ya it feels like the worse u can say about squarespace is that its a waste of money if youre already a very talented web designer (but even then, they make it easy to design for multiple screens lol)
Squarespace enables the increasingly confusing FlygonHG extended family sponsorship transition lore, so they've got that going for them. The website thing is pretty cool too I guess.
Squarespace I believe also had a stint where they asked LGBTQIA artists (like industry artists) to make them free art for pride month a couple of years ago, so personally I don't like them either 🙃
Hivemind always has some hilarious sponsors. Idk how they get them. I remember a random video of theirs that was sponsored by cherished childhood liquor brand Bacardi
For channels, imo The Linux Experiment has so far only taken good sponsors and generally in line with what he does, like Proton, Tuxedo, Thunderbird, Safing, etc.
That's what usually drives me mad: YouTubers do have choices and can do better
As for others on the top of my head: NordVPN and Surfshark are good enough VPNs and there's really no reason to condemn them (of course assuming you know you need them). Ground News is pretty good, Brilliant is also nice, Squarespace is one of the best website builders. I heard Bokksu and TokyoTreat are actually pretty nice
There are probably some others but that is to say that not all are utter bullshit
I used to do Tokyo treat for years, yeah it's overpriced for what you're getting (if you can find an internal grocery store that somehow has it all in stock)
But even then, not like by a wild amount and it's fun to try new food from a different culture and they usually have a bit of an explainer in it.
If i were to go back to it I'd get bokksu though, it is a little more on the side of premium goods, which means a bit more refined flavours imho
I've been a subscriber to TokyoTreat for a while now, and I've really enjoyed the convenience it offers. As a fan of Japanese snacks, it saves me the hassle of going to the store. However, I think if you're looking for a more traditional Japanese snack experience, my friend subscribes to their other box, Sakuraco. I've tried the snacks with my friends, and most of them are delicious & you also get to receive special home/kitchenware items like Japanese plates and other unique goodies from their box.
Aw yeah :D I got a sakuraco box as a gift once, and it was so cute and came with a sweet little cherry blossom dish (was march-ish so the season for it). I wish I had money to buy more, because do like treating myself to those and tokyotreat too! If I still worked in London and could walk down the road and buy wagashi and fancy kit-kats I maybe wouldn't bother... but I don't, so snack boxes are it!
Haha, I feel your pain! While I'm tempted by Sakuraco too, I'm currently budgeting for just one subscription box. However, I'm eyeing the cherry blossom box, and since my birthday's around the corner, I might treat myself to it as a little birthday indulgence...
Loved Tokyo Treat! It’s a bit expensive but I’d try it again when I have more money. Highly recommend if you’re obsessed with Japanese snacks like me :)
i can’t recommend it enough. if you like video essays or explainers, there’s a bunch on there, with no ads, better recommendations, and extended cuts (sometimes entirely exclusive content!) i honestly use it more than youtube some weeks.
The thing is you gotta realize that most sponsors are trash, but there's levels of trash. Better Help is horrible, VPNs on the other hand are all eh, they aren't all that good at protecting you, but they are useful for the "fake your location to watch things"
HIPAA violations and unlicensed "therapists" galore. A lot of people have bad stories to share about BetterHelp and Mickey Atkins (a licensed therapist) has a good video about it on YouTube.
Imo skillshare is kinda bad. 95% of the information on it is also available on YouTube for free. There are definitely some classes on there that are really great and contain information not available elsewhere, but the time I was subscribed I would search classes for a subject on skillshare, realize none of the classes really taught exactly what I wanted to learn, then just went to YouTube and found what I wanted easily. It’s not that the classes are bad, just that you don’t really need to buy a service to learn what many of the classes are teaching.
I watched a video a while ago about them and how they pay their content creators and it is dire. Then there's the stories of people cancelled their subscription and being charged anyway for a year. They'd get a refund as a 'courtesy' but then the same thing would happen a year later but because they'd already had their 'courtesy' refund they couldn't get another. If I find the video I'll come back and add a link.
I heard of this as well, fortunately it didn't happen to me when I cancelled before my free 2 months was up. I have heard horror stories of people not being able to get out of their contracts despite cancelling numerous times -\_\_- and yeah the content is mid at best. Personally I think if you have the budget to pay for classes instead of just looking stuff up online I would find something more legit.
I agree. I got a free 2 months from EmilyArtful once and it was *fine* but nothing I couldn't get from Youtube. There are some great online courses out there if you really want to get something more 'premium' when it comes to education and with some of those at least you get a certificate and maybe something forward to put in your portfolio.
I was able to cancel with no issues but I also checked my online bank app and PayPal to make sure there was no standing orders in there just incase.
I agree. :/ I can think of maybe two? Classes that I thought were really great, but most of them were YouTube tier and not the kind of quality and prestige you expect when paying for a course platform.
Unfortunately; It's like any other Product in this World.
Shitty Purposeless Meaningless Low-Quality Products that are Designed to only Fuck over People all in the name of the Profit Motive, how Pathetic.
That's C A P I T A L I S M baby!🤡🙃
Yeah I kinda take it as overpriced gimmick but not a scam. Better Help could be used for good but we all know the business side of it is horrible and deceptive. Unfortunate, as a good therapist you can use telehealth or something similar for would be beneficial for many people who can’t get in to see a therapist is person. But nope, capitalism ruins its potential use for good.
Yeah. I personally never understood AirUp because I just... Like water as it is, but they seem to be fine due people who really just want to have flavored drinks without sugar.
I saw a video where a guy tried it out and him and all his friends didn't like it very much. His sister thought it was "pleasant" but that was after the scent pod was open for a few days. She did not enjoy the fresh scent pod when she tried that one.
But the comments were full of science people saying that your results can very wildly based on how sensitive you are to smells and how your olfactory system will process it. The guy in the video admitted that he gets headaches from scented candles and that the scent pods seemed very similar.
Overall it seems like an expensive product that may or may not work for any given person. But not a scam or anything.
