Videos

The company that bought Etsy bought my favorite website, Reverb, a marketplace for musicians to buy and sell used music gear, and now it's total shit and all but forces you to use their Reverb Bump which is another 5% on top of their cost to "improve the visibility of your listing" ie so it doesn't get buried right away. I really don't like using the site any more because it doesn't feel like it's a community effort anymore, before it felt like a marketplace now it's just a shitty ebay clone. Likewise I've removed all my music from Soundcloud, I don't see myself paying for their service every month and leaving my music sitting on a free service nowadays seems like just asking for it to be scraped by AI. It's a sad state of affairs.

Ok, watched that video. Not a single word how that makes slop not a single example about slop.

But a pinned sponsor comment. How nice. Such hypocrisy.

To make content is a risky Business. Having private capital helps a lot. Having someone else that takes care about sponsorship, copyright issues and other legal stuff takes a huge amount of pressure from the content creators.

Wanting content for free, blocking an skipping ads, but expecting the creators to do that shit without major income?

And this shit is paramount here. As long as we have no basic income or do not life in a world where everybodys needs are fulfilled and money is obsolete content creators need an income.

Damm, can't watch Cocomelon anymore

Watch the recent Fern video about this.

I did not watch this video yet, can somebody explain why fern is up their own that thumbnail?

Fern, yes, got bought our and afterwards published their piece about "How isreal murders journalist".

Is this just another "private money == bad" video or is there some real substance in it?

Everything good that gets big gets bought and enshitifies. That's nothing new.

As for Youtube channels losing your trust, you should remember who ultimately calls the shots: Google. Their very existence depends on 1/ Google not deplatforming them and 2/ Google paying them if they monetize their channels.

Me, I always assume a channel is compromised the minute they monetize their content. The next level of compromised is when it starts shilling VPNs, energy drinks or razor blades. Getting unsavory investors is just par for the course.

Most of my favorite Youtubers are compromised. I simply enjoy the content and don't trust what they say. And that's pretty easy. For example:

• Veritasium does a piece on some math theorem: great! I enjoy the math explanation. Even if they're funded by sketchy private equity groups, it's not going to change the math. But I make a mental never to buy anything from the company they shill for, and if they make a piece that touches on money on elections, I don't watch.

• Alec Steel talks about blacksmithing. I listen to what he has to say on diffusion bonding of dissimilar metals, but I skip the shitty underwear and energy drinks he shills. And no investor of his - assuming he gets some one day - will ever change the laws of metallurgy.

• Ian Davis and his prosthetic hand project: that's more dicey. The fundamentals of what he's building don't change, the technical explanations are sound, but he's sold to 3D printer makers, so he keeps plugging 3D printers as the good solution to make parts for his prosthetics. If I didn't know anything about 3D printing, I might easily think they're the best printers around, because the guy seems to genuine. But I do, so I dismiss anything he says about 3D printers and assume other brands would be equally suitable. And of course, his project is non-profit, so it's not like hypothetical investors would have much sway over what he says or does.

• ...

In other words, what I'm saying is: like TV, news and all the rest, enjoy your Youtubers by applying a thick layer of critical thinking to what they say. They're all tainted.

Already unsubscribe from veritasium... I want real YouTube

The biggest part was near that end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoibAbdQf58&t=1082s