Here’s why you can’t click the title to go back to YouTube on our videos.

For about a year, I’ve gotten notes from readers asking why our YouTube embeds are broken in one very specific way: you can no longer click the title to open the video on YouTube.com or in the YouTube app. This used to work just fine, but now you can’t.

This bothers us, too, and it’s doubly frustrating because everyone assumes that we’ve chosen to disable links, which makes a certain kind of sense — after all, why on earth wouldn’t YouTube want people to click over to its app?

The short answer is money. Somewhat straightforwardly, YouTube has chosen to degrade the user experience of the embedded player publishers like Vox Media use, and the only way to get that link back is by using a slightly different player that pays us less and YouTube more.

  • noodlejetski@lemm.eeEnglish
    101·
    4 days ago

    Here’s the really long version: like everyone, we publish our videos on YouTube

    I think I’ve found the underlying issue

    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      33·
      4 days ago

      We won’t have a competitor until people start posting shit elsewhere and people won’t start posting shit elsewhere until we have a competitor with a solid user base.

      It’s a catch-22. I don’t disagree with you here but I also don’t see a good answer. Companies are going to post their news where an audience exists for that news and I have a hard time saying that that is wrong for them to do.

      • vonbaronhans@midwest.socialEnglish
        6·
        3 days ago

        Under pre-computer conditions, ideally a competitor would disrupt the market with some novel cost saving technique, more efficient processes, or some other way to stand out from the crowd and claw consumers away from the Big Thing.

        Unfortunately, nowadays with computer stuff, it’s virtually impossible to build new or novel features that the Big Thing can’t immediately (or very quickly) copy and implement before the little guy can meaningfully establish themselves.

        At this point… it comes down to the people. Nebula popped off not because they had a rad new feature or player, but because they had a certain target audience where those types of creators were releasing content there first, well before posting on YouTube. Same for Dropout. And because both of those endeavors aren’t subject to the same business model pressures as YouTube, they’re liable to only get better over time.

        I don’t know how you do a social media site with that strategy though. Lemmy is the best I’ve experienced, but even this isn’t without its drawbacks.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    123·
    5 days ago

    the only way to get that link back is by using a slightly different player that pays us less and YouTube more.

    Add a “watch on YouTube” link above or below your embedded videos?

    • Zombie@feddit.ukEnglish
      23·
      4 days ago

      Don’t host on YouTube? They’re a big company, I’m sure they’ve got the resources for a couple of video files.

      • diffusive@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        4 days ago

        Then they need to find advertisers. This is the hard part. Advertisers are familiar with the platform and tools of YouTube, having them to submit ads in other platforms is where the for-profit video hosting becomes tricky

  • MrAlternateTape@lemm.eeEnglish
    31·
    4 days ago

    YouTube is simply squeezing hard now.

    They are big enough that 90% of the people who do look at videos do it there. So a video that is posted elsewhere simply does not get the exposure that it does on YouTube.

    That gives them a lot of power. And they use it to squeeze as much money as possible from anyone they can. Now, if they would do big squeezes, people would notice and they would at least try to find other sites.

    So just like abuse, it’s a slow process of tearing little barriers down of what is acceptable, until at some point users one by one start to realize it has all turned to shit.

    But that is going to take a lot of time, and until that happens we are just going to see more reports about all the things YouTube does.

    We will keep seeing angry nerds upset about it, and they will block ads and work around it. But nothing else will change. And that is such a small part of the userbase of YouTube that they don’t even feel it.

    So I’m going to block ads, watch what I want to watch as long as the site is usuable without ads, and I will stop using the site when ads can no longer be blocked. YouTube is simply not that important to me.

    • xavier666@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      So just like abuse, it’s a slow process of tearing little barriers down of what is acceptable

      The classic “slow boiling frog experiment” is quintessential to the enshittification process

  • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.orgEnglish
    47·
    5 days ago

    It’s all going to shit. Let’s burn it all down and start over. Will it be better then? Probably not, but burning it down will feel good I imagine.

  • KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.caEnglish
    23·
    4 days ago

    I’ve noticed this and really thought it was the website. All sides lose.

    Enshittification at its finest.

  • 11111one11111@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    3 days ago

    Why isn’t there an unfederated rule banning youtube, Twitter and whatever else links? I only ever see youtube and Twitter. Forcing people to break convenient habits is the only way anything will ever change. I know that mentality seeeeeeems totalitarian but thats only because it absolutely is. Lol

    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      I think a better strategy is just to prefer linking to content on Peertube whenever it is feasible and just not worry about it to much when Youtube is the only source for actually good content on some topic. There is wayyyyy too much consolidation around Youtube to effectively challenge in the hardline way you are saying, it just isn’t practical.

      Here are some cool Peertube instances.

      https://tilvids.com/ -> an instance dedicated to educational/edutainment videos

      https://lostpod.space/ -> a smaller general purpose peertube instance that I like