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Comment by yakshaving_jgt | Hacker News Reader

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yakshaving_jgt

Well the ad quality is garbage, IME.

> This is a cardinal sin of EDM

SKIP AD FROM MASTERCLASS.COM

> We live in strange times

SKIP AD FROM MASTERCLASS.COM

> Little Red Riding Hood… Let’s start the story a different way!

SKIP AD FROM MASTERCLASS.COM

These adverts never end. They are relentless. There must be something wrong with the platform.

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Masterclass has a huge market right now. Lots of people with time on their hands who would like to do something productive with their time.

Studying, in general, is a great use of this time.

This is why I exclusively view Youtube with adblockers, and prefer to view it with NewPipe or VLC+ytdl.

I'm not opposed to ads at the beginning and end, but numerous _jarring_ cuts in a ten minute video to play a couple of ads every two or three minutes? No thanks.

There is the option to use YouTube Premium though. It's not too expensive (yet), and with the number of cooking and tech videos I'm consuming right now, it seems worth it.

YouTube Premium doesn't offer any protection for anonymity and freedom from their suggestion algorithm. That makes it inferior to NewPipe and ytdl.

It does, however, reward content creators for their efforts (at about 100x the value of an ad view). That makes it far superior to NewPipe and ytdl, to me.

I'd sooner buy channel merch and let a tshirt company take a middleman cut than let google take that middleman cut. Patreon being the middleman is also preferable to further enriching google.

That is really great to know and will likely result in me re activating my YouTube red (premium? Whatever it’s called now) account.

I think this is really moving the goalposts. It seems like a lot of people who are vehemently anti advertising and ask for alternatives aren't really interested in them. Being anti advertising is totally understandable, but it's weird to see people who don't truly want to pay for ad free content talk about how invasive ads are.

Elsewhere I stated that I pay for free services (CBC); I'm happy to pay for no advertising.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22857357

Why not use Youtube Red with ublock then? Google still tracks what you watch on your account, but I'm assuming if you are a frequent user you already have one to keep track of subscriptions etc.

NewPipe has subscriptions without having a need for an account.

Do you have anything against subscribing to the platform? (If you can afford it)

I pay for other platforms, even ones with free options (CBC), and so I am definitely open to it.

But I distrust Google and don't want to serve them more data than is necessary.

I would be outright shocked if Google is unable correlate video viewing habits via direct downloads to a Google account. Especially since they (google, facebook, et.al) have already demonstrated the ability to strongly correlate IP traffic with an account (active or shadow).

Yeah, but will they bother? It's a pretty small fraction of traffic which even uses an ad blocker, let alone a completely different client.

To stop feeding personal data to Google completely one must stop using the internet, stop using credit cards, stop filling out warranty cards, and so on. They vacuum up personal data from every possible commercialized database they can access.

But I can at least refuse to use a Google account, and to serve a tracking cookie. I'd have to live off the grid and in the woods to stop feeding them any data.

You can also refuse to watch Youtube videos. It seems like you just want to keep your cake and eat it too.

With NewPipe and ytdl I can.

And the cake is delicious.

Nothing wrong with that, plenty of people do. Just don't go around proclaiming privacy concerns and whatnot when that goes out the window as soon as you get your Youtube fix.

I have defenestrated very little.

Not sure if this has changed, but the last time I tried the YouTube Premium trial, they heavily pushed their own content (eg Scare PewDiePie) which was so completely opposite from anything I watch on YouTube, I felt I'd just replaced one ad experience with a worse one that I was paying for. I'd rather see the non-stop Masterclass ads (at least they were often relevant) than see PewDiePie everytime I log in.

They do promote YouTube premium videos in the beginning but after a while you stop seeing it if you don't consume it. I think it took a week max for premium videos to leave my recommended content (it was a while ago I started my subscription) .

If you click the X on the YouTube Premium bar on the homepage, it goes away forever. Or at least, it did for me.

Why don't you subscribe to YT premium. If there is a way to remove ads a support the platform, why not do that?

Subscribing gives a worse experience than blocking the ads. If you're subscribed and accidentally open another youtube video, it'll pause the currently playing video with a message saying that a video is playing in another window.

It doesn't for me, and hasn't. Perhaps this is a browser or addon behavior?

Can confirm that this does not happen, as a premium subscriber.

Consumer Activism's a good reason. Petty and insignificant as it may be, I became fed up with YouTube's content policies and search censorship for news topics, cut my red subscription, and put the money I had been giving toward my most watched channel's patreons. Newpipe and Skytube have been my go-to clients since.

> I'm not opposed to ads at the beginning and end, but numerous _jarring_ cuts in a ten minute video to play a couple of ads every two or three minutes? No thanks.

This problem is a solved problem. It’s called YouTube Premium.

Also solved with ad blockers, NewPipe and ytdl. With better features: unlike Premium, they block tracking.

But unlike your solution, it works on mobile, tablets, Smart-TVs, Chromecasts and other set-top boxes.

And creators get paid too.

You’re simply being cheap. Don’t even pretend there’s anything technically or UX wise superior about the way you’ve chosen to avoid YouTube ads, and on desktop PCs only.

NewPipe is an Android app.

Masterclass has hacked the algorithm. Their ads are pretty great and I feel like I'm learning a little and often watch the entire thing, even if I have no interest in paying for the full course.

Really? I haven't done a survey of Masterclass ads but I've had the opposite experience. Every one of them seems to be 90% highly-produced "inspirational" fluff with maybe one or two interesting one-liners that may or may not be bullshit.

