Gregory's ServerHuh, I wonder what [thing] is. *searches online*
*opens article*
*article is actually a video*
WELP, guess I'll never know! *closes tab*
 213 comments
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@bestiaexmachina See, I wouldn't mind this if I knew I was clicking on a video, but when I think it's an article, I get mad. And it can get worse, if accidentally or automatically starting the video there is a music track added to the narrator's voice track. That got a lot of websites into the block list of my firewall. @bestiaexmachina is leider schade aber sind dir halt die Hände gebunden. Du hast alles versucht, aber wenn es nicht geht dann geht es nicht. @bestiaexmachina "what if we had a wiki for our game" "no what if we just had a bunch of nothing burger youtubers make little videos for everything in our game" "oh?" If the video-makers who explain how computer stuff works want me to hang around to watch their video, they better be using some kind of magnifier, because I don't have time for blurry artifact slurry. @xinjinmeng Agreed! Or when they have their floaty logo or facecam sitting right on the area they're explaining so you can't see what they're clicking 😄 One recent offender had "links to the code we used, below" and they were all dead links to hastebin. ☹️ @bestiaexmachina @bestiaexmachina @jennulator I’m so relieved to learn I’m not the only one that feels this way. :ablobcatworried:  @bestiaexmachina @grantdenkinson hard same. This is why I’ve never gotten into TikTok!   @bestiaexmachina To my surprise, more recently I'm finding video is a reasonable thing, provided (a) it has subtitles, (b) I can play it at 2x speed, and (c) it's from someone who actually knows how to do video, and knows the subject. I've always been an "immediate close" kinda person, but I'm lately a bit more nuanced.  @ColinTheMathmo @bestiaexmachina Being able to double the speed (or 1.5 it) means that there are some info video people I listen to who sound wildly different than they would in real life. e.g. vs someone who I cannot speed up: I keep hoping videos will go away. At least share a transcript I can read in seconds. Even if it is a step by step video. I don't need the chatter. Labeled slides would be 100% better. @UncoveredMyths @bestiaexmachina Yep. @Stormwitch @UncoveredMyths @bestiaexmachina it’s like those recipes where they tell you the history of cooking and their family story before they get to the ingredients. @UncoveredMyths @bestiaexmachina For Youtube in particular, I've had reasonably good luck with https://youtubetranscript.com/. It's hard to skim since it doesn't guess punctuation, and there are often transcription errors, but it's still a big improvement. @bestiaexmachina This. If the promise of an article turns out to be a lie, nope okay see you BYEEEE @bestiaexmachina @bestiaexmachina every once in awhile, there is a transcript of the video, and I gratefully read the transcript  @astranoir @bestiaexmachina Just not a good use of anyone's time. @bestiaexmachina yup. Or when you look and the video is like, 38 minutes long. Nooooope. @bestiaexmachina I'm beginning to think that there's a definite bias on mastodon towards my sort of nerd. :)  @bestiaexmachina same, I have very little patience with video content versus just reading stuff 🤣 @annalemma The worst is that you can't even search for specific words like you could within a written article! 😂 Like get to the point, I just want the tutorial for this specific thing and none of the lore! @bestiaexmachina Exactly! At least with recipe blogs, I can scroll past the author's life story / heartwarming moments / history of their grandmother's life who first made this dish and get to the ingredients 😅 @bestiaexmachina OMG this is me, too! Don't give me a video, just tell me about it. I know I'm in the minority, though.  @bestiaexmachina I keep wondering how much of this relates to age too. I didn't grow up on video content, and I loathe how long it takes to find the answer to something in a video versus skimming an article.  @bestiaexmachina Same here. I am living with a sensory issue that mandates that 1. I dictate the speed of intake of information and 2. I can chose if one or more channels are needed. In most cases, video does provide neither, in the other cases (proper captions, embedded texts) always hitting pause is suboptimal. @bestiaexmachina Yeah, this is me. I need my information now, and in a manner that I can digest at my own pace, thanks. @bestiaexmachina Wait. Tell a lie. Some of these videos like the ones about weird houses are kind of decent as a medium for passing time while exercising at the gym. But for guides, entertainment, information, reviews, commentary, analysis? NO.  @EllisCrawford @bestiaexmachina Dismally slow information transfer rate while consuming high bandwidth. Also glacially slow to produce, compared to writing. More expensive for kit. Budget buster. @bestiaexmachina Yup ... as a writer I also try to explain that to my clients when it comes to videos ... always have captions ... keep it short ... and think about an all-text alt.  @bestiaexmachina This is absolutely true for me in most formats, platforms. If I want a video of something, I go looking for it on purpose. Not something random that's plopped in front of me which might be good, or might be frustrating clickbait. Me making a curious guess with 5-10 min of my life? Nope. Never gonna happen. @bestiaexmachina I feel all of that. I did a "learning style" poll recently that came out at 0% auditory 😂 @bestiaexmachina I know how you feel! I'd much rather read. I can extract the important information a lot faster than watching someone waffle on without getting to the point.  @bestiaexmachina Do these people not understand I’m *already* watching a video— or music or talking and that’s why I looked it up??? who said I had my full attention free for this nonsense?  @bestiaexmachina * only documentation, official or otherwise, is in ~1 hour long videos, 99% of which cover stuff I already know about * @bestiaexmachina I hate how everything has gone to video now. I handle text much easier. Hell, I handle pure audio easier, though I’d definitely prefer easily skim able text. @djdesign @bestiaexmachina LOL this describes my behavior. This and my rule that if an online recipe mentions agave, I close the tab and walk away @Mlep Oh no! 🙈 Maybe it's similar to the coriander phenomenon? Apparently it's a matter of genetics whether coriander tastes great or soapy to you. To be honest, if a recipe asks for agave syrup (which mostly seems to be a thing in vegan recipes) I just replace it with maple syrup. I have no idea what agave tastes like or if they taste similar at all, but it seems to work because the food turns out tasting great. 😄 @bestiaexmachina Ah yeah, I can do coriander/cilantro just fine -- it's delicious! So I'm not sure! Also yes, agave seems prevalent in vegan stuff. I just go with whatever I have on hand -- sugar, molasses, maple syrup, corn syrup, honey etc. Usually works but just reading the recipe reminds me of a soap flavor and I lose my willpower to even try it, haha.   @bestiaexmachina  @bestiaexmachina I know it’s because I am old and used the internet when it was only text, but I will forever want to read things first. Videos are for entertainment, or learning how to fix my dishwasher pump motor. @bestiaexmachina How about those"Articles" that are like 89 slides with a stock image and one sentence on each? @StarCrashr OOF YES, for some reason I thought they were only a German phenomenon but it's a shame to hear they're a common practice in other places as well. My condolences! @bestiaexmachina same, very much so. I take in info better by reading than listening, I can read way faster than a video can talk (even at 2x), I can *search* text, if I save a copy I can easily look things up later... unless it is a demonstration where a video really is worth a thousand words (which can happen), I want text and back out of videos if I accidentally land there. Complex cooking technique? Video is great. Schematic? Diagrams work. Explanation of a concept? Send words.  @bestiaexmachina except for when I want a video.... Then the video is approximately 20 minutes long for something that could be 2 minutes. 😡😡😡 @bestiaexmachina I'm the exact opposite. My ADHD brain needs full immersion with as many of my senses engaged as possible. What, I'm supposed to just read this long text? With my eyeballs? Ugh. *close* @JamesDBartlett3 That's interesting! I'm neurodivergent too, but for me it's like videos pose too *little* engagement for my brain. I suppose it's mostly because I process information quite fast and can read/skim much faster than anyone could ever speak (even with 2.0 video speed enabled), so watching a video or having to listen to a voice message is kinda like plugging a high-end device into a USB 1.0 slot. 🙈 @bestiaexmachina this is totally me! I'm too impatient for them to get to the point in a video, when I can just read it faster. @frankpodmore It depends for me; like if it's how to open up a (non-openable) phone and exchange the battery I 100% prefer a video so I can do what they're doing on screen, but if I just want to know what to click when trying to add an effect to my animation project, a simple one-liner would do. @bestiaexmachina Yeah, I can see the use of a video for some specific tasks, but if it's something like, 'Here's how to type some code into a terminal', I'd really prefer text to a recording of someone's screen! Me: *sighs*....*presses play* 2 minutes of adverts starts *forgets why the hell I went there in the first place* *nopes out so hard me feets dunt touch the ground* @bestiaexmachina All the way there and back again—totally the same. No I don’t care. No, really, don’t walk me through all that, I already know how to do all that. No, no, I don’t want to get your free pack of thingamajigs by subscribing to your whatsamathing. No, no, nooooo, your missing the point, no, really I’m fine, I just, oh forget it.   @bestiaexmachina I can't even stand video tutorials. Give me that text and animated GIFs. @bestiaexmachina I am not a video person. I won't watch them if I can possibly avoid them. They take way more time to get their messages across than writing does and my time is too valuable to me to spend that way.  @bestiaexmachina _ For me, it's more like: WELP, guess I'll learn about that later *adds to "watch later list" that never gets watched later*  @bestiaexmachina @lauowolf Right? My ever-existing request mantra for video-making people is: always include a transcript if you want more widespread uptake of your information. @bestiaexmachina @freddie I am just waiting until AI can watch the video for me and write an article for it.  @bestiaexmachina  @bestiaexmachina yea I've become mistrustful of giving my time over to someone who doesn't respect the density or sparsity I need @bestiaexmachina @bestiaexmachina that and also crochet patterns that turn out to be videos. I don't want to crochet-a-long. Your pattern has no complex stitches that need explaining. Please just write down your pattern. I'll even pay for it. I wanna watch TV while I crochet! @bestiaexmachina OMG same. 99% of the time I do not want a video to explain things, I want written words with maybe some useful illustrations or pictures. I want to consume at my own speed and without having to either put on headphones or annoy other people around me. I *HATE* those. Just let me scan through and read it! Same with 'tutorials'. The video is 40 minutes long and all i need is 2 screenshots! @chrisashtear @TrexPushups @bestiaexmachina  @bestiaexmachina I’m convinced that no one has ever wanted to watch a video when looking for an article and yet they’re embedded damn near *everywhere* |
@bestiaexmachina What I really like about the TED Talks official site is that they have transcripts in multiple languages for all their video talks