Collaboration with SponsorBlock

[bershanskiy]

There is another extension that also allows skipping the bring parts of videos, called SponsorBlock. Would you be interested in collaborating with it to try and work out a common interoperable API?

Currently, VideoSegments and SponsorBlock have about 1000-2000 users each (across all platforms) and have very sparse coverage of videos. Only a couple of YouTube channels are well-covered. I believe a collaboration like this would benefit both communities.

Relevant links:

• https://sponsor.ajay.app/
• https://sponsor.ajay.app/static/stats/
• https://sponsor.ajay.app/static/stats/

[videosegments]

Sorry for very late response, I wasn't subscribed to to this repository. At current time VideoSegments and SponsorBlock pursue a little bit different goals. VideoSegments was created to skip not only ads but everything else not related to video's content (we have more than play/skip segments - see expert mode). Our databases will probably interfere with each other, making it harder for both communities.

Also there are much more extensions like this:

• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/skipper-music-mode-for-yo/chojffponkoboggmjpnkflkbcelacijk
• Wellcut but it was deleted (probably by authors, even website is down now).
• I've forgot name but there was one more.

[bershanskiy]

Thanks for your reply. Of course, collaboration makes sense only if both communities benefit from it. And this issue is just an exploration in the possibility of such a collaboration.

VideoSegments was created to skip not only ads but everything else not related to video's content (we have more than play/skip segments - see expert mode).

SponsorBlock is actually adding other segment types. Details are still TBD, but your feedback would be important:

• https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlockServer/issues/27
• https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlockServer/pull/31

Our databases will probably interfere with each other, making it harder for both communities.

This is true, we would need to work out the details. Also, the datasets might not be merged completely, but rather rely on each other as a fallback.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/skipper-music-mode-for-yo/chojffponkoboggmjpnkflkbcelacijk

Thanks for mentioning it. I already looked into it earlier and found the following:

• It was last updated in November 17, 2018 (from Chrome store)
• As the name implies, focuses on music videos.
• It has hard-coded video segments.
• Contains data on 1222 videos total, many have only one segment and the data format is rather simplistic (because the underlying problem is simpler, it mostly skips intros in music videos). For reference, at the time of writing the SponsorBlock database (publicly accessible) contains data on 6481 videos, and many have multiple segments (because usually sponsors are mentioned shortly once in the beginning and then have a detailed infomercial in the end).
• Is still very popular (1729 users), probably because people have playlists/watchlists with older videos.

Wellcut

Haven't heard of it.

[videosegments]

I think I have to rewrite VideoSegments's API first, because right now it's quite a mess at the backend (this is why I did not publish it, I'm too ashamed of it :D). But I do not have required amount of time. I hope that I will finish API update at the end of a year and then I will be able to collaborate. The main reason behind API's update is to try to cover all domains, not only YouTube. It will be very hard to do on extension's side (basically hardcode for each website), since every video hosting use different ways to store video's unique IDs.

• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/skipper-music-mode-for-yo/chojffponkoboggmjpnkflkbcelacijk recieve updates few times in year. It was updated recently (three days ago). Despite of extension's name, it contain few non-music videos. And it has database (firebase.io) but only for gathering user's segmentations. Maybe one day it will be turned into output database too.
• last snapshot of Wellcut https://web.archive.org/web/20180904023243/https://www.wellcut.tv/en

[ajayyy]

Yep, the dataset is probably pretty different. The main difference is that there is no manual review process on SponsorBlock, instead relying on a voting system. I think the best way to make it work would be a fallback system, using the other extensions API on a 404. Take your time on the API though, no need to rush like I did on mine, which is not so good until @bershanskiy fixed it up.

Thanks for mentioning these other extensions, I had not heard of them. I guess I was using the wrong search terms (focusing on specifically sponsors or embedded ads instead of skipping in general).