Youtube Boycott
Aug. 13th, 2025 09:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerWell, uh. It's going? It has come to my attention that I might have a bit of a problem, but that's okay. I'm also not 100% sure how long I can keep a full boycott going, but that's fine. I'll remind anyone else maybe thinking about it that even substantially changing your viewing habits especially if you're a heavy user will be noticed as long as you're not the only one doing it.
*One of my big youtube uses was overnight. I'd have 8-10 hour ambience videos going to help me sleep. Except Dailymotion also has those. Don't need youtube overnight anymore!
*A lot of people were worried about watching cartoons/animated stuff/anime. Check your local library. You might not even need to physically check anything out if they have a service like Hoopla. I believe I found HunterxHunter on it the other day. If your local public library is part of a library system, like ours is, you may even be able to get stuff within the area but not at your specific library through an interlibrary loan. I can also confirm that 'Animation & Cartoons' is a section of the Internet Archive, though I can't confirm they will have the specific cartoon you want to watch. Also, some places, like yugioh, have their own dedicated website from the publisher to watch the anime.
*Something you have might have Vevo for music. The Internet Archive also has music.
*Some youtubers might have, say, a podcast that you can listen to instead of watching, or at least to cut down on your watching. Council of Geeks and Jessie Gender have a podcast, The Man With a Million Channels Simon Whistler's stuff are also podcasts, some like the Meidas Touch Network also have their own website to watch things instead, etc.
*It's harder to get actually voiced let's play content alternatives, but there's some non-voiced I've found on Dailymotion, and there's always Twitch (though if you're looking for full playthroughs that's unlikely, as Twitch added their 'maximum hours per channel' thing a bit ago).
And if you just have to watch: watching signed out, using adblock (as the FBI recommended) and a VPN are all ways to send a message to youtube and make your data less profitable. Maybe see this as a sign to de-google your life. Sign petitions, write or call Google, like or share videos calling them out on their policy, etc.
Oh yeah, also: think long and hard if you want to give them any info. If you're a creator that uses facecam, I'd probably be most likely to do the selfie, since that's info they already have and have already used to train AI, so they're not getting anything new that can and will be lost in a massive data leak.
*One of my big youtube uses was overnight. I'd have 8-10 hour ambience videos going to help me sleep. Except Dailymotion also has those. Don't need youtube overnight anymore!
*A lot of people were worried about watching cartoons/animated stuff/anime. Check your local library. You might not even need to physically check anything out if they have a service like Hoopla. I believe I found HunterxHunter on it the other day. If your local public library is part of a library system, like ours is, you may even be able to get stuff within the area but not at your specific library through an interlibrary loan. I can also confirm that 'Animation & Cartoons' is a section of the Internet Archive, though I can't confirm they will have the specific cartoon you want to watch. Also, some places, like yugioh, have their own dedicated website from the publisher to watch the anime.
*Something you have might have Vevo for music. The Internet Archive also has music.
*Some youtubers might have, say, a podcast that you can listen to instead of watching, or at least to cut down on your watching. Council of Geeks and Jessie Gender have a podcast, The Man With a Million Channels Simon Whistler's stuff are also podcasts, some like the Meidas Touch Network also have their own website to watch things instead, etc.
*It's harder to get actually voiced let's play content alternatives, but there's some non-voiced I've found on Dailymotion, and there's always Twitch (though if you're looking for full playthroughs that's unlikely, as Twitch added their 'maximum hours per channel' thing a bit ago).
And if you just have to watch: watching signed out, using adblock (as the FBI recommended) and a VPN are all ways to send a message to youtube and make your data less profitable. Maybe see this as a sign to de-google your life. Sign petitions, write or call Google, like or share videos calling them out on their policy, etc.
Oh yeah, also: think long and hard if you want to give them any info. If you're a creator that uses facecam, I'd probably be most likely to do the selfie, since that's info they already have and have already used to train AI, so they're not getting anything new that can and will be lost in a massive data leak.
Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-14 06:32 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's the aggregate that matters. Since I've seen creators mention plummeting views, I suspect the effects are visible. I haven't tried to cut off completely, but have cut way down. I don't watch things casually anymore, I think about whether it's a thing I really need or want. I've cut out risky categories like animation and gaming altogether, in hopes of retaining longer access to the educational stuff I care about more, and things like bushcraft that I doubt are classified as childish.
>>*A lot of people were worried about watching cartoons/animated stuff/anime. <<
My partner is an animation fan, so that's covered.
>>It's harder to get actually voiced let's play content alternatives <<
Yeah, I don't think there's any other source for that that I can use. I was using Boardgamegeek to research whether I want to buy boardgames that I've seen. Those all seem to be YT videos -- unboxing, review, and playthrough -- which would certainly be high-risk at YT. >_
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-14 09:29 pm (UTC)Good! :D I'm glad you have a solution there!
