this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 221 points 1 year ago (16 children)

I actually didn't care when there was an ad in the beginning of the video or what not. It was when I had to start watching multiple ads in the middle of a 10 minute video as well. Like come on, not even broadcast TV is that annoying.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Shorts are such a stupidly blatant way to start showing more ads than content, and they make navigating channels impossible. Hell you can't even get away from ads in search results with premium.

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[–] [email protected] 187 points 1 year ago (12 children)

laughs in firefox + uBlock Origin

[–] [email protected] 129 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

If I understand correctly, there's nothing about Firefox that makes ad blockers any harder to detect. What can Firefox and uBlock do to stop Google from blocking adblock users on the site?

That said, I use Firefox and uBlock myself, and I've yet to see YouTube stop me from using the site.

[–] [email protected] 114 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They don’t care about Firefox. Chrome is the browser market, they have weakened extensions, they implemented DRM, and here we are.

[–] [email protected] 144 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Coming to you later… “Your browser violates YouTube’s Terms of Service.”

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This would become an Anti trust suit I would imagine.

[–] Sami 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

They can just phrase it a little differently and argue semantics in front of a bunch of 70 year olds who don't know what a browser is in a hearing or two. Maybe a couple campaign contributions through completely legal channels and that's that. Anti trust enforcement has been falling in the US for decades.

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter if YouTube can detect uBlock. The great thing about uBlock is you can just block the anti-adblock script. Since Javascript is executed on the user's computer, it's trivial to just tell your computer to ignore it. And moving it to server side would cost them too much money in processing power.

That's why they want everyone to adopt their DRM, so they don't have to worry about it.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (6 children)

This logic is so flawed lol. It's also completely trivial for them to detect when their anti-adblock script has been blocked. If it gets blocked, then they can just stop serving you videos.

There are websites that already do this; it's not theoretical. The website just doesn't work if it detects an adblocker.

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[–] [email protected] 130 points 1 year ago (10 children)

People who choose not to watch ads are far more likely to not spend money based on ads. I know that when I see the same crappy ads over and over, yeah, I remember the name of the product, and I remind myself every time never to buy it. I'm more likely to buy from that seller if I don't see their ads.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (2 children)

100% agree, but they charge for eyeballs, not clicks.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

That's because the average person is influenced by seeing the same shit over and over again, and it improves sales. Not every single person, just most of them.

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[–] [email protected] 128 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Lamo this will introduce more people to revanced

[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (15 children)

You know why it's called revanced? Because youtube came after vanced. They wont ignore it forever, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

YouTube Vanced was shut down because they tried to monetise it by releasing their own crypto NFTs, sparking Google to shut it down. I think for now Revanced is safe.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The thing is that Revanced follows a new distribution model. Rather than distributing a modified app, they instead distribute patches for the normal YouTube APK so that the user modifies the app on their own device. Thus, ReVanced never distributes any of Google's IP. It's kinda like game modding. ReVanced will be a lot harder for Google to kill.

The one downside for ReVanced is that it's harder for ordinary users to install, so that will limit its popularity.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Rerevanced will be popular

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Oof, one day soon, we'll all be watching torrented rips of youtube videos, like we already do TV shows.

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[–] [email protected] 127 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Adblock is one of the greatest human inventions of all time.

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Oh my, the creators get paid?!?

https://influencermarketinghub.com/youtube-money-calculator/

Oh... So no, not really...

Sounds like they're lying to me!

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 1 year ago (15 children)

I don't think I've ever seen the word "allowlisted". Did someone forget "whitelisted" is a thing, or is that term finally cancelled?

[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 year ago (30 children)

Whitelist and blacklist were indeed cancelled despite having no racial origin.

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 year ago

Even the FBI recommends you use an adblocker, for your personal safety. Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/the-fbi-now-recommends-using-an-ad-blocker-heres-why

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Remember when YouTube was just a video of a guy at the zoo? Pepperidge farm remembers...

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Two days ago I noticed when watching through the app on my phone that I could no longer just skip ads, and the trick of reporting them to skip didn't work anymore either. I effectively had to just sit and wait.

That same day I got NewPipe, imported my subscriptions, and honestly even if this is just a phased trial or something, I won't be going back to the standard YT app.

Creators make pennies from ad revenue. If I want to support them, I'll make a donation or subscribe to their Patreon or something.

