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by chimeracoder 1115 days ago
> Thank you for the summary. I understand how creators are incentivized by YouTube to produce longer content, but it is a bit ridiculous that this 30 minute video could have been 6 tweets.

This isn't even the worst example, because the additional content is at least part of the entertainment (even if not the most efficient).

Padding is par for the course among Youtubers. If you play a lot of video games, you'll notice this, because gaming news and tutorials are often done on Youtube.

There are a couple of different thresholds for algorithmic promotion and monetization - I believe 10 minutes is the biggest one - so a lot of videos are padded with filler content just to make the threshold.

You'll also see it on videos for "how to pronounce ______", because they can't monetize below a certain threshold, so they'll pad it with useless filler in order to make the video over 30s long.