It's kinda embarassing that many of my favorite Youtubers are promoting this.
It feels like inevitable disappointment with every channel eventually devolving into garbage. Granted they don't all do that, but it is so frequent I feel like I'm just dreading my favorite channels going bad ... often.
One Youtuber I used to follow was sponsored by some scam. Dude actually responded to the issues raised in the comments. But the response was "yeah these folks are kinda dirty but you could get free money out of it". 1. No you won't thus the scam... 2 ... -unsubscribe-
YouTube feels like a perpetual race to the bottom.
I'm certainly not excusing low level scams, charlatanism, or snake oil, but even before YouTube there were TV commercials and radio hosts peddling things like "Name a Star."
There comes a point where I can't really feel sorry for anyone who buys this stuff thinking it's actually real and not just a cute gag.
We have laws against it. Prosecute people. The biggest problem AFAICT is other countries don't give a damn about fraud (as long as it isn't against their own), and, e.g., American phone companies continue to permit falsifying caller ID.
The idea of capitalism is that a better product (i.e., one offering more utility/$) should win out. There are some … requirements for that, though, like a good flow of information, and that's hard in a marketplace where actors lie, fraudsters, but increasingly "legitimate" companies as well. We all see the stories from the FTC et al. where the enforcement penalty is paltry. I.e., the cost of doing business.
Better consumer protections. But nobody cares about things like that, presently, as we're too busy having conniptions over far stupider things.
You start with early adopters. They get big on novelty or being genuinely entertaining. Eventually, they learn how to make money off of it. Once people realize money can be made off of it, more people will try to do so. Then actual production units get involved. It's no long suitable to have a camera and a mic. You need condensers, filters, lighting, schedules, etc. And now, it's not just you, it's you, your neighbor, your friends, Sony, the platform itself, your goddamn fucking cat has a channel somehow. And then there's just not enough money to just grab. You have to hustle for it. And then you find yourself shilling crypto or timeshares or some bullshit.
I don't think there are many companies looking to sponsor youtubers that AREN'T at least sketchy.
How am I to know who’s generating quality content with quality sponsorships vs. those that aren’t? Particularly if I’m trying to learn about a topic I don’t have experience in.
If someone you're trusting to instruct you on something suddenly starts pushing Doc's Miracle Remedy & Floor Wax, you might reasonably conclude they'll say anything for money and adjust your priors.
I know they don't know what they are talking about. How many youtubers actually understand WHY all those VPN companies are hawking horseshit with their ads about "protecting you from hackers" etc. They see other youtubers, often much more "knowledgeable" in the area of information in question hawking such things, so they feel comfortable taking money for those ads. If we want this to stop then 1) we need to find another way for these youtubers WHO ARE GENUINELY MAKING HIGH QUALITY AND IMPORTANT CONTENT to pay their bills and 2) help them understand that we don't want to be sold garbage, and how to understand the ad copy they've been told to spout is garbage.
>If someone you're trusting to instruct you on something suddenly starts pushing Doc's Miracle Remedy & Floor Wax, you might reasonably conclude they'll say anything for money and adjust your priors.
Should read:
>If someone you're trusting to instruct you on something suddenly starts pushing Doc's Miracle Remedy & Floor Wax, you might reasonably conclude they have expanded their expertise to other areas, and you should trust the remedy and floor wax, and that anyone who disagrees with the someone you trust just does it because they are a) dumb, b) evil, c) part of a grand conspiracy to make you look stupid.
Or most of the time: Calling out Flat-Earthers and other tinfoil-hattery is most of what SciManDan does.
"If it's on the internet, it's true" is a real thing.
The following isnt just for youtubers, its for all information.
As individuals, we can ensure they present evidence. If we're going to attempt something drastic off this evidence, ie, claim Scottish Lordship, we should validate the evidence ourselves or ask a credentialed validator. Ie, a Scottish lawyer.
* Did they present evidence? * If yes, do they posses credentials that make them a meaningful evaluator? * If yes, do other meaningful evaluators agree?
It's not dissimilar to the scientific method.