I won't just sit and suffer a slew of ads while my data is harvested under the false pretense that it's all to support the creators.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm unironically considering ditching any online interaction(s) on the internet and use my PC solely for offline content (write documentaries, texts, play retro games). Because I really don't want to use the internet with that level of intrusion in my pc.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Take any cybersecurity class and you'll want to burn your tech in a dumpster. In most cases it's security by obscurity from sheer numbers that hackers/sites don't give a crap about you alone.

Additionally, every site you have ever visited tracks your browser, IP, OS, location, and more. This AdBlock tracker is just observing that you have a plugin for ad blocking. That's the least intrusion that YouTube does.

In summary, there's no need to be paranoid, but only because everything that can be stolen or observed already has been.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So, alphabet can rip off the creators but we can't? What a crappy double standard.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aw that's so cute, they think they'll be able to stop adblockers from working for more than a few days. Just like everyone else before them. Good luck with that guys.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)
  • TV : SmartTube
  • Mobile : NewPipe / LibreTube
  • Desktop : Piped / YouTube with a bunch of browser extensions

This my YouTube Premium

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The streaming crash has only just begun.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

Desktop replacements: FreeTube and Piped. I personally prefer FreeTube; the UI is way better than Piped.

Android: LibreTube (it also works with Piped but I just imported my youtube subscription list instead). There is also NewPipe too!

If you'd rather dump YouTube entirely, there is Odysee and PeerTube. Though for most people they're just not viable, total replacements. Only you can decide for yourself on that matter.

Enjoy!

Edit: If you want to export your YouTube subs and playlists you'll have to do Google Takeout; but after that it's super easy to import/export them from Freetube and Piped whenever ya want.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago

Fuck this shit with the force of a billion adblockers.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I have YouTube ReVanced on my phone. If YouTube ever defeats uBlock Origin on my desktop, I just won't watch YouTube on desktop anymore. I refuse to watch or view ads.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Just yesterday they stopped allowing me to see home page and recommendations unless I turn on watch history, which I am not doing ever. So they can keep forcing my hand and see how far it goes. If anything am stubborn enough to enjoy this kind of petty behavior from major players. They keep thinking "oh they will just do what we ask them to", but I'll do the opposite out of spite. I'll just use !videos or similar communities to find my recommendations until the day comes where I stop using it completely. I quit Facebook this way, quit Reddit and Twitter, quit WhatsApp. Keep at it guys, let's see who's more stubborn.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (6 children)

That's did news. Perhaps after mastodon grow massive thanks to Elon, and Lemmy grow thanks to reddit, we see peertube get his time to shine thanks to Google... #fuckupyourcompanyFAST

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Text is fine but you can't really expect the Fediverse to serve heavy media at a large scale

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

YouTube has also started showing me a blank "home" screen since I turned off my watch and search activity history on privacy settings.

Joke's on them, all I want is to see my subscriptions anyway

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They also started to fight piped and invidous, nevertheless it won't make me buy their subscription, I'll just ditch the platform.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Sucks but on the flipside it means that I’ll have more time for myself.

I already spend less time on social media because R/all sucks balls and lemmy doesn’t have too much content. I don’t have any other social media.

I also don’t have cable or pay for streaming services, so I found a replacement in the form of YouTube and Spotify (podcasts). I’m ok if these options go away.

There are a lot of hobbies that I want to do and the less distracted I am, the higher chance that I’ll choose to do them instead of dicking around.

Tldr: brings it on!

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox + Ublock Origin Or Youtube Revanced (their only official site is their github) (android only)

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The ads are not the true problem. The tracking and profiling is. They keep the rhetoric about the ads while forcing both. I'd be kinda okay with just untargeted ads. Maybe not fully okay but I'd be far more willing to tolerate them. This privacy violating thing the modern Internet made a norm? Hell no!

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I just canceled my youtube premium account after about 7 years of constant membership.

The recent price increase was crap. The service I receive hasn't improved - actually with their shitty compression even on "4k" videos my enjoyment has really decreased.

But, the big driver were ads. With premium I didn't see ads, instead I was increasingly bombarded with "words from our sponsor" all over videos.

Anyway, I recommend freetube. For now at least, it actually blocks all ads including sponsor blocks.

I won't pay a monthly fee to be google's advertising product.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago

Start downloading and archiving videos you like. Especially educational content, share it with others, keep the information free and accessible for all.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If this has the same effect as reddit/lemmy.. wow peer tube is about to get so good

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