, “… and that’s why X is like riding a bike. And speaking of riding bikes…”

EDIT: I think they delibterately do them that way to be charmingly cheesy, and I mostly appreciate it becuase then I always know when to close the video.

This kurzgesagt video is what made me start work on this extension: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfgT6zx4k3Q

No mention of sponsor, doesn't say "supported by" accept in the top comment that was added later (not at the beginning). The description one wasn't there originally either.

It literally says "because we want you to have nice things, you can get a 30 day free trial". You can't get more deceptive than that.

- Developer

Kurzgesagt makes wonderful content, but this is not the first time I’ve seen them be called out for dark patterns. There was that YouTuber spat of the refugee crisis and drug addiction videos, where they were accused of covering their butts in an unethical way. Be cool, like your videos, Kurzgesagt!

Yea, that turned out to be mostly the other guy's fault, but yea. That wasn't their first video where they did a sponsor like that, but it was the first I'd seen (I never watched their mars base one for some reason).

Oof, I will say, that particularly kurzgesagt video was pretty bad. I do think kurzgesagt is generally much better than that though.

I agree, this is what made me hit the tipping point however. I love kurzgesagt, they are amazing.

I mean… the description starts with a plug for Dashlane.

That wasn't there I'm pretty sure, and even still, it doesn't say sponsored anywhere, just a plug for it. Yes, it is obvious to us what it is, but to an outsider or child? It is manipulative to those people.

On that note, I miss the time when descriptions were, you know, actual descriptions of the video and not a dumping ground for the exact same trash on every video that nobody cares about like social media, Discord, etc (those things should go in the channel's about page as they are not specific to a single video).

90% of my YouTube "consumption" is on a Roku which doesn't show video descriptions, comments, etc.

Someone has to pay for the content. I don't agree with video ad blocking because it doesn't hinder my experience in the same way that loading and executing 40 tracking.js scripts does. I like to look at even a video like this with the air of, "haha you got me, clever". Also, it makes me remember a legitimate point about the topic.

After browsing through your site I see that you're a kid, and see how you might be inclined to classifying certain creator-narrated-advertising to be amoral. The video you cite has high production quality, with a ton of time put into it's creation. I don't agree with your assessment that the dashlane ad, which is obviously out of place in a video on electromagnetic pollution, can be construed as content versus an ad by the average user, average being the operative word.

You are free to not consume content, but automating revenue stripping en-masse from otherwise high quality content is more unethical than the supposed sketchy advertising tactics.

Unfortunately, you don't walk away from this as the moral victor.

lol okay. And, I was a kid a few days ago, not anymore :)

In my reddit post complaining about this, people there actually thought this was part of the video and one of the "other things people should be worrying about". This isn't some made up thing, people actually do fall for it.

Specifically with LTT, I love how they make it incredibly obvious when something is leading to or coming out of a sponsorship spot. As soon as I hear the trademark pause after the opening, doubletapping the screen to skip 10 seconds or pressing right arrow a couple times on your PC just skips right through the sponsor spot and you don't have to see anything.

ElectroBOOM does the absolute best segues -- makes me laugh every time!

He's whitelisted on mine :)

- Developer

Wendover has the most obvious, telegraphed segues. On top of that, the sponsorship is left at the end of the video. Linus on the other hand I completely agree with.

I haven't watched wendover in over a year since I was sick of his sponsorships, but I remember never knowing when the end of a video was, because the sponsors were part of the same sentence.

LTT does it extremely well. The sponsored section is clearly marked and adds to the experience.

True, I shouldn't have included them in that list, they are edited out now.

I have to disagree about Sam's segues, they're legitimately one of the best parts of Wendover Production's and Half as Interesting's videos. Unless you're paying attention he gets you every time, and suddenly it's like you're back in nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hеll in a cell, and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcer's table.

> Unless you're paying attention he gets you every time

That's exactly why I dislike them. Ads should be clearly separated from the actual content, visually and audibly, imo.

For me it's like getting Rick Rolled, it's amusing for the same reason a magic trick is amusing.

Yes, but for an outsider not part of the joke, like a child or old person, they don't know about that

I'm sure some people are okay with them, but they drove me to never watch his videos :/

Maybe I will try watching his videos again with this extension, I don't know.

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