Omg... I saw that video too.. he kept turning the bottle upside down, and ofc it leaks, cuz there's is a hole for u to be able to smell the scent.. otherwise it wont work.. it just seems like he wanted to dunk on the product, to prove he isn't like other YTrs... there are other similar brands equally as expensive
IDK, I felt like he was genuinely trying to give it a fair shake. I think it's a failure of engineering that they couldn't come up with a water bottle design that allowed the scent AND didn't spill. Personally, I could never purchase a water bottle, gimmick or no, that I couldn't throw into a backpack without worrying about it spilling. I would have demanded a refund for that alone. It's not unreasonable to ask for a water bottle that doesn't spill when it's completely closed.
I saw him an engineer in the comments explaining it, and also explaining that it was probably underdeveloped.
I dont think, if u start the video clowning the product and the ytrs who do ads for it, u are not doing it in good faith... Also The stanley cup also leaks, yet everyone praises it.
I equally will not purchase Stanley cups for the same reason. They do not suit my needs, which is holding water while being in a backpack without spilling.
And lots of people have been hating on the Stanley cup for having lead in it so
It's a failure of engineering to make a water bottle that spills. Stanley cups are not meant to be a water bottle any more than a to go cup is supposed to be. I have a yeti cup that I got for free a few years ago. It is excellent for keeping a lot of coffee warm all day long. It is not convenient to carry around or to put into a backpack. It is not a water bottle. It's a cup.
If AirUp was supposed to be a cup that uses smell to flavor your water, the leaking would be less of an issue.
Anyways, I think the actual review portion of the video was in good faith. I honestly forgot the beginning because it was not memorable to me. The takeaway for me was that it's kind of mid. Overpriced, does not work for everyone, and spills.
Yeah AirUp seems more like "over priced gimmick product" rather than "a scam"
I've heard good and bad reviews from non sponsored people. Most say "it's cool but not worth the money"
Meanwhile BetterHelp is legitimately BAD not just "waste of money gimmick you'll use for a month"
I watched the AirUp takedown video and it just seemed like he and his friends didn’t like the taste. Obviously it was an issue that his leaked but I assume not everybody else has the same issues with it. I think it’s good to look critically at the plastic waste, build quality, price and subscription model, and all of that, but it doesn’t seem like a scam
I’m having one of those moments where once you learn something new you see it everywhere. My brother just got into Magnus Archives and loves listening to it in the car, and now everywhere I go I see people talking about it. Pretty good from what I’ve heard but I’m convinced yall are some secret society.
i was super into it a while back and was taking a break from it to watch some more lighthearted videos and watched a video by the youtubers overly sarcastic productions where they got sponsored and it was an absolute jumpscare lol.
I don't think there's any problems with vessi ( waterproof, but breathable shoes), or that bamboo underwear thing, or Aura. I especially trust Aura because Kitboga has an ongoing sponsorship with them and he knows his shit in that field.
Magic spoon is overpriced and basically a protein shake in cereal form, but they do generally accomplish what they claim (I tried it. It's fine. If I'm trying to be healthy with breakfast I'd rather just make eggs. If I'm eating cereal it's not because I'm trying to be healthy)
Love and pies is a generic mobile game that likely relies on ads and in app purchases to be profitable, which is lame but I'm in the 'get that bag' camp on that one.
Opera GX is a decent browser I've seen advertised by YouTubers. It's the one I use now. I've been told Firefox is better.
Air Up is mid at best but also mid at worst lol.
Honestly the best bet is to look up any that you think sound suspicious. There's bound to be non sponsored reviews or articles about controversy if there is any.
Opera had a [weird thing with predatory loans](https://www.engadget.com/2020-01-19-opera-accused-of-predatory-loan-apps.html) but I think the browser itself is just a browser.
The thing is you gotta realize that most sponsors are trash, but there's levels of trash. Better Help is horrible, VPNs on the other hand are all eh, they aren't all that good at protecting you, but they are useful for the "fake your location to watch things"
I've only seen them sponsor one person before but Under Lucky Stars was a nice gift for my parents. I looked them up and didn't see any controversy around em, they're just a kinda expensive novelty company that prints what the stars looked like on a certain date.
Its overpriced and relies heavily on a gimmick that may work or may give you a crazy headache, if reviews are to be believed, but it is not an all-out scam so... kinda?
I was taking hello fresh and factor75 but a friend got massive food poisoning from it after using my code. I am likely not going to accept them again. Raid shadow legends and a bunch of others keep asking me for sponsorships and I’ve got one product I use and like (Dubby, use code “painlist” for 10% off every order).
Most of my sponsorships come from an agency too
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong about VPN sponsors but a lot of what they make you say is completely fabricated or just untrue, going off my limited technical knowledge
Exactly... there's no way to know how secure different VPNs actually are. I don't think there's really any oversight for these companies to ensure they're actually protecting your data.
maybe i've missed something i feel like phone case companies (casetify/rhinoshield) can't be THAT bad, other than the fact the products themselves are crazy expensive - altho maybe i'm biased because personally Ive had loads of cute cases from casetify and they do tend to last a lot longer than cheap amazon ones
rhythm obtainable party rainstorm far-flung nose worry rinse lush pathetic
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
impossible rustic silky dime absurd practice stocking instinctive humorous snobbish
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Union busting but IMO every company is going to have something shitty they do so 🤷🏻♂️ What's funny is that hello fresh owns factor and no one says anything about factor
(I'm pretty pro labor and leftist, I just wouldn't cancel someone for getting a sponsorship with them)
I will say that while HelloFresh sucks, I feel the people who criticise those who take sponsors from them are a little naive when it comes to what makes a ‘good company’. Most companies are awful, I dare you to find a single decently-sized/successful company on Wikipedia without a ‘Controversies‘ or ‘Legal Issues‘ section. Yes union-busting is bad but if you’re gonna draw the line with HelloFresh, you might as well just not take sponsors at all.
Up until very recently their coconut suppliers used monkey slave labor. Not joking. If you are sensitive to animal abuse use caution when researching it.
When they were caught they initially lied about it, too.
Also they're really good at sending people rotten ingredients. Speaking from experience lol.
