What absolute wankers! In case anyone's adblock goes south, here are some YouTube alternatives:
For Android:
Newpipe or Tubular (Newpipe X Sponsorblock fork)
VueTube (still under development, the team is working slow because it's pretty small, they have a few time to spend on it and they need devs, it's a complete FOSS alternative to Vanced, and will have most of its features including optional Google log in with interactions)
If you need to login and have a full YouTube experience: Revancedapp
Relevant Tumblr post
youtube.com##+js(set,yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel, false)
youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.adBlocksFound, 0)
youtube.com##+js(set,ytplayer.config.args.raw_player_response.adPlacements, [])
youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.hasAllowedInstreamAd, true)
Here it is in text format so ya'll don't have to type it out. I haven't verified that it works but by the looks of it it just makes the Adblock sensor report a false negative. [edit, fixed some spacings that sneaked it's way into the filter upon copying it earlier.]
The one thing the Reddit exodus has taught me, is that I'm almost eager for a reason to ditch my social media and either find something new or simply take back that time and do something more fulfilling anyway.
I'm so much happier not being constantly blasted with advertisements, that now when I have to go back on insta or FB for whatever reason, I can't stand more than 30 seconds before I nope back off.
Looking forward to axing YouTube from my life next.
I am 43 and I remember growing up, people in the early days of the internet were calling people in my age group (late genx/early millenial) a generation that will be "impossible to advertise to." For me, it's rang very true. I can't think of a single time I ever saw an ad for anything and it made me want to spend money on a product or service. But I guess that hasn't been the norm, or ads would be dead.
But I guess that hasn’t been the norm, or ads would be dead.
They're alive because of all the tracking data they use now. Targeted ads are significantly more effective than their counterparts.
Google can be counted on to make everything worse at all opportunities.
Corporations in general. Reddit with their API prices, Adobe with their montly subscription for rotating pages in the Adobe Reader, Netflix with their lockdown on account sharing... Capitalism yay!
I will just avoid their bullshit by using a different YouTube front-end.
“We want to inform viewers that ad blockers violate YouTube’s Terms of Service, and make it easier for them to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium for an ad free experience,” the company said in its email to The Verge.
Wow, thanks, YouTube! I always had such a hard time disabling my ad blocker - I'm so glad you've made it easier for me!
Really, though, I don't see this ending well for YouTube. I'd bet there'll be an ad blocking option that works to bypass this within a week.
A prediction…
YouTube: Show them this ad. Browser: Sure. OK they watched it. YouTube: Really? That was too fast. It was a three minute ad! Browser: Oh, right. Well they’ve definitely watched it now. YouTube: You sure? Browser: Totally.
YouTube is seriously forgetting it's role. I liked it better when it was dbz videos to Linkin Park and looney tunes. We use YouTube to not have a premium service then maybe contribute to the creators we like. We do NOT need yet another "streaming service" bill. They're getting out of hand.
I am constantly on YouTube. I have a stable of creators I follow and watching them has replaced the time I would have spent on other streaming services. It’s how I chill.
So I signed up for YouTube Premium and watch it on my TV with no ads. I have no complaints. I get full HD videos, streamers get paid, YouTube gets paid, and everyone is happy.
If one of your reasons for using YouTube premium is "streamers get paid", you should probably look into things a bit further.
The vast majority of YouTube premium revenue goes towards music publishers who, statistically, don't have any relation to the content you watch, and contribute nothing towards it.
The content you watch likely still has embedded advertising because YouTube has some of the worst, if not the worst, rates paid to people who actually create the videos on their platform (this means there's no such thing as "ad free YouTube" without using an ad blocker, even if you pay for premium)
I mean, that's great and I'm glad you're happy with that but:
This is a privacy forum and that is the opposite of privacy. Every video, like, click, and comment you submit is still used to profile you. There's no opting out.
I love watching YT videos but the actual interface is fucking horrific: I can't filter out the garbage I don't want to watch like Shorts, podcasts, and live videos. This would be very simple for YouTube to ad.
They hijack my search results if the video I'm looking for is not in the top 5 to show me more "suggested" videos.
My home feed, instead of showing content relevant to my interests that I've expressed using likes and subscriptions, is full of garbage clickbait and videos I already watched 1 time 8 years ago, and the same fucking videos that are already in my subscription feed. It's ridiculous how bad they are at this.
If I'm paying for a service I expect to not see ads and YT premium does nothing about in-video ads.
The actual creators are paid a tiny fraction of what YT is, despite providing the vast majority of the value. And YT treats them like garbage anyway.
When there is a competing subscription service that solves these problems and works well, I'll be happy to sign up for that. Until then I'll keep using LibreTube and YT can eat a Weiner.
