Reviews for DeArrow - Better Titles and Thumbnails on YouTube
DeArrow - Better Titles and Thumbnails on YouTube by Ajay (SponsorBlock)
Review by Michael Washboard
Rated 4 out of 5
by Michael Washboard, a year agoIt's good, but haven't tested it for too long. I use this extension as a back-up for videos with click-bait or sensationalized titles I want a alternative to, and do not use its titles and thumbnails as the default way to look at YouTube videos. The descriptive titles act more like titles to scientific papers in their betrayal of the contents of the video. It is of my opinion that titles of educational videos should be more descriptive and long. Artistic titles, and titles that have metaphors should have titles keep its integrity, and skits, artistic video strictly for non-informative entertainment shouldn't be changed.
But, a compromise should be reached for the people who think some ""REDDITORS'"" title changes are UNNECESSARY EARTH SHATTERING RUINING YouTube⸮, to these people I say look at your setting: "Behaviors > Default to Original Video Information" will make it opt-in, and you could only look at the DeArrow version when you want a more descriptive title. I also detest that asking users to pay for software that heavily relies on data hosted on a server is being called "shady", as you are normalizing developers being under funded enough to not be able to support their software. Servers cost money = server needs funding -> people unwilling to pay = hard to keep servers running/cost comes out of dev's pocket. With all of that out of the way, This is an biased review based on my use-case, but so was theirs, so now we get both sides of the coin.
A feature I personally think would be nice to add — but of course not mandatory — is a 70%-80% democratic vote for if a video is plagiarized, with a attached source to accompany it. This would greatly help push for more accountability within the "video essay" and "educational" online sphere.
But, a compromise should be reached for the people who think some ""REDDITORS'"" title changes are UNNECESSARY EARTH SHATTERING RUINING YouTube⸮, to these people I say look at your setting: "Behaviors > Default to Original Video Information" will make it opt-in, and you could only look at the DeArrow version when you want a more descriptive title. I also detest that asking users to pay for software that heavily relies on data hosted on a server is being called "shady", as you are normalizing developers being under funded enough to not be able to support their software. Servers cost money = server needs funding -> people unwilling to pay = hard to keep servers running/cost comes out of dev's pocket. With all of that out of the way, This is an biased review based on my use-case, but so was theirs, so now we get both sides of the coin.
A feature I personally think would be nice to add — but of course not mandatory — is a 70%-80% democratic vote for if a video is plagiarized, with a attached source to accompany it. This would greatly help push for more accountability within the "video essay" and "educational" online sphere.
331 reviews
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 19494893, 5 days agoThis is an essential extension if you are an avid Youtube user.
- Rated 5 out of 5by Ishu, 12 days agoI soo badly wants to support u but alas don't have a credit card or paypal. I will support u one day though when I get a job soon. Take care brother and thanks.
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 14230878, a month agoNowadays I consider this a mandatory extension. YouTube without it is painful to my eyes. Thank you to Ajay for making this extension, it is a gem.
- Rated 5 out of 5by skye, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by lw, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Hannibal, a month agoFantastic! Improved titles help inform me what I'm >actually< going to see if I click rather than the sensationalized bunk that has become so common for good & bad channels alike.
- Rated 5 out of 5by FairwellNoob, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Nuwanda, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Antegra, a month agoAlways a blank screen since today for every thumbnaiI I reinstalled nothing changed It worked for a long time
Edit: It work very well nowDeveloper response
posted a month agoEdit: The update is now published!
YouTube changed the layout causing the extension to replace thumbnails with blank spaces. I have fixed this in 2.1.7, but unfortunately Firefox is slow at reviewing updates.
This will take a few days to appear on the extension store. On Firefox, it could take up to 14 days, but you can switch to the beta version by clicking "FirefoxSignedInstaller" in the release (https://github.com/ajayyy/DeArrow/releases/tag/2.1.7). Make sure to backup your data and only have one extension enabled at once if you choose to do that.
