#no ads = no revenue

[siriuslemonmuffin]

instead of bitching why don’t we all just be thankful ao3 doesn’t have ads xxx

[xylocopavirginica]

omg ok so i was trying to look up how to sex a centipede and one of the first results was an obviously ai-generated article with these absolutely incredible images of “centipedes” lmao. they are so hilariously bad i just had to share

[mintbees]

Watcher moving all of their content going forward to a paid streaming service for JUST their own content and not posting on youtube anymore? Pitching that idea to a mostly young viewer base who dont want to/cant pay for an extra streaming service? ohhhh they're so cooked

[gatoiberico]

promoting the essentials

🥛 prints | magnets 🧂

[midorishinobi5]

Radagon reforging the Golden Order Greatsword but it’s one of those awful restoration videos where they completely butcher the piece and miss the intent of it

[fer3112]

I love that he keeps censoring swears on amazingphil despite graduating into fuckland the duality of capitalester

[twilight-deviant]

Watcher fans sure are entitled and a little insane, ngl. "No one is going to sign up for your service! We're all poor! You've made the worst decision, and you'll be back in no time!" Saying this directly to the creators really reminds you of how low the respect for people you don't personally know has gone. I miss the forth wall between creator and audience.

I get and fully understand not having the money to support them, but... Watcher does have fans with money. A lot of them actually. They have merch sales. Their live tour sells out most venues. They have thousands of supporters on Patreon, where the cheapest tier is $5. They're able to gauge the rough finances of their staunchest supporters; that's how they landed on the subscription price. Yes, this move will reduce their viewership in sheer numbers, but to say all of their fans are broke and none will follow/support is factually incorrect.

It may not be a decision everyone agrees with, but severing the limitations of advertisers and youtube in favor of artistic freedom is a good thing. Yes, even if it comes with a loss of revenue. They understand that risk.

Also, I'm begging people to stop treating this like "another Netflix" or something and instead look at it as, "I am supporting a creator I like, similar to Patreon." They literally said in the video that they don't care if you share accounts. Get five friends, and you'll pay $1/mo.

I hate feeling compelled to rant in favor of their decision because I have my own reservations about whether it's the best move. However, I know it's not a choice they made lightly, and I like to think they understand that they'll need to branch out like crazy to entice subscribers.

[egberts]

why does every website nowadays have to give you a full history of the food you're looking for. bitch i'm here for the ingredients list and nothing else, stop telling me about different kinds of flour and start telling me how much i need to be putting in

[supreme-leader-stoat]

D'you think the suits at youtube realize that they've created a site so fundamentally hostile to actually watching videos that it's easier to just open videos in private windows than turn off adblock?

[hungwy]

this channel is of course clearly catering to the army of children that storm youtube every day by playing colorful childrens games but what's really strange to me is that a ton of their videos are an hour or more long. do kids like that? do they watch the full video? or are they trying to be like, children's background noise?

[powdermelonkeg]

Hey Google? In what world do you think I want the contents of my personal storage drive suggested to me fucking algorithmically???

[asleepinawell]

can't believe tumblr is now more functional than twitter that was not on my bingo card for the year

[odinsblog]

People are pointing out that it appears someone is juicing the views anyway, by promoting the video post as an ad… but without the (required by law) disclosure that it’s an ad. This certainly suggests that it’s being done by ExTwitter itself, rather than MrBeast directly. If it were being done by MrBeast or someone else, then it would say that it was a promoted/advertised slot. The fact that it’s hidden suggests the call is coming from inside the house.

The evidence that it’s an undisclosed ad is pretty strong. People are seeing it show up in their feeds without the time/date of the post, which is something that only happens with ads. Other tweets show that info.

Even stronger proof? If you click on the three dots next to the tweet… it says “Report ad” and “Why this ad?” which, um, is pretty damning.

Cody Johnston notes that he has refused to update his Twitter app in ages, and on the old app, it is properly designated as a “Promoted” tweet, which is how ads were normally disclosed.

Elon is denying that he’s done anything to goose the numbers, but the evidence suggests someone at the company is doing so, whether or not Elon knows about it.

Of course, the evidence still suggests otherwise. Meanwhile, Ryan Broderick was told by an ExTwitter employee that they don’t have to label promoted tweets that have videos because there’s also a pre-roll video and that is disclosed. Of course, that… makes no sense at all. Those are two totally separate things, and not labeling the promoted tweet is a likely FTC violation (and potentially fraudulent in misrepresenting to people how much they might make from videos posted to the platform).

(continue reading)

[strangely-renee]

We have had dnp content ever sunday for the last 4 sundays so twitter video tonight??? 🤞🤞🤞

[notbecauseofvictories]

*taps gently on your window* you said you like the history of chicago? do you have any fun facts specifically related to the history of chicago as the original and eternal capital of pinball? any tidbits that ideally would beyond those found in a typical timeline of pinball history? (ignore this ask if you don’t know anything and/or aren’t interested in the topic ofc)

Weirdly enough, I do! Maybe not a lot, but I know that---much like alcohol---Chicago tried to ban gambling and gaming periodically throughout the 20th century. And I know that---also like alcohol---they failed, completely and utterly.

For those of you not in the know, Chicago technically "banned" pinball games from the 40s to the 70s. Technically, the city enforced such prohibitions.

Technically.

Due to selective enforcement and honestly, people just straight up ignoring the law, Chicago became a powerhouse of gaming activity anyway. Pinball games were part and parcel of that process. I'm talking about Chicago Coin, which was founded in the 1930s, but didn't achieve true success until they started churning out pinball games in the 1960s and 70s. Bally Manufacturing was into pinball games and slot machines long before it ever sold tennis rackets and activewear. Williams Electronics/WMS industries hit the jackpot in 1981 when it produced Defender. (The company has since moved to Las Vegas.) There's a whole complicated history to explore, and I highly encourage everyone to do so.

However, my absolute favorite bit of writing about the city and its symbiotic relationship with pinball is this Chicago Reader piece. It's very clearly an elegy to a dying art form---written in 2005, it's clear that the world of pinball machines is passing away. Still, it loves the arcades of old. Even today pinball games represent an enormous, significant weight on the fabric of the city; sitting in my apartment right now, I'm about a 10 minute walk away from the nearest pinball machine. (Maybe less, I haven't been to every bar in my neighborhood.)

In short, there's a reason that the Pinball Expo has been happening here since 1985---Chicago is the uncrowned queen of the flippers.

So who cares if John E. Cassidy tried to ban them, or that there was an even older 1895 prohibition against mechanical gambling devices? They're as Chicagoan as ketchup-less hotdogs, and complaining about construction on the Kennedy.

[ezpegs]