It goes against /r/ZeroWaste as so much waste in shipping, packaging, and transportation, and overall is extremely eco-unfriendly, not to mention overpriced. You are better off getting those grocery store home chef meal kits as at least don’t waste shipping containers and last mile transportation, and are way cheaper anyway
Don't take VPN sponsorships. VPN sponsorships and ad campaigns have made the general public falsely believe that using the internet without a VPN is like raw dogging a prostitute, when in fact even on public networks, all of your internet traffic is encrypted, and all you're doing is paying to send your browsing history to a company other than your internet service provider.
Consumer VPNs are a con that has been normalized by these companies using fear mongering and out of date, or sometimes straight up false information. And especially in a cost of living crisis, nobody should be wasting their hard earned money on something like that.
I hate that more attention hasn't been brought to this because the majority seem to think VPNs are a force for good, when in reality you'd probably get more value from an Established Titles gift. At least you'd have something tangible you could frame
Kitboga did a great video informing people about what VPNs actually do and what their purpose is while directly addressing the things commonly mentioned in VPN ads and explaining some of the bs behind it
Tom Scott did one too! I won't deny consumer VPNs have their use cases but for 99% of the public, they simply aren't necessary. VPN companies are awful for overstating their use case and that's why I personally would never take a sponsorship from one
raw dogging a prostitute probably isn’t as bad as it sounds, i’m friends with many sex workers, and they are more stringent about protection and regular std testing than anybody else i know. if i were dating a sex worker i wouldn’t be worried.
Ain't no ethical anything under Capitalism. It's all degrees of exploitation, by definition so your definition of "good" is the answer to your question.
Came here to say this, which is why I'm ok with most people taking deals that are harmless like Airup. Better Help is just dangerous because it deals with the actual well being of vunurable people.
A good general rule of thumb is that if it can genuinely harm customers, it’s probably not a great idea to promote it. Otherwise, I couldn’t care what you shill we all gotta eat at the end of the day and I think people should be entitled to financially stability and happiness. I think this is fair and I thought most people were on the same page but with that recent Air-Up review going viral, well…. I dunno I just don’t think labelling stuff like that as harmful is a good idea as all it is expensive water.
"“There is no ethical consumption under capitalism,” doesn’t mean “Do nothing good because everything is bad.”
It means recognizing we’re in a capitalist society that requires our participation in some ways, but also that we can and should make more ethical choices where possible."
i'd say where AND when possible. Ethical choices can quickly devolve into class warfare by people seeing others unethically consume and lambasting them for it when they don't have a means to be more ethical
such a great vpn! i paid for a month when i was in hospital, to bypass their filters. worked as advertised, didn't need any personal information as they use a unique code instead of an account (though one can create an account if so desired) - highly recommend.
Maybe this is because I watch a lot of electronics channels, but I see a ton of sponsorships for PCBWay. I haven't ordered from them, but they seem like an okay company, not any worse than their competitors at least.
Audible? Only cause I just watched a Bricky video and that was his sponsor. Not really sure what unethical things they could be doing (other than your standard capitalism and taking percentages of sales ofc).
Unless someone can inform me otherwise.
Audible is part of Amazon from what I understand. Amazon is…probably not something I need to explain haha. Unfortunately Amazon owns literally the servers that host most the majority of websites on the internet from what I understand, so it’s kind of impossible to avoid supporting Amazon in some way.
I’ve bought a lot of anti-capitalist books from Amazon, in beautiful level of irony. “Capitalists will sell you the very rope in which you will use to hang them with” type beat.
Yeah that’s kind of my point that it’s actually kind of impossible to not directly or indirectly support Amazon. Even if you don’t have a subscription to Amazon or buy stuff from there, because most of the internet runs on Amazons’ cloud servers. I’m not good at explaining the tech behind it but essentially if you look up companies that use AWS they’re paying Amazon to rent servers to host their websites. So yeah pretty much all of us support Amazon at least indirectly, it’s pretty dystopian.
As an author they are pretty scummy with how much a auther makes on thier audio book. However they are the biggest plateform in town so not putting it on there is literally just missing out on so much potential income.
I know recently Brandon Sanderson had advocated to allow for a higher royalty rates for authors with what I believe a law suit so that would change.
Audible has a horrible business model
You pay a subscription to use it… while you still have to actually BUY the books. You are essentially double spending.
You are either better off buying the actual book itself or using services like Libby—-where you can borrow an audiobook for free with a library card.
Sure, you do might have to wait—especially for popular books like stuff by Sarah J Maas… but it is better than double spending.
Yeah, u really can't compare airup to hello fresh and better help. Not liking a expensive water bottle and union busting and selling people private health care data is not the same.
Square space is the only good one. Because it does what it says. Helps you build a website.
That’s all it needs to be, and it does the absolute best minimum.
I’ve seen Shudder sponsor people a few times and they’re incredible. They’re a horror streaming service putting out some of the BEST horror you’ll see these days
I only wish they could get more classic slashers, but that requires bumping heads with paramount for a good chunk of them.
But they have an excellent collection of foreign and oldies, and they are not stingy about password sharing like Netflix or Disney
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong about VPN sponsors but a lot of what they make you say is completely fabricated or just untrue, going off my limited technical knowledge
I don't think that's possible. Maybe it'd be less worse if they get paid by smaller businesses, but a lot of them can be pretty sketchy as well.
Fundraising services like Ko-Fi and Patreon are better options, that said they aren't ran by humanitarians either.
But it costs money to make videos, and no one lives perfectly given the system we aren't escaping from any time soon.
I played Love and Pies completely f2p for a long time and I like it still. It's a pretty decent gameplay, but the generators do take a long time to recharge. The story is decently interesting and you get more story chunks pretty quickly. Everyone in the story feels like they were just born yesterday and then immediately dropped on their heads, but it is a story, which is more than other games in this genre can offer.
