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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by bermuda@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

So I've been using youtube ad blockers since pretty much when ad blocker extensions were first available. Lately though I've been getting hit more and more with these messages that YT was sending out every 5 or so videos telling me that adblockers aren't allowed. No problem, just gotta wait 5 seconds to x it out and then close my video. The straw that broke the camel's back though was when instead of a close-able pop-up, they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn't let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.

So I disabled it and... wow. It's just so, so, trash. 2 ads before a video plus midrolls and every video ever. I tried listening to a playlist of songs and was getting a midroll ad every single time. Imagine trying to just listen to music for 3 minutes and getting interrupted by a commercial for a chevy silverado! Half the ads were for youtube premium and they specifically mentioned that it would get rid of all the ads. It just felt so damn predatory. I couldn't enjoy anything that wasn't already demonetized.

And you know I'm fine with ads I guess. I could live with an ad before every video, but the fact that I was getting upwards of 5 ads in a 10 minute video was just plain absurd. I also hate that youtube got rid of the yellow markers to show you when an ad was coming up, so now it's just out of nowhere and always interrupts a key part of the video.

E: I've been on Firefox for over a year.

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[-] xrtxn 88 points 1 year ago

I think ublock origin bypasses youtubes ad detection

[-] DagonPie@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just tried. It does not.

EDIT: Needed to update my browser.

[-] stardust@lemmy.ca 33 points 1 year ago

What browser? It works for Firefox on my PC and mobile.

[-] averyminya@beehaw.org 38 points 1 year ago

Google has slowly been really pushing their way or no-way. They announced that 3 strike policy against your account for ad-blocking, from my understanding it had only rolled out to chrome but someone within the last couple months posted an image of Firefox showing them the adblock message.

Ublock Origin does still work for some, but I believe it's per account. Honestly, the moment I heard about the policy I immediately switched to Piped. I don't really care about the YouTube algorithm, I hardly use the site outside of information searching (guides mostly) and so the homepage always being YT front page doesn't bother me. I can create an account with piped and have subscriptions, can make playlists and on the LibreTube app I can download videos. That's all I need. Unfortunately there is some downtime sometime but you can host your own instance of it really gets to you - I'm nearly at that point myself just for the peace of mind.

So, fuck YouTube and Google tracking, fuck their forced ad policy, use a wrapper like Piped/Invidious and be done with them.

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[-] utubas@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago

Works on my machine

[-] skulblaka@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Firefox + uBlock Origin served me about 4 hours of video last night without an ad in sight.

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[-] megopie@beehaw.org 61 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I used to pay for premium just because it was the simplest way to watch ad free on my phone (IOS so Vanced was not an option), and being able to download videos to watch later on a flight was nice.

But then they wouldn’t let you do Picture in Picture from the app, which, like, fine. Annoying but I’ll just play it in the background and just listen to the audio.

But then they started forcing the tiktok clone onto the home page and subscriptions page. I really do not like the dopamine disinformation vortex. So I deleted the app and just started watching them through the website, which actually enabled Picture in Picture and let me hide the shorts shelf (for 30 days before I have to click the X again.)

Now I’ve just stopped paying for it and just watch YouTube in the Firefox Focus IOS browser which completely blocks YouTube ads in my experience. It won’t let me do Picture in Picture or play audio in the background on their website, but I’ve noticed embedded YouTube videos on other websites will.

So now I’m looking in to using other front ends so I can have complete normal functionality without having to watch adds or pay them money and have their stupid tik tok clone shoved down my throat.

Good job Google, you managed to completely alienate someone who was paying you cash. Now I’m the definition of a free rider on your service.

[-] ProcurementCat@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago

ReVanced can patch your YouTube client (even without root) and add (your choice of) features, for example adblocking, picture in picture, playing in background as well ad quality of life improvents like hiding the "block" of news videos, remove reels or certain buttons

[-] Ganbat@lemmyonline.com 28 points 1 year ago

They said they're on IOS.

