SponsorBlock Annoys Me

Well, there's a lot going on in the world to write about, which is why I'm going to get mad about... a browser extension. Look, they can't all be winners, and I gotta get these thoughts out of my head.

What is SponsorBlock?

It's a browser extension! The main function is to automatically skip sections of YouTube videos. The primary concern is paid sponsorship segments, which it detects via crowdsourcing from people watching the video. Neat! I support adblocking in all forms and prefer to reward video production I like in more tangible ways which pay them better and poison my brain less.

Of course, if that's all SponsorBlock did I wouldn't be sitting here going out of my mind about it now would I? SponsorBlock can identify and skip a LOT of things and it annoys me to an extremely unreasonable extent. I'm exposed to this because there's a shared PC I use occasionally that has SponsorBlock and very aggressive settings for it. I whine about it periodically but like, whatever, it's not a big deal. (And if you, the person who owns that computer, are reading this - you do not have to change the settings. In fact maybe just don't read this article!)

But for reasons that are super mysterious and weird I've been on a hair trigger lately with annoyances, so when my attention was once again brought to it when I pulled up a Technology Connections video, I was seized by an angry demon who would not let go until I wrote my thoughts out.

Some things SponsorBlock can skip:

For some additional context, let's look at some of the things that get labeled by Sponsorblock that aren't sponsor segments:

Now, I have this set to "Show in seek bar", which is actually not the default - that's "Disabled". Which is a good thing, in my opinion, because if you set these to auto skip some very stupid things will start happening!! Here's a few examples of things that get eaten by these settings that illustrate my objection to their existence.

Unsurprisingly, Sponsorblock catches the credits of this Jenny Nicholson video - the 4 hour documentary about the Star Wars Hotel - as credits and would happily sail you right past it if instructed. Pah, you say. Who cares about credits? I'll set my artistic sensibilities aside for now - those are for the conclusion - and point out there is a banger parody song during these credits! Personally I think it's hilarious and a good bop, and it's a really nice cherry on top after this four hour journey you go on. If I had Sponsorblock turned on I would never have heard it.

Another "Credits" example. Here's Rebecca Watson's dog, Indy! She ends all of her videos with some footage of him before and during the credits card. Adorable, precious, easy to click off if you don't want to see it, or you can feed these adorable clips to the maw of Sponsorblock if you just don't want any whimsy in your life.

Okay, let's switch gears a bit, how about some intros that get skipped? This is the one that riled me up enough to write this article ^[1] because it's literally just our host saying "Hey, this is part of an ongoing series!" It's relevant information because that series is a little different from the rest of his output, and also it's a fun little intro because it starts out in pitch black before the lights come on. But who cares about the context of a thing, right? Obviously we can't spare ten seconds to hear a line read or two. Sponsorblock, destroy this man and take me right to the slop trough, please! I absolutely do not have TEN SECONDS more to spend on this thing someone put time and effort to and gave to the world to enjoy.

Okay, one more intro that gets eaten. This has a whole funny musical riff and some entertaining camera work. I cackled laughing the first time I saw it. But hey, again - surely you don't have twenty seconds for that.

And look - all of this is literally just intros/endcards. I don't need to explain why I find an Automatic Joke Skipping function absurd and objectionable, right? I didn't even know it existed until I went to take a screenshot of the configurations page for this article! In any event - I hope the examples above demonstrate you will just have a worse time watching stuff with those skips enabled. On this basis alone I don't think they should exist, but there's another thing about it that really grinds my gears.

Yes, I am mad. Put in the newspaper that I got mad!

Alright, let's address the elephant in the room - why does this bother me so much? Good question. I'll start out by stating emphatically that I do not have problems with any of the following:

• People discussing what parts of an artwork to skip over, ignore, say are lame, whatever.
• People doing the above based on the recommendations of others.
• People being annoyed by excessively long repetitive introductions.

The reason this riles me up so much is the effective automation of the above. (Except autoskipping ad segments - I am ideologically committed to that being good, so go nuts.) God knows there have been plenty of times where I'm reading or watching something where I make a decision to skip over something or stop entirely, but that's my decision as a reader or viewer or whatever. I'm sure people have done that with my short fiction! It's fine! But I gotta be honest, if I heard about a browser plugin that highlighted specific parts of my story and went "Ignore that other stuff, this is the part you're here to jerk off to!" and automated the process of not engaging with my entire work on its own terms -

I dunno, I think that it's genuinely kind of sad. The trough-slopification of everything sucks and I don't really think doing it to ourselves by putting documentaries and entertainment through a strainer to only get the Content ™ we want out is really a good idea! And in some cases you miss good artistry or, as it would be in my case as a writer, really feel like you're actively disrespecting a work.

I mean - a joke skipping function. A joke skipping function!! Why would you make that??? I almost feel bad pointing it out so I didn't get any examples for the above section but a JOKE SKIPPER??

Is there a final conclusion?

I don't think so. I don't have a strong thesis, I wrote this off the dome during my lunch break because I got riled up. Sponsorblock - fine idea if you look at the literal name, I kind of hate a lot of its other functions! I think viewing visual media this way is part of the insidious process that turns Art into Content, and I kinda hate it.

But hey, you know what? Thanks for reading this little extraneous flourish at the end anyway. It's not super substantial and it didn't add much, but I felt like it was important to include, and I appreciate everyone that fully engages with a piece of writing, informational video, and everything in between.

^[1]: technically this shouldn't even be tagged as an intro by sponsorblock's own guidelines but i only found that out while writing this and I do not have time right now to discuss the implications of that and the fact that everyone using this mis-tags intros all the time so all you're getting is this ranty ass footnote