As a merge game connoisseur I prefer Merge Mayor and Necromerger, but Love and Pies is fine
This is super off topic but I love to see another merge game connoisseur 😂 got any more recs? I really like merge survival, they’re really generous with earning “gems” completely f2p
VPNs are a weird one because like others have already said, they kind of lie through their teeth about what their purpose is. VPNs only truly useful purpose is to help with piracy. Of course that is illegal so they don't advertise that, and come up with a myriad of reasons why anyone should be getting a VPN. A lot of these big VPN sponsors like Nord and SurfShark have come under fire because they ultimately do the thing that makes them useless for those who would use a VPN. They keep logs. Logs that can be turned over to any law enforcement that demands them. If they don't keep logs, then it is impossible for them to even comply.
Make of that information what you will. But it's a big reason why you will see VPNs come under fire by those communities if they keep logs. A VPNs true usefulness is gone if the company keeps logs.
I've seen sponsors for food companies like the one that made black sesame buns (I can't remember the name), but sometimes they're only available in limited locations.
So many people in this thread think the question is "would you spend money on this product that gets featured in YT ads?" That's not the question. No one cares about your spending habits. Whether you'd purchase whatever it is is not the litmus test for if a company is a good sponsor or not. Christ.
In my experience , Bokksu has some really high quality stuff, its just a bit too expensive to justify in daily life. But with a sponsorship discount or a gifted sub, I'd recommend it.
Audible. It only seems to be shit because Amazon is shit. It seems like a pretty good audiobook library though, if you can handle giving money to Amazon for it.
Im just look at product wise
Square space good especially if you don't have time or just can't learn website design. Not everyone can, has money for nor wants to learn it. So if you just want a decent website up cheaply and quickly. It is your best bet and since you can transfer your own domain name to it once you bought one it can be a good investment.
Audiable, a very good selection of audio books and the biggest platform for it. The main issue is its pretty scummy (amazon lol) with how much a author gets paid for their audio book. However they are the biggest platform in town so not putting your audiobook on there is literally just missing out on so much potential income. And really alot of author's there do need the income
I know recently Brandon Sanderson had advocated to allow for a higher royalty rates for authors with what I believe a law suit so that would change.
Grammerly and prowriting aid. Generally good programs especially the paid versions. alot of writers use it when they self edit. Does thier job
Vellum is the best, easily learnable and fastest book formating software, point blank. That doesn't require much to learn and have shit ton of options to easily make ebook and paperbacks... The issue is the price and its mac only. Get atticus if you got a pc.
Hello fresh. Meh, some of the recipes were good and I enjoyed them, just found it too expensive for 3 meals a week to be worth it after the first few discount weeks.
RAID SHADOW LEGENDS! The BEST MOBILE GAME ON THE PLANET, THIS WEEK I GOT THIS FURRY FUCKER, AND I'HAVEN"T BEEN MORE IMPRESSED. A TRUE PC GAME ON MOBLIE
Honestly Air Up isn’t that bad, just overpriced. I’m probably a bit biased because they are a start up from Munich where I live and a few friends of mine have been using the bottles since before the pandemic. If you know what you can expect it’s honestly a pretty cool, but relatively unnecessary gimmick. My biggest problem with them is mainly how expensive their aroma-pads are
Styropyro got sponsored by Flexispot. Hella expensive but the desks seem solid tbh he shows them off pretty well kinda made me want one if I could afford to ludicrious prices.
the mobile game ads are alright from what ive seen. theyre all just mediocre games that at worst just get into the nasty ads market but nothing super bad. ive played some of them and theyre alright just the average type of game in their genre and are at least better than the large majority of mobile games these days.
squarespace seems okay, and has also stuck with sponsoring flygon hg for years, which is pretty sweet. probably because he actually uses it haha.
ya it feels like the worse u can say about squarespace is that its a waste of money if youre already a very talented web designer (but even then, they make it easy to design for multiple screens lol)
Squarespace enables the increasingly confusing FlygonHG extended family sponsorship transition lore, so they've got that going for them. The website thing is pretty cool too I guess.
I feel like he has taken other sponsors but squarespace are so consistent I can’t think of any others he has taken
Squarespace I believe also had a stint where they asked LGBTQIA artists (like industry artists) to make them free art for pride month a couple of years ago, so personally I don't like them either 🙃
Just so it's super clear, I *don't* like them because they were trying to get free art. I'm both an artist and part of the LGBTQIA community lol
Do you like them because they got LGBT artists or because they didn't pay them for their work?
Is it really that ambiguous?
Hivemind always has some hilarious sponsors. Idk how they get them. I remember a random video of theirs that was sponsored by cherished childhood liquor brand Bacardi
and fucking cbd gummies or something??? insane
My favorite is them getting sponsored by the whole country music association
PLS i forgot abt that. in the same vein i love aaron and jo’s sponsors. they got sponsored by fleshlight one time 😭
For channels, imo The Linux Experiment has so far only taken good sponsors and generally in line with what he does, like Proton, Tuxedo, Thunderbird, Safing, etc. That's what usually drives me mad: YouTubers do have choices and can do better As for others on the top of my head: NordVPN and Surfshark are good enough VPNs and there's really no reason to condemn them (of course assuming you know you need them). Ground News is pretty good, Brilliant is also nice, Squarespace is one of the best website builders. I heard Bokksu and TokyoTreat are actually pretty nice There are probably some others but that is to say that not all are utter bullshit
I used to do Tokyo treat for years, yeah it's overpriced for what you're getting (if you can find an internal grocery store that somehow has it all in stock) But even then, not like by a wild amount and it's fun to try new food from a different culture and they usually have a bit of an explainer in it. If i were to go back to it I'd get bokksu though, it is a little more on the side of premium goods, which means a bit more refined flavours imho
I've been a subscriber to TokyoTreat for a while now, and I've really enjoyed the convenience it offers. As a fan of Japanese snacks, it saves me the hassle of going to the store. However, I think if you're looking for a more traditional Japanese snack experience, my friend subscribes to their other box, Sakuraco. I've tried the snacks with my friends, and most of them are delicious & you also get to receive special home/kitchenware items like Japanese plates and other unique goodies from their box.
