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Comment by ajayyy | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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