YouTube

Oh boy...taking people's private information and trying to make money off of it is never a good thing.... 

Unfortunately, that's the primary business strategy for the internet nowadays.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Apr 12th 2024 at 10:18:04 AM

It's so prevalent that there is an actual terminology for it called "surveillance capitalism."

It's also literally YouTube's business model, bringing things back to the thread title.

If you're a healthcare provider though (especially a mental health provider), it's exceedingly illegal and incredibly unethical. I've said it before and I'll say it again that everyone at least partially responsible for that particular scandal should be fed to the HIPAA Hippo.

What are the least scummy sponsorships nowadays? I heard even the food ones like Factor and Magic Spoon are suspicious.

I think one of the few sponsorships I find not being absolute trash (I tend to stand by my statement "All Sponsors Are Bad") is Nebula, it being a streaming service specifically made for the creators that put their content up there, free of ads, sponsors, etc.

Is Curiosity Stream on the level too? Or is there skeletons in its closet as well?

Edited by RainingMetal on Apr 13th 2024 at 1:43:00 PM

Yeah I pretty much have that same mindset when it comes to sponsorships. And of course every You Tuber has to,have one now. I know it’s part the job I just personally wish there’d be one sponsor that isn’t crap. As for Curiosity Stream, I haven’t seen anything scummy about it yet but still.

Edited by eirigfi on Apr 13th 2024 at 10:49:12 AM

I think Curiosity Stream is on the level, if only because most Youtubers who talk about it are on it themselves.

Curiosity Stream have had a little bit of drama between them and Nebula over the ending of their partnership.

Edited by Silasw on Apr 13th 2024 at 7:12:35 PM

The biggest criticism I've seen of Nebula is that they had an option for a one-time fee for lifetime membership which seems like a risky use of money for a relatively new service that its unclear if it has the legs to stand long enough to be worth it.

And now it feels like Youtube is on its slow days again.

I can see why a lot of content creators use sponsorships for their videos. You Tube tends to find ways to not properly pay content creators, like demonetizing their videos if they contained content that's offensive or copyrighted. Not to mention how animators are being treated on the platform with the whole "most of the animations being automatically marked as for kids," making it harder for animators to earn money on You Tube.

Huh, today I learned that a French cinema youtuber that I hadn’t watched in a while (Meeea) had come out as trans in the past few months. Or maybe in the past year? I guess the removal of the "Mr." about a year ago should have clued me in.

Really fun channel by the way! Instead of focusing on film criticism she finds tons of anecdotes and crunchy details about the making of the films − including a whole video series on Columbo episodes. I wonder if there are English-speaking channels that do something similar?

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 13th 2024 at 12:02:07 PM

Square Space and Skill Share have drama too?

I haven't seen someone get sponsored by Skillshare in like forever. And I'm not aware of any controversies with Squarespace either otherwise GN Steve would drop them like a rock by now.

Skillshare is still around. Let me think about others I've seen recently...

• VPN plugs are basically harmless even if they've changed their pitch from "we can protect you against hackers", which is misleading, to "we can let you access region-locked content", which is mostly true, if slightly banal.
• Home meal delivery services. I haven't done in-depth research about their claims.
• Health supplements, like Athletic Greens. Again, haven't done the research but I'm axiomatically skeptical about supplements.
• Shaving systems, like Henson
• Fancy wallets, like Ridge
• Raycon earbuds
• Hair restoration products, like Keeps
• Sheets and Giggles, which sells bedding products
• The usual set of gacha games
• Privacy services, like Incogni

Edit: I almost forgot about the biggest recent entrants, privacy services. Incogni is a big one of those. They promise to get your information removed from data brokers. I have not looked into their claims.

Edited by Fighteer on Apr 14th 2024 at 3:10:12 PM

Yeah, Incogni and similar companies have been pretty big recently.

I occasionally notice a particular mobile game pop up across multiple channels for a bit, I assume due to a slightly better-planned marketing campaign. Recently it's been AFK Journey, which I think is new so I guess that makes sense but I still have no intention of playing it.

I still hear Squarespace quite a lot in podcast advertisements, which have their partially-overlapping set of common sponsors.

There's also Surfshark VPN and Dr. Squatch that I regularly see as sponsors in the videos I usually watch.

I've only ever seen Dr. Squatch sponsored by one YouTuber: Dead Meat. Though I think that just says more about how many YouTubers I watch (not many).

I have also only seen Dead Meat do Dr. Squatch.

I am surprised Lilith is pushing AFK Journey for sponsorship, they never did that to their previous games.

I will never in my lifetime understand the appeal of games that play themselves for you, but that's perhaps a better topic for a video-games thread.

Speaking of games, YouTube apparently has a whole section of online, moblie game-like ones called Playables.

It's been super underadvertised though; the strategy vaguely reminds me of Netflix's latest push into including console and mobile game ports and exclusive on their platform.

There's been a bit counter-culture effect where some existing or new YouTubers are reviewing or highlighting whether these sponsored products are actually worth it. Stuff like AirUp being a recurring example.

In regards to home delivery, I recall that the meals themselves are fine, but there's a packaging waste concern attached. Along with some of them having free, legal ways of copying their receipes straight from their website.

Not to mention, Factor (and their parent company Hello Fresh) has been accused of poor working conditions and pay.

I know of the soap brand, but it wasn't thought youtube sponsorships. So I can't say it counts among the usual suspects yet (granted, this is just an anedocte)

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Apr 14th 2024 at 12:27:24 PM

Oh I haven't seen Air Up sponsors recently. Given the fact that it sounds like a scam, I wouldn't be surprised if they died down.

Hipyo Tech, a custom keyboard enthusiast, more or less brutally tore it down.

tl;dw, it's a waste of money. Just buy yourself a cheaper metal bottle or an LTT water bottle at that same price.

Edited by terumokou on Apr 14th 2024 at 2:26:33 AM

Oh, those Playables look... not good, not at all. Like the weird mobile games I keep getting ads for.

I've seen a few AirUp sponsorships, yeah, although I can't recall if they were recent or not. Granted I'm anosmic so I'm firmly out of the target audience anyway.

It does seem like videos reviewing/exposing common sponsors is a relatively active video genre now. Granted that can range from reviewing a product that isn't very good to exposing major problems with a certain business.