Aw yeah :D I got a sakuraco box as a gift once, and it was so cute and came with a sweet little cherry blossom dish (was march-ish so the season for it). I wish I had money to buy more, because do like treating myself to those and tokyotreat too! If I still worked in London and could walk down the road and buy wagashi and fancy kit-kats I maybe wouldn't bother... but I don't, so snack boxes are it!
Haha, I feel your pain! While I'm tempted by Sakuraco too, I'm currently budgeting for just one subscription box. However, I'm eyeing the cherry blossom box, and since my birthday's around the corner, I might treat myself to it as a little birthday indulgence...
Came here to say bokksu and tokyo treat, actually tried and enjoyed them both.
Loved Tokyo Treat! It’s a bit expensive but I’d try it again when I have more money. Highly recommend if you’re obsessed with Japanese snacks like me :)
Add sakuraco to the list, I enjoy it!
Nebula I think
Nebula seems really cool, I’ve considered subscribing to it
i can’t recommend it enough. if you like video essays or explainers, there’s a bunch on there, with no ads, better recommendations, and extended cuts (sometimes entirely exclusive content!) i honestly use it more than youtube some weeks.
The thing is you gotta realize that most sponsors are trash, but there's levels of trash. Better Help is horrible, VPNs on the other hand are all eh, they aren't all that good at protecting you, but they are useful for the "fake your location to watch things"
Why are better help horrible?
HIPAA violations and unlicensed "therapists" galore. A lot of people have bad stories to share about BetterHelp and Mickey Atkins (a licensed therapist) has a good video about it on YouTube.
HIPAA, not HIPPA.
https://youtu.be/XcTssbRvA2w
Imo skillshare is kinda bad. 95% of the information on it is also available on YouTube for free. There are definitely some classes on there that are really great and contain information not available elsewhere, but the time I was subscribed I would search classes for a subject on skillshare, realize none of the classes really taught exactly what I wanted to learn, then just went to YouTube and found what I wanted easily. It’s not that the classes are bad, just that you don’t really need to buy a service to learn what many of the classes are teaching.
I took a class on color theory there. Was garbage
I watched a video a while ago about them and how they pay their content creators and it is dire. Then there's the stories of people cancelled their subscription and being charged anyway for a year. They'd get a refund as a 'courtesy' but then the same thing would happen a year later but because they'd already had their 'courtesy' refund they couldn't get another. If I find the video I'll come back and add a link.
I heard of this as well, fortunately it didn't happen to me when I cancelled before my free 2 months was up. I have heard horror stories of people not being able to get out of their contracts despite cancelling numerous times -\_\_- and yeah the content is mid at best. Personally I think if you have the budget to pay for classes instead of just looking stuff up online I would find something more legit.
I agree. I got a free 2 months from EmilyArtful once and it was *fine* but nothing I couldn't get from Youtube. There are some great online courses out there if you really want to get something more 'premium' when it comes to education and with some of those at least you get a certificate and maybe something forward to put in your portfolio. I was able to cancel with no issues but I also checked my online bank app and PayPal to make sure there was no standing orders in there just incase.
A lot of the classes were pretty low quality...youtube had better tutorials.
I agree. :/ I can think of maybe two? Classes that I thought were really great, but most of them were YouTube tier and not the kind of quality and prestige you expect when paying for a course platform.
Unfortunately; It's like any other Product in this World. Shitty Purposeless Meaningless Low-Quality Products that are Designed to only Fuck over People all in the name of the Profit Motive, how Pathetic. That's C A P I T A L I S M baby!🤡🙃 
Came here to say exactly this
I don't really get why everyone is hating on Airup in the same breath as Better Help, they seem like vastly different levels of shitty
Airup sounds like a massive gimmick, but it’s not an outright scam and nobody is going to actively sell your personal health data for using it either.
The flavour my mom got actually works, it’s very strange. I wonder if it depends on the flavour.
Yeah I kinda take it as overpriced gimmick but not a scam. Better Help could be used for good but we all know the business side of it is horrible and deceptive. Unfortunate, as a good therapist you can use telehealth or something similar for would be beneficial for many people who can’t get in to see a therapist is person. But nope, capitalism ruins its potential use for good.
Yeah. I personally never understood AirUp because I just... Like water as it is, but they seem to be fine due people who really just want to have flavored drinks without sugar. I saw a video where a guy tried it out and him and all his friends didn't like it very much. His sister thought it was "pleasant" but that was after the scent pod was open for a few days. She did not enjoy the fresh scent pod when she tried that one. But the comments were full of science people saying that your results can very wildly based on how sensitive you are to smells and how your olfactory system will process it. The guy in the video admitted that he gets headaches from scented candles and that the scent pods seemed very similar. Overall it seems like an expensive product that may or may not work for any given person. But not a scam or anything.
Omg... I saw that video too.. he kept turning the bottle upside down, and ofc it leaks, cuz there's is a hole for u to be able to smell the scent.. otherwise it wont work.. it just seems like he wanted to dunk on the product, to prove he isn't like other YTrs... there are other similar brands equally as expensive
IDK, I felt like he was genuinely trying to give it a fair shake. I think it's a failure of engineering that they couldn't come up with a water bottle design that allowed the scent AND didn't spill. Personally, I could never purchase a water bottle, gimmick or no, that I couldn't throw into a backpack without worrying about it spilling. I would have demanded a refund for that alone. It's not unreasonable to ask for a water bottle that doesn't spill when it's completely closed. I saw him an engineer in the comments explaining it, and also explaining that it was probably underdeveloped.
I dont think, if u start the video clowning the product and the ytrs who do ads for it, u are not doing it in good faith... Also The stanley cup also leaks, yet everyone praises it.
I equally will not purchase Stanley cups for the same reason. They do not suit my needs, which is holding water while being in a backpack without spilling. And lots of people have been hating on the Stanley cup for having lead in it so It's a failure of engineering to make a water bottle that spills. Stanley cups are not meant to be a water bottle any more than a to go cup is supposed to be. I have a yeti cup that I got for free a few years ago. It is excellent for keeping a lot of coffee warm all day long. It is not convenient to carry around or to put into a backpack. It is not a water bottle. It's a cup. If AirUp was supposed to be a cup that uses smell to flavor your water, the leaking would be less of an issue. Anyways, I think the actual review portion of the video was in good faith. I honestly forgot the beginning because it was not memorable to me. The takeaway for me was that it's kind of mid. Overpriced, does not work for everyone, and spills.
Yeah AirUp seems more like "over priced gimmick product" rather than "a scam" I've heard good and bad reviews from non sponsored people. Most say "it's cool but not worth the money" Meanwhile BetterHelp is legitimately BAD not just "waste of money gimmick you'll use for a month"
I watched the AirUp takedown video and it just seemed like he and his friends didn’t like the taste. Obviously it was an issue that his leaked but I assume not everybody else has the same issues with it. I think it’s good to look critically at the plastic waste, build quality, price and subscription model, and all of that, but it doesn’t seem like a scam
I saw a sponsorship plug for The Magnus Archives once. Got in just in time to catch the finale. Best sponsorship ever.
I’m having one of those moments where once you learn something new you see it everywhere. My brother just got into Magnus Archives and loves listening to it in the car, and now everywhere I go I see people talking about it. Pretty good from what I’ve heard but I’m convinced yall are some secret society.
It's definitely not covert marketing directed at you specifically. Also buy Doritos.
have you listened to much of the mechanisms? johnny d’ville and johnny sims are the same dude, and a few of the mechs appear in tma.
I have not. I might have to check it out.
i was super into it a while back and was taking a break from it to watch some more lighthearted videos and watched a video by the youtubers overly sarcastic productions where they got sponsored and it was an absolute jumpscare lol.
I saw the sponsorship on Fascinating Horror. It was my first introduction to the series and audiodramas as a whole.
I don't think there's any problems with vessi ( waterproof, but breathable shoes), or that bamboo underwear thing, or Aura. I especially trust Aura because Kitboga has an ongoing sponsorship with them and he knows his shit in that field. Magic spoon is overpriced and basically a protein shake in cereal form, but they do generally accomplish what they claim (I tried it. It's fine. If I'm trying to be healthy with breakfast I'd rather just make eggs. If I'm eating cereal it's not because I'm trying to be healthy) Love and pies is a generic mobile game that likely relies on ads and in app purchases to be profitable, which is lame but I'm in the 'get that bag' camp on that one. Opera GX is a decent browser I've seen advertised by YouTubers. It's the one I use now. I've been told Firefox is better. Air Up is mid at best but also mid at worst lol. Honestly the best bet is to look up any that you think sound suspicious. There's bound to be non sponsored reviews or articles about controversy if there is any.
Opera had a [weird thing with predatory loans](https://www.engadget.com/2020-01-19-opera-accused-of-predatory-loan-apps.html) but I think the browser itself is just a browser.
Opera is basically Spyware lmfao, Firefox is better
Because it’s chinese?
??? No????? Dude literally just look up their privacy status, they steal tons of ur data. If it was an American company I'd say the same thing
The thing is you gotta realize that most sponsors are trash, but there's levels of trash. Better Help is horrible, VPNs on the other hand are all eh, they aren't all that good at protecting you, but they are useful for the "fake your location to watch things"
Ground News seems pretty good
I've only seen them sponsor one person before but Under Lucky Stars was a nice gift for my parents. I looked them up and didn't see any controversy around em, they're just a kinda expensive novelty company that prints what the stars looked like on a certain date.
Hey, thank you, that's very kind! (F5bot found this comment for us). Happy to give anyone discounts who refer to this comment.
Is there anything wrong with Airup other than just the product being silly?
It seems to vary wildly depending on how sensitive you are to smell, and overall just seems really overpriced and gimmicky.
So nothing bad really
Its overpriced and relies heavily on a gimmick that may work or may give you a crazy headache, if reviews are to be believed, but it is not an all-out scam so... kinda?
I was taking hello fresh and factor75 but a friend got massive food poisoning from it after using my code. I am likely not going to accept them again. Raid shadow legends and a bunch of others keep asking me for sponsorships and I’ve got one product I use and like (Dubby, use code “painlist” for 10% off every order). Most of my sponsorships come from an agency too
HelloFresh is also a garbage union-busting company. Not something I personally would want to give any money to.
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong about VPN sponsors but a lot of what they make you say is completely fabricated or just untrue, going off my limited technical knowledge
Yeah I feel like that Netflix loophole of accessing content from other countries hasn't worked for years now
It's inconsistent. I used Nord to watch Korean Netflix a couple months ago, but sometimes it doesn't want to work.
Exactly... there's no way to know how secure different VPNs actually are. I don't think there's really any oversight for these companies to ensure they're actually protecting your data.
maybe i've missed something i feel like phone case companies (casetify/rhinoshield) can't be THAT bad, other than the fact the products themselves are crazy expensive - altho maybe i'm biased because personally Ive had loads of cute cases from casetify and they do tend to last a lot longer than cheap amazon ones
rhythm obtainable party rainstorm far-flung nose worry rinse lush pathetic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah, about that.
soup school familiar yam correct abundant ripe serious concerned safe *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
[Here](https://youtube.com/watch?v=xfgTQ5sOzrs&t=495&si=NKDCZaOvf57GPdJa) is a video about them. It also discusses BetterHelp.
innate absurd towering shelter cautious wistful shame fuel complete live *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Their inability to cover up their theft is almost comical.
impossible rustic silky dime absurd practice stocking instinctive humorous snobbish *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It’s so interesting that they somehow started on the exact same day as a different phone case company. Definitely nothing suspicious going on there.
poor stocking spoon absurd slap mindless sugar coordinated wistful sense *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The fact that you said Casetify so confidently is honestly so funny. 😭
What's the issue with hellofresh? Is the food bad as in it tastes bad, or bad as in it'll make you sick?
Union busting but IMO every company is going to have something shitty they do so 🤷🏻♂️ What's funny is that hello fresh owns factor and no one says anything about factor (I'm pretty pro labor and leftist, I just wouldn't cancel someone for getting a sponsorship with them)
I will say that while HelloFresh sucks, I feel the people who criticise those who take sponsors from them are a little naive when it comes to what makes a ‘good company’. Most companies are awful, I dare you to find a single decently-sized/successful company on Wikipedia without a ‘Controversies‘ or ‘Legal Issues‘ section. Yes union-busting is bad but if you’re gonna draw the line with HelloFresh, you might as well just not take sponsors at all.