Oof, and that's a double whammy because you're explicitly using it to try to have something you can play in person. I haven't found videos on the Boardgamegeek website when I've looked up a game here and there; do they have those and if so are they all just embedded originating from youtube?
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-14 09:56 pm (UTC)True, but a bunch of creators are either pausing their use of YouTube, or quitting altogether, because they don't like the changes. That's sad.
>> I know some people are creating secondary accounts (or using old secondary accounts) to watch risky categories, or watching logged out, but whether those are long-term solutions is anyone's guess (if youtube starts restricting more videos, for instance). <<
Hopefully YouTube will remain at least somewhat usable, but many important sites have collapsed before. The web is very unstable.
I'm starting to wonder if part of the exhaustion many people feel nowadays is not just from overwork on the job, but having to redo work, over and over, as things collapse. A store closes, you have to find a new one. A platform closes, you have to recreate what you had there or do without. There has always been some churn, or we couldn't have new things; but it's a lot faster than it used to be, and often things disappear with no good replacement. It's a problem.
>> The nice thing about cutting down your watchtime rather than cutting it out completely is it's a lot more sustainable.<<
True.
>> Oof, and that's a double whammy because you're explicitly using it to try to have something you can play in person.<<
Yeah, we have local game store that we like shopping at. If we're sure we want something, especially from the small games section or book section, we just buy it. But most games are now $40-50 or more. They have games well over $100 there. If I like the concept and art but I'm unsure about the play, I go home and look it up on Boardgamegeek, read the details, look at pictures, watch one or more videos. It has let me avoid some really bad games, and confirm some really cool ones. Then we go back to the store and buy it.
>> I haven't found videos on the Boardgamegeek website when I've looked up a game here and there; <<
When you go to a game page, there is a row of menu options under the summary area with the black background:
Overview
Ratings
Forums
Images
Videos
Files
Stats
Versions
Expansions
My Games
Shopping
Click videos and it shows you titles and thumbnails of what's available for that game. Those various options tell you a lot about how the game looks and plays.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/386937/lacuna
>> do they have those and if so are they all just embedded originating from youtube? <<
Okay, I went back and checked. It looks like the videos are playable on BGG but have the "Watch on YouTube" option. So I'm not sure what will happen to those. If YouTube tries to dictate what people can watch on BGG or punishes adults for watching videos about games that YouTube considers childish, that would really hurt BGG -- which is the leading site for information about tabletop games.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-15 07:13 pm (UTC)That's a really good point, actually. I do think some of it is that a lot of companies seem to be planning only for short-term gains anymore rather than actually trying to invest in things that will pay off later, but I think the only thing that might get through is concrete results showing that doesn't work, and maybe not even then.
Yeah, given the increase in board game prices, you *have* to be able to do research to know if it's worth the price. There's been some acclaimed games that we personally don't like the gameplay of and vice versa, so it's nice being able to see whether the gameplay style fits you before you get it. (Ohh, okay. I'd mostly been looking for very specific information--stuff like errata and rule clarifications, because I'm not usually the one that buys the games--so I'd missed that entirely.)
The thing that would make sense is if youtube goes "that's off our site so we're not the ones responsible and therefore it's not our problem", but a lot of companies haven't been doing the sensible thing lately. Some sites might be able to do minimal video hosting themselves, or reupload to other services, but there's probably a lot of limits and almost definitely some if not a lot of videos would get lost.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-16 09:01 am (UTC)Too true.
>> That's a really good point, actually. I do think some of it is that a lot of companies seem to be planning only for short-term gains anymore rather than actually trying to invest in things that will pay off later, but I think the only thing that might get through is concrete results showing that doesn't work, and maybe not even then.<<
Yeah. Too many people just don't care anymore. They're so surrounded by shitty things, they don't realize it's possible to make good things. Kind of like if you've never had a real tomato fresh from the garden, you wouldn't know that most supermarket tomatoes are styrofoam because they're bred to survive transit, not flavor or nutrition.
>> Yeah, given the increase in board game prices, you *have* to be able to do research to know if it's worth the price.<<
I don't mind dropping $10-15 on a game without researching it, but around $20 I start thinking twice unless it's obviously brilliant.
>> There's been some acclaimed games that we personally don't like the gameplay of and vice versa, so it's nice being able to see whether the gameplay style fits you before you get it.<<
Yeah. I need to see if it's playable for me. Some things will rule it out, like having lots of math. Others are just too complicated, or I can't figure out what to do next. But if a game has pretty art, a theme I enjoy, and an interesting storyline that gives me clear things to do ... I don't really care who wins. Call to Adventure and Planetarium are like that.
>>The thing that would make sense is if youtube goes "that's off our site so we're not the ones responsible and therefore it's not our problem", <<
Possible. I do note that once a video is embedded, it becomes a lot easier to watch, for instance without a bunch of ads cluttering the view before you can see it.
>> but a lot of companies haven't been doing the sensible thing lately.<<
Alas.
>>there's probably a lot of limits and almost definitely some if not a lot of videos would get lost.<<
That's what I'd expect.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-17 01:17 am (UTC)Well, and there's a lot of critically acclaimed games that are $60-75, and those you absolutely shouldn't buy without doing research, because that is a *lot* of money to just spend on something if you realize later you don't like it. Sometimes local game stores have copies you can try out, or at conventions...but those also require having one locally/being able to travel to one. I personally like games with a story or at least ones where I can easily see if I'm improving my own skill at the game, and it annoys me when the mechanics are jarring compared to the theme, but that's definitely different taste-wise than some of the other people I know, and there's been games they've loved that I haven't enjoyed. I personally have a lot of older games like Sushi Go and Settlers of Catan (and enjoy others' Gloomhaven and Arkham Horror), but one of my fellow gamers has Daybreak, which I really like that they didn't use plastic for any of the pieces to match the theming of cooperatively trying to limit global climate change and other side effects. It's really fun, but can get really depressing to play.
Hmm. I wonder if they can keep track of embeds. They could probably turn off at least the ability to embed future videos entirely, but that would probably tick off everyone even more than they already are.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-17 02:49 am (UTC)Shifting baseline.
>> There also seemed to be (though maybe it's just nostalgia) that companies used to care about investing in, say, perks for their workers and stuff? <<
It's not just your memory. My partner used to work at a place, long ago, that gave employees tickets to local music festivals.
>> It seemed like a lot more companies cared about putting out good products (ones that seemed to have a longer period before expected "replacement"), of having happy customers and happy employees that could afford the products they help make.<<
That used to be true. In fact one of Ford's goals used to be for every lineworker to afford a Ford car. I think the starting pay back then was around 5x minimum wage. Now the biggest employer is WalMart, which pays minimum wage and almost all its employees are on welfare and food stamps, meaning taxpayers cover the rest of the wage and people are still poor.
>> I do suspect a lot of it is growing monopolies or megacorps, because if they're the only game in town, no need to invest; customers just don't have a choice.<<
That is exactly why capitalism is supposed to discourage monopolies.
>>Sometimes local game stores have copies you can try out, or at conventions...but those also require having one locally/being able to travel to one. <<
We do have local game stores with play space. The problem is that space is a big open room with a bunch of tables and a crowd of people all talking at once. Not helpful to me.
>>I personally like games with a story or at least ones where I can easily see if I'm improving my own skill at the game, and it annoys me when the mechanics are jarring compared to the theme <<
I agree. I love when the mechanics match the them. Like Call to Adventure has these "rune dice" that you toss and count up the facing symbols to see what happens. It's awesome.
>> Daybreak, which I really like that they didn't use plastic for any of the pieces to match the theming of cooperatively trying to limit global climate change and other side effects. <<
Oh, that's clever.
Plastic can be okay as a game piece, but I like the feel of wood or metal.
>>Hmm. I wonder if they can keep track of embeds. They could probably turn off at least the ability to embed future videos entirely, but that would probably tick off everyone even more than they already are.<<
The ability to embed videos elsewhere is one of YouTube's leading assets. Not all other video hosts do it at all, and the ones that do aren't as convenient and glitch more. Vimeo only plays about half the time if I click on it, and that's the second-most-used one I see after YouTube. Sad.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-17 10:35 pm (UTC)Especially when they're products not designed for the wealthiest, it should be obvious that their tactics are unsustainable if their workers can't afford them, but... /sigh
I mean, it also doesn't help if there are laws against monopolies that don't get enforced.
Ohhh yeah. That probably wouldn't help for conventions either, then. We got lucky the couple of times we decided to play when one of the big events was going on, so it was fairly quiet, but for the most part it gets loud there, too.
Ooh that sounds cool! I like the general idea of rune dice.
I know metal is more expensive but I miss metal pieces.
Actually, that's a good point--I don't think Dailymotion does it either, and I think you just link to the Internet Archive (though it is used for the occasional picture or podcast hosting, I think? I've never done it, so I don't know how good it is).
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-17 11:07 pm (UTC)One would think this to be obvious, but economists are a special kind of stupid. I'm bad at math; I'm lucky to get the same answer three times running with a calculator. I'm also smart enough to be a writer instead of an economist. But somehow, 66% of people are worse at math that me, and it doesn't seem to stop them from going into economics.
If you think that's bad, you should consider the sad state of municipal math.
>>That probably wouldn't help for conventions either, then. We got lucky the couple of times we decided to play when one of the big events was going on, so it was fairly quiet, but for the most part it gets loud there, too.<<
I used to like science fiction conventions, but then mundania basically took over fandom, and fuck that. :/
>>Ooh that sounds cool! I like the general idea of rune dice. <<
It lets you do very different things than standard dice. There are images and discussion here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/238992/call-to-adventure
>>I know metal is more expensive but I miss metal pieces.<<
I get bitchy if I'm shelling out a lot of money for a game and the construction is shabby. I want the art to look good and the pieces to feel nice in my hands. That doesn't mean plastic can't be good, wood or metal can't be bad, but cheap usually means shoddy.
Internet Archive is good for many things.
Dreamwidth has image hosting but it's lousy so almost nobody uses it; they link from another site. I don't know if they even have video hosting, but you can embed videos from elsewhere.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-18 07:52 pm (UTC)Partly, we stopped when travel got more expensive and/or we didn't want to do road trips, but...honestly, yeah, we probably would've kept going if there had been more of a draw.
Oooh that looks really cool! Definitely lots of roleplaying/story opportunities there and neat design. I'll have to keep an eye out :)
Yeah, the main issue with plastic is that it tends to be used as the 'saving cost' choice, thus defaulting it to be seen as usually shoddy. Kind of like how Unity forced lower-paying devs to use the 'made in Unity' start screen, so it got a reputation as an engine used for bad games.
That it is! I've always liked the idea of it because I value archival work and like the idea of actually having a persistent record of important web pages (such as ones that the government is trying to scrub or vandalize), but I'm finding a whole lot more on here than I would have thought. It's nice.
Yeah, I tried using Dreamwidth for image hosting for Ao3, but the links kept breaking, so I gave up. I'm guessing some people might post at least video fandom essays on the Internet Archive and from there to either Dreamwidth or Ao3, which would fit.
Searching the FAQ only turned up something about embedding, so yeah, I don't think Dreamwidth does video hosting.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-18 09:28 pm (UTC)In fact, generalists often outperform specialists. We can see connections across widely varied fields. What we don't know, we know how to find or who to ask. We can easily make new connections and learn new things as needed. In a data-rich world, this is simply more useful than someone who has memorized a great deal of details about a narrow topic -- unless what you need is, in fact, very detailed information or skill within that slice only.
>>Especially in the follow-up where it states 'Poor neighborhoods subsidize the affluent', though that probably applies to more than just neighborhoods...<<
The poor always subsidize the rich in all ways. This is because it is impossible to have rich people without poor people; in order for one person to be rich, many others must be made poor. With a city, poor neighborhoods pay vastly more taxes than rich ones; a string of tiny "blighted" shops is worth far more than a single big box store or new fast food joint. The rich areas hemorrhage money in terms of return on investment.
>>Oooh that looks really cool! Definitely lots of roleplaying/story opportunities there and neat design.<<
Call to Adventure basically a giant character design engine, and in the process of building the character, you generate their plot too -- the events that shape their personality. If you know anything about archetypes it's an absolute riot. A hint: think storytelling, not strategy. The engine is actually designed to reward creating the best character.
>>Yeah, the main issue with plastic is that it tends to be used as the 'saving cost' choice, thus defaulting it to be seen as usually shoddy.<<
Cheap plastic looks and feels cheap, and that's what a lot of games use, so it undermines the perception of quality. But then I've seen games with a custom-designed, molded box insert with a slot for every type of piece that makes packing the game quick and easy.
>> I'm finding a whole lot more on here than I would have thought. <<
There is plenty of activity on Dreamwidth, but you have to know where to find it.
To find blogs or communities, use the Interests page. There is also a master list of communities by topic.
To make friends, use the Addme communities. Watch for friending memes, events, and other activities.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2025-08-19 11:21 pm (UTC)Our program included a library sciences class that involved how to find information when we didn't know, which I'm guessing isn't standard...but even then there were a lot of classes that presented things as established fact rather than just some unquestioned hypothesis from 50 years ago. Memorizing "facts" is even worse when those "facts" are wrong (like with the medical definition of airborne).
Yeah. Small local businesses are just generally better :)
I read that, and I know some people who don't like to spend too much time making their characters but I will spend days making characters I sometimes don't even end up playing, so that's definitely right up my alley. (Are we talking Jungian archetypes, or other ones?)
Effort and care for the game buys a lot of good will!
Whoops, I forgot to include the words 'internet archive' for that paragraph, but yeah, that too :). There's a whole lot of sites (especially older style sites, which are so much better) where you have to actually figure out how to navigate them and look for the obscure features rather than having an algorithm hand them all to you, and I just hadn't put the work in for more than daily/occasional use, before. (Honestly I'd been a whole lot more familiar with the Wayback Machine side of things saving some journal articles/websites I figured were at risk.)