I mean, since we're all here, PeerTube is federated with Lemmy! There are limited numbers of creators on PeerTube right now, but maybe if we can link more videos from there on lemmy and upload some ourselves, we can get the platform into a healthy state. Not that there is nothing there, there is a decent amount uploaded already.
If they will actually do that, I'll pay for a subscription. To Nebula.
I actually used to have YT Premium because I'm a strong believer that nothing is free, so you either pay with data or money (on anything slightly commercial, not counting FOSS projects made as hobby or under foundations etc. as things get more complex then. But even then I pay/donate for some stuff in the same way of reasoning).
Yet I cancled the YT Premium subscription. Simply for one reason, privacy. I don't mind paying, but then I don't want just no adds, I also want no tracking. I pay with money, so I don't want to pay with data as well having a whole profile made.
Switched to NewPipe with sponsorblock on phone and TV and FreeTube on PC. Got a redirect extension in FireFox automatically sending YT videos to either Invidious or Pipe.
I'm gonna be honest. I don't see anything wrong with this. I know the majority of us are just coming off some corporate bullshit from reddit, but I don't think it's wrong to not let your very expensive to maintain service be used for free without ads.
I promise that I'm not trying to suck a billionaire's cock when I say that I marvel in awe at YouTube's ability to input and output such astronomical amount of data at any given time, without any complaints.
But this is such a shitty, hostile way to do it. And if you give in and say yes to ads they've already shown where that's going to go, with 10 unskippable ads in a row and 30 second ads.
They could make subscriptions mandatory if they really believe they have a good product, and pass a fat portion of that money to the creators instead.
...except this isn't about the creators, or the users, or the advertisers, it's about Google making more money at the expense of every single other party involved in the platform, and the platform be damned. Textbook late stage enshittification.
Can youtube not try to fuck people over for 5 minutes?
Can <insert basically any corporation> not try to fuck people over for 5 minutes?
I know how obnoxious ads have become on the internet and I've seen how they have progressively gotten longer and more prevalent on YouTube but I don't really know how to feel about this. Conceptually, they are handling and storing so much video data their operating costs must be astronomical. As far as I know, advertisement is the main way they recoup any of that cost so I can't really blame them for this. Maybe they are just reaching a point where they are just too massive to work.
I would agree with you on this if it weren't for the fact that scam ads are so widespread on Youtube and Google that it's almost like they don't care about their users, only money. If they don't care about their users, why should I care about their bottom line. Also, ads I don't have too much of a problem with, but data collection and surveillance I do, and it's hard to block one without blocking the other.
I’m not super opposed for paying for a product or service that I use, but the cost they are asking is just too expensive for me. Not that I can’t afford it, but for the 16/month or 23/month for family doesn’t meet my personal value/service.
I'm truly surprised there hasn't been a successful YouTube competitor in the last decade or so.
I suspect the problem is that people wouldn't even pay a penny per video to content creators. From what I've seen of other competing video sites, there's a really serious moderation issue stopping them from wide adoption... So many of the competing sites are full of flat earth / anti-vax / pro-fascism content...
My understanding is that its just straight up not profitable plus network effect. Requires too many resources to run the service and only profitable if doing data harvesting from users in the way that google/etc do.
The funny thing is that I can't be bothered to install adblockers for mobile YouTube, despite that being 99% of my phone and YouTube usage. Video platforms are expensive AF, and I get it.
But man, that ad experience just keeps degrading. It really wears on me some days, making me seriously consider Premium.
But now that they are going to block adblockers outright? And especially now that they're paywalling the ability to queue videos in a dynamic playlist?? Something built into TV casting and the desktop app for free? Nah, Google can get fucked. It's ReVanced time.
A lot of comments mentioning platforms like Nebula. I feel in this climate we should be continuing to encourage decentralized platforms. As lemmy is to reddit, peertube is to youtube. You can add a support button with links to any payment platforms you want; librapay is a nice one that takes 0% of donations as the platform itself runs on its own donations by a nonprofit.
I'm sure there's a way to get around it, and if there isn't, then I just won't be using YouTube anymore. I survived before it existed. I'm getting tired of these companies' bullshit.
block scripts with uMatrix. a little finer grained. if they block me, oh well. still won't watch ads
PeerTube's turn now :)
Funny. They can try. I'm not as dependant on their platform as they wish-think. I'll find other ways or other platforms.
I wonder how they will enforce this. If you can just open a private window to bypass it, it won't be very effective. Sure, they could do some fingerprinting, but I imagine avoiding false-positives would be very important, so I doubt they'd get very far with that.
Honestly, the only way I see is implementing a login wall, which I wouldn't put past them. And that's kinda scary. It would render so many links inaccessible to people without a Google account.
Or who knows, maybe they just want to make it more cumbersome and not completely prevent it, to get more people onto YouTube Premium, while the more determined people can continue adblocking because it's not worth fighting a small minority.
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
Additional Resources: