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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3538 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 14, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Has anyone of you ever bought/subscribed to anything from youtube sponsorships? To me everything looks like crap or scam. So I wonder - who buys it, for them to make any money.

Semi related: For decades the local greyhound adoption group had a booth at the county fair, they would bring in their greys to hang around and tell passerby about adopting retired racing greyhounds. I saw them every year growing up. Did not adopt a greyhound, as I was a kid and we already had a dog.

A decade and change later, I marry Mrs. FiveHour, and she wants a dog. She hasn't had a dog and we're both busy so I rule out getting a puppy, we'll just mess it up, but I'm a little nervous about shelter dogs as some have behavioral issues. I think to myself, well racing greyhounds are available, they're a good size (I like medium-to-large dogs), and they come pre-trained but not traumatized. We adopted one immediately, and we'd have two if it weren't for the first one being a prick to other dogs.

So a lot of times, advertising is the long con. Brand awareness is pretty important. You're not necessarily selling something today to the person who sees the ad, you're selling something years from now when they find themselves wanting something in the sector of stuff you sell.

I don't use YouTube specifically enough, and when I am using youtube a lot I just get a premium subscription to avoid ads. But I've eventually tried stuff like AthleticGreens and Momentous brand supplements, after approximately 5,000 advertisements on podcasts. BJJFanatics has a good podcast, and as a result I've purchased an instructional from them, if I get anything out of it I'll probably purchase another. Those are things I would have purchased a version of otherwise, in that just about everyone who works out eventually dabbles in supplements or instructional videos or whatever, and when the urge hit me I went to those brands rather than a different one. My Eagles' podcasts have started running ads for the rock climbing gym near me, if I didn't already go there I'd start if this was the first I'd heard of it.

So like, most of them are probably crap or scams, but if you're in the market for scams or crap, you're more likely to buy one from this particular scammer.

GroundNews seems aight, I've recommended it to normies after repeated exposure from sponsorships though do not use it myself.

GoatGuns look kinda cool and I've considered getting one to fidget around with but probably won't.

Nebula and History of Weapons & War seem great but I have too much other great stuff in my backlog and I can't really organizationally afford another platform.

GoatGuns look kinda cool and I've considered getting one to fidget around with but probably won't.

I got one. It works great as an ornamental piece. Of course it doesn't have all the detail (that would be awesome but I doubt you can pull such thing off for 50 bucks). I do not regret getting it. It kinda sounds silly - what a tiny gun that doesn't work is useful for? - but turns out sometimes having some silly things around is enjoyable. I have no idea where I heard first about it though... theoretically could be an ad, I just don't remember.

GoatGuns

Funko pops for the red tribe?

Some of the inner mechanisms are modelled, but on closer inspection of some videos not nearly as much of them as I'd thought. Fatal downgrade tbh, that was most of the notional appeal.

I actually thought it was that "Goats, Guns and Gold," dude that Peter Lavelle sometimes invites on Crosstalk RT.

To me everything looks like crap or scam. So I wonder - who buys it, for them to make any money

There's a world of people out there with more money than brains. And to avoid uncharitability some of those people have a lot of brains but they have even more money, and so they don't see a problem with spending money to try something out quickly and easily instead of spending brain power to get there slowly.

I played raid shadow legends once for a bit. It was kinda fun, but ultimately more of a grind than I wanted was fine with letting it go.

Not from YouTube but I got ear buds that look remarkably similar to raycons but a Chinese brand I'd never heard of. They were cheap and let me play switch mini games in stereo, no complaints.

From - not really because in general I would never buy anything based on ads alone. But I am using VPN that also had sponsored some youtube channels which I watched. I didn't decide to buy it because of that, but I can't say it didn't influence me in some way - it does have some alternatives which are also acceptable, and maybe if I've seen their ads I'd decide otherwise, hard to know. I.e. in general I'd never buy something I didn't previously know or research just because of ads, but I admit an ad can make me aware of something (which after research may prove worthy of buying, or not) or influence my choice between equally good alternatives. Didn't happen to me a lot but I have one example.

I subscribed to Factor for about a year, I had a long commute so it was worth the time savings IMO and broke my Doordash habit.

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