@Alice This. So freaking much this. So so very freaking much this...

Why do people insist on putting instructions in a stupid video with some annoying person shouting "HELLO, WELCOME TO MY VIDEO" and then mumbling stuff while music that doesn't remotely fit plays over them and it's just them clicking stuff on their desktop and typing text into a document.

There was literally no reason that it couldn't have just been a simple blog post somewhere and made life for all of us a thousand times easier.

(Also, I manage what Youtube "remembers" me having watched. Yes, I know the true history can never be deleted, but the history that feeds into its recommendation algorithms and such can and I do, so each time I'm forced to watch through one of these I also must delete it from the history.)

@Alice I don't care if it is how to change plastic into gold, if the video starts out Hi, I'm .....too late I'm gone.

@Alice

Ditto.

I read my information. If you need an actor to read your information to you, you're probably getting played.

@Alice if this is a club, sign me up

@Alice There is one exception.
- mid/late 2000s
- communication via Notepad
- Linkin Park as background music, no other audio
- Unregistered Hypercam 2
- tutorial shows you exactly the steps you need and nothing else

@Alice

I do watch the videos, especially if it's a process. But learning to write useful instructions is much easier than putting together a video, anyway.

@Alice
Unless its something which needs a visible demonstration (like most stuff related to computer/phone hardware), I 100% agree.

@Alice you get me, you really really get me 😊

@Alice 👍

@Alice did this the other day looking for instructions on how to transcribe a video I didn’t want to have to sit through again…

I mean, I could make it up. But it’s a shame that I don’t have to.

@Alice If only they were that short…

The vast majority of the time, I am struggling with doing one (1 [uno]) thing that sounds like it takes 2.58 nanoseconds if you know what you’re doing, and the manual is just “Scan the QR code for our FAQ/AI hotline” and the other options are 15-45 minute unboxings/reviews with no chapters or organization and I watch 1.5 collective days worth of videos watched to 97.5% before I bail and turns out they demonstrated it during the sponsor read.

@Alice Same.

@Alice If a post suggests that someone's talking head video makes a significant point, I will read the transcript.

If you have nothing to show me, only something to tell me, do not use a video.

If you have something interesting to show me then use a video and do not talk over it nor insert your head as a picture-in-picture.

@Alice 💯

@Alice you mean the 5 minute video where the person explains the issue 3 different ways to feed the Algorithms, then does the thing for a minute, then concludes with another minute of watch my other videos, like and subscribe blahblah?

Yeah "video first" makes a compelling case

@Alice I've always wanted to purposely make bad tutorial videos. The upfront logos and shitty music, 4+ minutes of yammering about nothing related to the video, host is poorly mic'd up, more background noise than voice, trails off numerous times on wild tangents, answers phone calls from scam artists in the middle of it. Good times.

@Alice monkey paw curls another finger: here's a list of 100 AI generated text summaries of badly made tutorial videos.

@Alice now that's some self defeating behavior I can get behind!

@Alice Is there such a thing? I always thought those videos had to have at least 3 minutes of shitty production logos, overly loud EDM, and lots of 'like and subscribe' algorithm pleasing yammering right up front.

@Alice Unfortunately this option is less and less viable as 99% of those results is likely to yield LLM-generated slop at this point, and often it’s hard to tell without clicking through and wasting some time on way too many of them…

@Alice YES THIS

I am the opposite; videos sometimes help explain things better because of the visual instructions, but at the same time, if the subject is more of a reasoning problem that does not require as much visual information, I prefer text.

@Alice hahaha one minute! That's not even long enough for buildup. How are they going to get you to subscribe without ten minutes of parasocial backstory leading up to how they learned to load this particular string trimmer?

@Alice Saaaaaame!

@Alice yep. That tracks

@Alice Opposite *shrug*

@Alice

Oh, clearly.

@Alice 💯 Same.

With reading at least I get to dictate the slowness or speed I am reading things. And I can almost always block ads and things like "Don't forget to like and subscribe!".

@Alice
💯👍

@Alice

I don't see how you can have a 1-minute instructional video, that isn't enough time for the introduction and other fluff.

Though as @RegGuy says, sometimes video is better for physical tasks. I should really make one about how to fix my shower knob, which I have to do every few months.

@Alice I do prefer the written instruction about 1/2 the time. But sometimes the video is so much better, in particular when trying to replace a part, or fix a broken thingamabob.

@Alice
I should have known it was time to give up on humanity the first time I saw a YouTube video consisting of a screen recording of step by step instructions being typed by hand into Notepad. Often with "whoops that was wrong" corrections.

@Alice

But wait, I've got a podcast that'll cover that for you!

@Alice

Agree! Let me read.

@Alice

+1!

@Alice similarly it’s concerning that a lot of podcasts are moving more towards video.

@Alice 💯 there is no other way!

@Alice absolutely! 💯