I really don’t think it’s the devs driving these decisions…
“Why isn’t one of the most expensive to operate websites free?!”
There’s a reason there are zero actual competitors in this space (maybe TikTok but it’s full of its own problems). Only a company as big as Google can afford to run at this scale. Feel free to add your business plan on how to make YouTube free without ads and without it shutting down in 3 months.
Ads and subscription aside, any time there is a feature I like on YouTube, they remove it or change it. More often than not when they add a new feature, it makes the experience worse for me.
I understand they need to make money. I’m willing to sit through ads or pay a subscription for that. But the ads are constantly getting worse. Mid-roll ad breaks that are auto-generated into the video (for older videos, content creators would have to go through their library to manually change them, from what I understand). A push for censoring content to avoid demonetisation, even content not intended for children.
Yes, part of it is that I got used to YouTube in its early days when it was operating at a loss. When it was a wild west of content creation. But it just feels like it has become so unfriendly to users and content creators alike. It has become corporate and sterile, while trying to squeeze in revenue everywhere it can. (Likely to barely break even, sure, but they don’t have to make it crap to use to do that.)
Well you say that, but I feel entitled to free shit. - Common take on lemmy
Yeah, especially when you consider that if you’re nostalgic for any time on YouTube prior to 2015 it wasn’t profitable at the time.
Option 1: lose money
Option 2: more money
Google: chooses option 2
Internet: surprisedpikachu.png
These platforms seem more vulnerable to alternatives than they ever have been before but it turns out the opposite is true. The hosting infrastructure is so expensive that it prevents competitors from even starting. Datacenters are basically a cartel and getting your foot in the door is near impossible without bouncing in on the heels of someone who’s in. Making compute storage cheaper is not the name of the game when it’s easier to profit by simply limiting access and driving the price up.
On the other hand, YouTube has never been profitable.
Shareholders. Devs are just trying to not get fired
Deva are beholden to customers.
And the highest paying customers are enterprises that want to advertise. No one cares about the lemmings that actually watch videos.
I was just following orders, I can’t be held responsible!
Yes sacrifice your livelihood so that someone else can implement the feature anyway.
Just use an ad blocker.
Well yeah if we’re applying that to atrocities and murder it wouldn’t be a valid argument. But these are workers that don’t have a union that are sometimes living paycheck to paycheck. They’re just trying to not be homeless.
I don’t work at YouTube but speaking as a tired, underpaid dev who works for a company he hates, I am just trying to get by. I don’t even have PTO right now. I do plan to form a union in my area though.
I’ve worked a number of tech jobs and quit all of the ones that involved me directly contributing to or outright directly performing an immoral act.
I have no respect… pity, sure, but no respect for anyone that knowingly contributes to making the world worse for other people.
You are trying to form a union, that is commendable, an actual step toward positive change.
Most people?
They knowingly contribute to systems that make the vast majority of people worse off, and then bitch about other people doing the same thing in another field.
Or they don’t know or care about any harm their work causes, but still bitch about everyone else doing the same thing.
First, do no harm is apparently too difficult to apply to one’s own life.
If we all keep acting as cogs in the machine that makes everything worse… everything will obviously get worse.
there’s a difference between making a bad UI and orchestrating a genocide, yknow
If your bad UI makes money by profiting off of the mass distribution of advertisement for political propoganda and politicians and social movements that want to create a totalitarian fascist society…
It’s just genocide with extra steps.
“ads are the same thing as being a nazi!!!”
In the long run, its not that different.
We’ve already seen how the mass proliferation of targeted advertisements on corporate social media platforms promulgates mis/disinformation, radicalizes and stupifies and enrages society … to the point that all they understand is pathos, and then they vote for a fascist.
Just because it is a free innovative video hosting platform … it still doesn’t mean it is useful or beneficial. Thousands and thousands of hours of just useless junk content of idiots showing to everyone in infinite detail how stupid they are … and the worst part is, everyone loves it.
There is also a lot of educational content, including lectures, interviews, popular science channels, investigative journalism, and tutorials on anything from how to apply nail polish to how to fly an actual Boeing 737 from real airline pilots. This list is endless. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with junk content either, sometimes we all need to unwind and watch something silly. Don’t take YouTube for granted.
Educational YouTube is the only reason I ever visit the site at this point.
Google has destroyed their own ads revenue by adding more and more ads. Imagine they’d have stopped with simple side banner and people would’ve not even bothered to use an adblocker because of it. This tiny little banner would’ve been worth as much as the multiple seconds ads now. The companies would pay as much, as there’d be no alternate.
Oh no, I didn’t pay and have to watch an ad! Literally slaves.
The problem with the “free” part is that hosting videos isn’t free so there needs to be monetization in some form.
I sure sleep better at night knowing that they put a little gradient on the playback bar that turns the tip of it slightly magenta, though.