Haven't actually taken a course myself. I'll admit their ads got me to check out their site given the big names they've managed to attract, so they did their job, but it looks like their programs are yet another "we'll sell you lectures with zero practical exercises or applications for $X/month so you can sound smart at parties" service.

I guess it might be useful for 17 year olds picking a college major or exposing people to brand new topics, or professionals already in the relevant field looking for tips, but that's about it. Watching Penn & Teller's Masterclass isn't going to teach you how to be a professional magician, Aaron Sorkin isn't going to teach you how to be a professional screenwriter, and Chris Hadfield isn't going to teach you how to be an astronaut or engineer. It's like paying $180 to read the back of the book of a profession.

Yeah this is fair.

But there are so many topics I know almost nothing about that would be interesting to get an exponent to ELI5.

Negotiation / Photography / Writing / Fashion. I know next to nothing about all these things. The ones I do know a little about, say chess, may not be as enriching but I don't mind watching Kasparov go over the basics...

Really I haven't bought it and I'm not sure why. If I could pick an episode from the chess class it'd help me decide but doesn't seem like that's possible.

Oh, man... I've watched quite a few of those Masterclasses and all the ones I saw are pretty much badly conducted interviews and anecdotes, with zero structure or preparation. Even the editing leaves a lot to be desired. A professional journalist/interviewer would cut most of them to 1/3 of the length.

Most of the content sits in this weird intersection of being completely useless to beginners and being too basic for intermediate/advanced practitioners. For $180 it's not even useful for parties, it's just a long interview for fans of the person.

Yeah, I watched Annie Liebowitz on "how to be a photographer". There was some discussion on moods and moments, which is fine.

Ironically, what I learned was that most of the time, she works more as a creative director - she's at a laptop. Someone else is pressing the trigger, and then in post processing, someone else is doing that too, to her direction.

That, and they're selling something that people are vastly more likely to check out at this moment in time, so all they really need to do is bid a bit higher than all the others who have tuned their bids down.

I've watched a few MasterClass ads whole way though. They have some funny bits and are well produced. My favorite was the DJ who has the mouse helmet(Deadmau5): noting from personal experience, if you are uncomfortable on stage it helps to wear a giant helmet.

Here's a link if you want to watch a 2 minute ad (if youtube is to be believed 31 million people have watched it.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtj6dDARgfQ

I've skipped a fair number too.. They are long.

I have no idea how they get experts in certain fields to do these classes.

Yup. Masterclass and Grammarly ads get me every time. I have zero interest in becoming an author but I can't but help to watch them to the end. Except that one "Anita the boss across the room" ad. God, I hate it.

The MASTERCLASS.COM ads crack me up quite a bit. If it were prominent people in their fields talking about how they work, their craft, etc. OK. Still unlikely to pay for it but OK.

But instead I see ads that seem to be claiming they'll teach me ballet, screenwriting, and all sorts of other things that absolutely don't lend themselves to broadcast online instruction even if the person teaching is extremely talented and well-known.

> ...ads that seem to be claiming they'll teach me ballet, screenwriting, and all sorts of other things that absolutely don't lend themselves to broadcast online instruction...

Hey, if you want to get established one way is to conquer a niche others aren't going after, right?

It's a kind of "look for your keys under the streetlight" theory for market selection....

Add ads to “gaia” - pseudo science video platform cashing in on people’s ignorance. Cant get rid of its ads.

Seen a few of those, but then Masterclass superseded them. That and Wix, trying to get me to make a web page super easily...

Recently I got flooded with ads from CEX (a shop the buys and sells second hand goods). I know CEX, I buy and sell to CEX, they don't need to advertise to me. But I was getting the same 5 ads over and over and over and over.

I had to click the little (i), then "stop seeing this ad".

You ought to look at the in my spam box. Yet it keeps coming in, it's relentless. Even crazier, someone is actually paying out of pocket for the resources to send this stuff.

Have you seen how horrible those Nigerian scam things are?

WHY would they do such a thing!??

ROI maybe? They are bringing in a slice more money from the ads than they are spending?

Not everyone works the same as you. As an HN reader, I bet you dig data like many of us do. And I bet a lot of people working with Google Ads can show you data which show a positive ROI.

The Nigerian prince scam emails are supposed to look horrible. It's a filter: if you're smart enough to notice the numerous grammar and spelling errors, you're smart enough to not be duped, and so they're not interested in you. They only want gullible people to reply.

I've gotten equally annoyed and recently got a trial account with Nebula. (no affiliation whatsoever)

It's nice as there are none of the YT ads, no comments, I can download things, and I get to support some Youtubers I actually enjoy watching.

I don't disagree, but that doesn't seem related to the recent dip that correlates with COVID-19.

You can pay for premium and get 0 ads.

No you can't, not until youtube forbids videos with burned in ads and sponsored shit and paid mentions and all that garbage.

I pay for youtube premium and its totally worth it, but I do hate those vids that put advertisements into them. At least some put it at the end which I am ok with

I've seen a lot sponsored by Brilliant.something or so. Usually kurzgesagt, but on others too. I guess it must be a good ROI paying those high-profile channels for the ammount of subscriptions they must reel in.

Agree, and I'm read to pay for Chrome Premium ( or as it is called now - Brave browser )

That's not YouTube's job. Just as it's not a theater owner's job to forbid product placement in movies. Remember Pepsi in WWZ?

That's what the "unsubscribe" button is for.

(And what future video adblockers will be capable of.)

There is already an extension thac blocks sponsored parts. I think it was called sponsor block. Works very well

I wouldn't say 'very well', from what I've seen of it in the last couple weeks. The crowd sourcing is not particularly reliable. (Why do you think I'd want to skip 2 seconds in the middle of a conversation just because a sponsor got mentioned?)

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