Reviews for DeArrow - Better Titles and Thumbnails on YouTube
DeArrow - Better Titles and Thumbnails on YouTube by Ajay (SponsorBlock)
Review by Hollytryx
Rated 5 out of 5
by Hollytryx, a month ago265 reviews
- Rated 5 out of 5by malau, 8 days agoIt's by the Sponsorblock guy, so you already know it's going to be good.
The only problem is it relies on people to actually make the effort to change a title - which it seems not a lot of people have bothered to do (so far).
It also relies on the good will of someone who has to be the canary in the cage who watches the clickbait in the first place.
I don't know how open it is to abuse ? Is there something to stop someone (or even a rival channel ?) from just trashing a channel's titles ?
Anyway, a great idea, that will hopefully take off once more people become aware of it. (I only became aware of it because Sponsorblock had stopped working and I had to go to the settings and saw the button for it - so maybe a one time Sponsorblock popup would be a good idea ? ) - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 13483122, 8 days ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by 00yunje, 12 days agoDepending on who you're subscribed to, this might not make much impact on your browsing experience. Due to titles being crowd-sourced, not every video will be equally affected. Sometimes, the suggested titles can get REALLY pedantic for otherwise perfectly serviceable titles. For example, "The History of The Simpsons Hit & Run World Records" by Summoning Salt became... "The History of The Simpsons Hit & Run (All Story Missions) World Records". Like, that's *barely* more information, and it's stuff I think most people would've assumed anyway from the original title. However, in both cases I've seen this happen, they've reverted back to the original titles soon after. (There's not even a record of there ever being a proposed title, so you're just gonna have to trust me that they were there. I know what I saw.)
Generally, they make the biggest difference with channels like Kurzgesagt or Tom Scott, creators they specifically showcase in the screenshots. Titles can be a bit of a mixed bag for others, but more for the fact that not every video - that might need a retitle - will get them. The generic thumbnail replacer makes the bigger difference to me, imo. It just gives you an honest impression of what each video's gonna look like, literally. And it's nice not having to deal with the obnoxious, gaudy thumbnails people put out sometimes.
Despite the occasionally questionable re-titles, I think the crowd-sourced titles are decent and in good faith. I appreciate the number of guidelines the devs put out to even propose a proper title. It sort of feels like Wikipedia - it might have its vandals, but collectively I think it's in good hands. - Rated 5 out of 5by Tyrone, 16 days agoAn extremely solid addon that prevents my brain (I have Inattentive ADHD) from falling for clickbait on instinct and titles videos properly for me to tell what they are (I have OCPD).
- Rated 5 out of 5by David Viveros, 16 days ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by FoxEnjoyer, 20 days agoGreat extension from a great developer. I paid extra, because I have also been using SponsorBlock for years. Both SponsorBlock and DeArrow are worth every penny.
- Rated 3 out of 5by Anonymous, 21 days agoEdit: I don't mind if the reminder appears every single time, as long as I have to only confirm once (1 button). But, I don't care how many times the 5 confirmations thing appears, if it does, I'll just cancel. It's THAT annoying to me.
While, I do like this extension. I dislike the new change of having to confirm 5 times before I can submit an altered title. This is significantly detract me from even bothering, it's too much hassle. A single confirmation should be enough to get the message across.Developer response
posted 21 days agoThe guidelines reminder does not appear for every submission
It appears the first time you submit, once more a day later, then three days later, then a week later, then once per month.
People have mentioned now knowing the rules thanks to this dialog so it does seem to be working to try to improve the titles being submitted
Edit: If you think it's too much effort to click a few checkmarks once a month, then yea, please don't submit. We do want people putting some level of effort when thinking of new titles - Rated 5 out of 5by RandomAnvil, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 14740377, a month ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by deanohl2, a month ago
- Rated 2 out of 5by Firefox user 17139973, a month agojust kinda mid especially since you pay for it.
- Rated 5 out of 5by 3kh0, a month ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by mutie, a month agoI think people should be able to vote without clicking into the video. it would make the system more engaging to incentivize participation, and maybe lead to less low quality changes. Unless you are submitting, judging the quality or annoyingness of a title/thumbnail doesnt require watching it.
Developer response
posted a month agoA title might look correct until you watch the video and realize the video is actually about something else - Rated 2 out of 5by thib, 2 months agoIt almost exclusively work on channels that do mild and tolerable clickbait, for example Tom Scott
Developer response
posted 2 months agoThis extension is made for creators who upload good videos but with not so good titles and thumbnails. Tom Scott is a good example of that - Rated 5 out of 5by lily, 2 months ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Leo, 2 months agoAs someone who is possible Neurodivergent, I would like to thank you SO MUCH for this add-on
I have been using it for 1 Month now and it solve my major issues that has been plaguing Youtube!
The Clickbaits and Extremely Vague Tittles in the style of "The x situation is y" "It's Over" "The x thing you will never y" "This x thing changed my life" "Buzzword Buzzword Sloppy Clickbait" 😵💫
Clickbait? More like Click-REPEL!
In fact, a channel I used to be subscribed is more tolerable now with this addition because the Add-on tells me what the subject of the video is instead of vague posting titles and having all the freaking thumbnails being the guy's face! 😩
The Final Straw of me installing this was a video I watched with a friend online.
It was a 20 minutes long about an Xbox 360 game that stole assets from Nintendo... only for it to reveal it halfway the video it was a Fire Emblem sprite... - Rated 5 out of 5by Cameri, 2 months ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Hugglesthemerciless, 2 months agoJust had today's Formula 1 race spoiled because DeArrow put the race results as the thumbnail for the race highlights vid instead of leaving the original alone. Never using this garbage again.
- Rated 3 out of 5by Marc Kovka, 2 months agoThe thumbnails are sometimes bad chosen 😓 Maybe combine it with SponsorBlock's main point or most reviewed moment, etc.
Also I use Unhook (removes recommandations bar, etc.) but it conflicts 😩
Maybe also add this option to DeArrow 🥺
With all that, it would be a real 5 ⭐ extension 😁 - Rated 5 out of 5by Twurl, 2 months ago
- Rated 1 out of 5by Braix, 2 months agoI feel that this goes way too overboard with its definition of clickbait and ends up compromising the artistic intent of some channels. I specifically noticed this on ahoy's channel, where the movie poster like thumbnails and simple names were replaced with lesser quality images and verbose titles. The p90 one specifically is a good example. I could go through and edit the channel specific settings for channels I already know and like, but I fear I could then miss out on channels I have not seen before are. I feel like I would like this extension if there was maybe an option for affecting purely egregious forms of clickbait rather than almost anything that seems eye catching to someone.
Developer response
posted 2 months agoWe do have an exemption for fiction pieces such as short films, but one downside of this extension is that it will end up removing some artistic, and the line of what people think is good vs. bad is really subjective from the many discussions we've had about this.
For now, channel allowlisting is the best you can do, but maybe in the future we can try to make a way to share lists with others so you could follow and contribute to shared lists with people that have similar views. If you have other ideas I would be interested to hear on our discord/matrix.