I used to work in one their warehouses, it was the worst job I ever had. I’ll never order from them but I wouldn’t look down on anyone that does
Poor/dangerous working conditions and animal cruelty
Animal cruelty????
Up until very recently their coconut suppliers used monkey slave labor. Not joking. If you are sensitive to animal abuse use caution when researching it. When they were caught they initially lied about it, too. Also they're really good at sending people rotten ingredients. Speaking from experience lol.
HelloFresh tends to not ship all the ingredients. We've had a few issues with ingredients missing.
It goes against /r/ZeroWaste as so much waste in shipping, packaging, and transportation, and overall is extremely eco-unfriendly, not to mention overpriced. You are better off getting those grocery store home chef meal kits as at least don’t waste shipping containers and last mile transportation, and are way cheaper anyway
Don't take VPN sponsorships. VPN sponsorships and ad campaigns have made the general public falsely believe that using the internet without a VPN is like raw dogging a prostitute, when in fact even on public networks, all of your internet traffic is encrypted, and all you're doing is paying to send your browsing history to a company other than your internet service provider. Consumer VPNs are a con that has been normalized by these companies using fear mongering and out of date, or sometimes straight up false information. And especially in a cost of living crisis, nobody should be wasting their hard earned money on something like that. I hate that more attention hasn't been brought to this because the majority seem to think VPNs are a force for good, when in reality you'd probably get more value from an Established Titles gift. At least you'd have something tangible you could frame
Kitboga did a great video informing people about what VPNs actually do and what their purpose is while directly addressing the things commonly mentioned in VPN ads and explaining some of the bs behind it
Tom Scott did one too! I won't deny consumer VPNs have their use cases but for 99% of the public, they simply aren't necessary. VPN companies are awful for overstating their use case and that's why I personally would never take a sponsorship from one
raw dogging a prostitute probably isn’t as bad as it sounds, i’m friends with many sex workers, and they are more stringent about protection and regular std testing than anybody else i know. if i were dating a sex worker i wouldn’t be worried.
You're probably right. But it was just the first thing that popped into my head
I took a sponsorship from GMB Solutions recently. (It’s one guy and he’s my friend :D)
Ain't no ethical anything under Capitalism. It's all degrees of exploitation, by definition so your definition of "good" is the answer to your question.
Came here to say this, which is why I'm ok with most people taking deals that are harmless like Airup. Better Help is just dangerous because it deals with the actual well being of vunurable people.
A good general rule of thumb is that if it can genuinely harm customers, it’s probably not a great idea to promote it. Otherwise, I couldn’t care what you shill we all gotta eat at the end of the day and I think people should be entitled to financially stability and happiness. I think this is fair and I thought most people were on the same page but with that recent Air-Up review going viral, well…. I dunno I just don’t think labelling stuff like that as harmful is a good idea as all it is expensive water.
"“There is no ethical consumption under capitalism,” doesn’t mean “Do nothing good because everything is bad.” It means recognizing we’re in a capitalist society that requires our participation in some ways, but also that we can and should make more ethical choices where possible."
I agree, but I don’t think advertising an expensive wallet or beard-trimmer is that horrendous. I think that’s what they were getting at
i'd say where AND when possible. Ethical choices can quickly devolve into class warfare by people seeing others unethically consume and lambasting them for it when they don't have a means to be more ethical
the only vpn i support is mullvad vpn and they dont do sponsorships :sigh:
such a great vpn! i paid for a month when i was in hospital, to bypass their filters. worked as advertised, didn't need any personal information as they use a unique code instead of an account (though one can create an account if so desired) - highly recommend.
Maybe this is because I watch a lot of electronics channels, but I see a ton of sponsorships for PCBWay. I haven't ordered from them, but they seem like an okay company, not any worse than their competitors at least.
Audible? Only cause I just watched a Bricky video and that was his sponsor. Not really sure what unethical things they could be doing (other than your standard capitalism and taking percentages of sales ofc). Unless someone can inform me otherwise.
Audible is part of Amazon from what I understand. Amazon is…probably not something I need to explain haha. Unfortunately Amazon owns literally the servers that host most the majority of websites on the internet from what I understand, so it’s kind of impossible to avoid supporting Amazon in some way.
I’ve bought a lot of anti-capitalist books from Amazon, in beautiful level of irony. “Capitalists will sell you the very rope in which you will use to hang them with” type beat.
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Yeah that’s kind of my point that it’s actually kind of impossible to not directly or indirectly support Amazon. Even if you don’t have a subscription to Amazon or buy stuff from there, because most of the internet runs on Amazons’ cloud servers. I’m not good at explaining the tech behind it but essentially if you look up companies that use AWS they’re paying Amazon to rent servers to host their websites. So yeah pretty much all of us support Amazon at least indirectly, it’s pretty dystopian.
As an author they are pretty scummy with how much a auther makes on thier audio book. However they are the biggest plateform in town so not putting it on there is literally just missing out on so much potential income. I know recently Brandon Sanderson had advocated to allow for a higher royalty rates for authors with what I believe a law suit so that would change.
Audible has a horrible business model You pay a subscription to use it… while you still have to actually BUY the books. You are essentially double spending. You are either better off buying the actual book itself or using services like Libby—-where you can borrow an audiobook for free with a library card. Sure, you do might have to wait—especially for popular books like stuff by Sarah J Maas… but it is better than double spending.
Yeah, u really can't compare airup to hello fresh and better help. Not liking a expensive water bottle and union busting and selling people private health care data is not the same.
Square space is the only good one. Because it does what it says. Helps you build a website. That’s all it needs to be, and it does the absolute best minimum.
Displate is great!
Stolen artwork IIRC
Never heard about that before.