While you wait on the old version, you can disable thumbnail replacements to see the original thumbnail instead of a blank space. - Rated 5 out of 5by SDM, a month agoworked well for a while, then it broke.
Edit; Dev fixed it, add-on works well, not perfect but helps cut down the insanely over embellished nature of YouTube thumbnails/titles.Developer response
posted a month agoEdit: The update is now published!
YouTube changed the layout causing the extension to replace thumbnails with blank spaces. I have fixed this in 2.1.7, but unfortunately Firefox is slow at reviewing updates.
This will take a few days to appear on the extension store. On Firefox, it could take up to 14 days, but you can switch to the beta version by clicking "FirefoxSignedInstaller" in the release (https://github.com/ajayyy/DeArrow/releases/tag/2.1.7). Make sure to backup your data and only have one extension enabled at once if you choose to do that.
While you wait on the old version, you can disable thumbnail replacements to see the original thumbnail instead of a blank space. - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 18065930, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Haz, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Abdelrahman Mekky, a month agoVery useful,very great thanks for the amazing addon, however it seems a recent update might've caused the thumbnails to not load at all for me, disabling de arrow fixes this not sure if this is a dearrow issue or some conflict somewhere
Developer response
posted a month agoEdit: The update is now published!
YouTube changed the layout causing the extension to replace thumbnails with blank spaces. I have fixed this in 2.1.7
This will take a few days to appear on the extension store. On Firefox, it could take up to 14 days, but you can switch to the beta version by clicking "FirefoxSignedInstaller" in the release (https://github.com/ajayyy/DeArrow/releases/tag/2.1.7). Make sure to backup your data and only have one extension enabled at once if you choose to do that.
While you wait on the old version, you can disable thumbnail replacements to see the original thumbnail instead of a blank space. - Rated 5 out of 5by shima rin, 2 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 13137791, 2 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by chewygum, 2 months ago
- Rated 3 out of 5by Ritchie, 2 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Glen, 3 months ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 19110817, 3 months agoA massively over-engineered solution compared to something like Clickbait Remover. Why does this require the Sponsorblock model instead of just giving you semi-random screenshots? Why all this complexity?
I don't think there's any reason other than the developer wishing to justify monetizing crowd-sourced software.
EDIT: response to developer - I would wager that the vast majority of this addon's users don't care about the title change feature (indeed, I quickly disabled it). I also don't see how Clickbait Remover predating Arrow excuses Arrow being over-engineered - if anything, that makes it worse (a simple solution was demonstrated, yet it was decided to build an incredibly convoluted alternative)Developer response
posted 3 months agoClickbait remover is a great extension that was made before dearrow. If you prefer that simple approach, it's made for you
The crowdsourcing in dearrow is more about titles than thumbnails, which is something clickbait remover is not able to deal with.
Response to edit: I'm not sure I understand your point. If you don't think crowdsourcing is beneficial to you, you should use the other extension. The whole point of this extension is for the crowdsourcing, so most people using this extension are do have those enabled. - Rated 2 out of 5by random user, 3 months agoAwkward semi-paid scheme, especially for a crowdsourced project. That alone makes me not want to contribute since the dev might at an point decide to remove access.
The replaced thumbnails are very hit and miss. Replacing clickbait is one thing, but this extension just want to replace all of them indiscriminatingly, removing useful information. Quite a bit are literally just replaced with blank images or other junk...Developer response
posted 3 months agoBy default, most thumbnails are replaced with random screenshots to try to let you get a sense of what the video is like. This can be changed in the settings to show the original thumbnails instead of you prefer them.
All the crowdsourced data is public and under a creative commons license (https://sponsor.ajay.app/database). The code is also fully open source under the GPL. The magic of open source is that anyone can continue the project or fork it to their own desire. - Rated 5 out of 5by Bryn, 3 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by brockar, 3 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by ta44, 3 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 19094068, 3 months agoA great addon that de-clickbaits youtube. Only downside is that after using it for some time, you realise that most of what reaches the front page is just slop. I happily paid for DeArrow as it has made the youtube experience much better for filtering good content out of the slop.