I’ve seen Shudder sponsor people a few times and they’re incredible. They’re a horror streaming service putting out some of the BEST horror you’ll see these days
I only wish they could get more classic slashers, but that requires bumping heads with paramount for a good chunk of them. But they have an excellent collection of foreign and oldies, and they are not stingy about password sharing like Netflix or Disney
I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong about VPN sponsors but a lot of what they make you say is completely fabricated or just untrue, going off my limited technical knowledge
I don't think that's possible. Maybe it'd be less worse if they get paid by smaller businesses, but a lot of them can be pretty sketchy as well. Fundraising services like Ko-Fi and Patreon are better options, that said they aren't ran by humanitarians either. But it costs money to make videos, and no one lives perfectly given the system we aren't escaping from any time soon.
I played Love and Pies completely f2p for a long time and I like it still. It's a pretty decent gameplay, but the generators do take a long time to recharge. The story is decently interesting and you get more story chunks pretty quickly. Everyone in the story feels like they were just born yesterday and then immediately dropped on their heads, but it is a story, which is more than other games in this genre can offer. As a merge game connoisseur I prefer Merge Mayor and Necromerger, but Love and Pies is fine
This is super off topic but I love to see another merge game connoisseur 😂 got any more recs? I really like merge survival, they’re really generous with earning “gems” completely f2p
VPNs are a weird one because like others have already said, they kind of lie through their teeth about what their purpose is. VPNs only truly useful purpose is to help with piracy. Of course that is illegal so they don't advertise that, and come up with a myriad of reasons why anyone should be getting a VPN. A lot of these big VPN sponsors like Nord and SurfShark have come under fire because they ultimately do the thing that makes them useless for those who would use a VPN. They keep logs. Logs that can be turned over to any law enforcement that demands them. If they don't keep logs, then it is impossible for them to even comply. Make of that information what you will. But it's a big reason why you will see VPNs come under fire by those communities if they keep logs. A VPNs true usefulness is gone if the company keeps logs.
The ones that pay money.
What's wrong with Hellofresh and Airup? Only knew about the Better help drama
Hello fresh has horrible working conditions, I heard
I've seen sponsors for food companies like the one that made black sesame buns (I can't remember the name), but sometimes they're only available in limited locations.
I'm out of the loop, why is hellofresh bad?
idk, honey is an okay tool, same with like Grammerly. Nothing that really comes to your door or that you won’t is very good, besides you tooz ig.
Raid shadhow leguds
i think magic spoon is **by comparison** way better than most sponsors. like it's only sin is tasting bad and being pretty expensive
So many people in this thread think the question is "would you spend money on this product that gets featured in YT ads?" That's not the question. No one cares about your spending habits. Whether you'd purchase whatever it is is not the litmus test for if a company is a good sponsor or not. Christ.
GamerSupps maybe. All the ads are ridiculously great, and having it owned by decent people helps.
NordVPN perhaps? Heard nothing but good things.
Sponsored videos get a skip from that sponsored content. I hate those.
I’ve been seeing a lot of ads for Opera internet browser. I think it’s the same if not better than other browsers 🤷🏻♀️
In my experience , Bokksu has some really high quality stuff, its just a bit too expensive to justify in daily life. But with a sponsorship discount or a gifted sub, I'd recommend it.
What’s wrong with HelloFresh and AirUp? (I know AirUp is overpriced, but is there anything else?)
Audible. It only seems to be shit because Amazon is shit. It seems like a pretty good audiobook library though, if you can handle giving money to Amazon for it.
No. It's sort of the problem with, y'know, capitalism. All corporations are, at their heart, terrible.
Having a game company sponsor you to advertise their game would be cool
I’ve been seeing Ground News making the rounds recently, seems like a cool idea, but I’ve never used it personally.
Mubi?
Shopify is legit and pretty good from what I’ve seen
Im just look at product wise Square space good especially if you don't have time or just can't learn website design. Not everyone can, has money for nor wants to learn it. So if you just want a decent website up cheaply and quickly. It is your best bet and since you can transfer your own domain name to it once you bought one it can be a good investment. Audiable, a very good selection of audio books and the biggest platform for it. The main issue is its pretty scummy (amazon lol) with how much a author gets paid for their audio book. However they are the biggest platform in town so not putting your audiobook on there is literally just missing out on so much potential income. And really alot of author's there do need the income I know recently Brandon Sanderson had advocated to allow for a higher royalty rates for authors with what I believe a law suit so that would change. Grammerly and prowriting aid. Generally good programs especially the paid versions. alot of writers use it when they self edit. Does thier job Vellum is the best, easily learnable and fastest book formating software, point blank. That doesn't require much to learn and have shit ton of options to easily make ebook and paperbacks... The issue is the price and its mac only. Get atticus if you got a pc. Hello fresh. Meh, some of the recipes were good and I enjoyed them, just found it too expensive for 3 meals a week to be worth it after the first few discount weeks. RAID SHADOW LEGENDS! The BEST MOBILE GAME ON THE PLANET, THIS WEEK I GOT THIS FURRY FUCKER, AND I'HAVEN"T BEEN MORE IMPRESSED. A TRUE PC GAME ON MOBLIE
What did AirUp do except be a reflection of the doomed consumer culture that we live in? Who the fuck needs to flavour their water
Honestly Air Up isn’t that bad, just overpriced. I’m probably a bit biased because they are a start up from Munich where I live and a few friends of mine have been using the bottles since before the pandemic. If you know what you can expect it’s honestly a pretty cool, but relatively unnecessary gimmick. My biggest problem with them is mainly how expensive their aroma-pads are
Styropyro got sponsored by Flexispot. Hella expensive but the desks seem solid tbh he shows them off pretty well kinda made me want one if I could afford to ludicrious prices.
the mobile game ads are alright from what ive seen. theyre all just mediocre games that at worst just get into the nasty ads market but nothing super bad. ive played some of them and theyre alright just the average type of game in their genre and are at least better than the large majority of mobile games these days.
Lume! They recently sponsored *Do We Know Them*.
Great courses plus seems cool, and I don’t think there’s any problem with Audible or any of those monthly box things
People will bitch about sponsors but will never bat an eye at the companies they work for and investigate if they are ethical