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[-] abhibeckert@beehaw.org 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I could live with an ad before every video

I can't live with that. Often I don't even know if I actually want to watch the video or not, and if I have to sit through three minutes of ads, only to close the video five seconds after the ad because it's not what I expected... yuck. Preroll ads are often a deal breaker for me unless it's content that I'm very familiar with.

Mid-roll ads I'm OK with - by then I've already decided the content is worth watching.

I don't think I'm alone and YouTube seems to be very aware of this issue. They are selective about which videos have a pre-roll ad.

[-] Da_Boom@iusearchlinux.fyi 18 points 1 year ago

Mid roll ads are fine if the video was made with midrolls in mind that the midrolls actually happened at the times the maker of the video has set them up to happen.

Sure they are selective about which videos have ads, but not when the ads come on.

YouTube, with no adblocker or premium subscription has basically become an interrupting cow, making noise at the most innapropriate time and then you have to wat-MOOOOOOOOOO-ch the ad, then you rewind 10 seconds to get your cont-MOOOOOOOOOO-text back. There needs to be a legal limit to the number of midrolls you can stuff in a short space of time.

I'd rather watch a series of multiple consecutive midroll ads placed at a prespecified time than a random number of ads scattered at completely random intervals, Ruining the flow and mood of the video.

Its frustrating af.

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[-] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 41 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This thread is in c/technology, but I swear these are some of the least tech literate comments I've seen. Stop using Chrome, yesterday. Use Firefox, use ublock origin. On Android use Revanced. I never see an ad on my PC or phone using YouTube, including ads in the video by the content creators (sponsorblock is built into Revanced and can by toggled).

[-] bermuda@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago

I was already on Firefox.

I switched to ublock origin yesterday and it worked for about 2 hours before YT somehow detected it and shut down every video. My fix for that was to disable ublock, refresh, enable ublock, refresh again

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[-] phillaholic@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

there have been many posts about YouTube detecting blockers recently and warning users it’s against the ToS. Not sure if they are widespread or not.

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[-] Sendbeer@lemm.ee 32 points 1 year ago

Add in sponsors that some ass holes throw 2-3 in a video (FU LTT) and I don't know how people watch YouTube with ads. It sucks so bad.

I do pay for premium, but use smart tube on my android tv box and it feels so good when it rolls right past them.

[-] luno@beehaw.org 37 points 1 year ago

sponsorblock is a godsend for that type of stuff

[-] zurohki@aussie.zone 21 points 1 year ago

Sponsors are the biggest argument for not getting YouTube Premium, in my opinion.

You spend money on YouTube Premium and still have a bunch of ads, so you need to use sponsorblock, and if you're using that just use an ad blocker too.

[-] scarrtt@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

SmartTube is some of the greatest software ever made

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[-] DudeDudenson@lemmings.world 30 points 1 year ago

I hate how this trend of "I'll make my service shit so you'll pay more for the not as shit version" seems to work out for these companies

[-] Corgana@startrek.website 18 points 1 year ago

"Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."

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[-] Plume@beehaw.org 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It sucks. What sucks even more for me is that, I understood the fact that a platform like YouTube costs an unimaginable amount. I get that. And I wanted to pay. As a matter of fact, I did pay, happily so, for quite while. For YouTube Prenium Lite. Until a week ago I think, where I got this wonderful email from Google titled: Kindly go fuck yourself... or at least that's how I read it... telling me that YouTube Prenium Lite was going the way of the Google graveyard. Because of course it did. And now, it was paying for full Prenium or nothing.

So I stopped paying. I'm not paying 13 bucks a month for no ads. Especially if you're basically strong arming me in doing so, I'll do without YouTube.

Because hey, I tried YouTube Music. It's actually quite good in many aspects (horrendously flawed in many others too, of course, but that's most Music Streaming services) but you know what? I know it's been years, but I'm still not over Google Play Music and how they killed that off for what was an inferior product back then. Why the fuck would I invest my time and money in a Google product, nowadays? I'm sorry if you reading this were one of these people, but it's like... to the people who were paying for Stadia and were shocked to learn that the service was shutting down... I'm sorry, but what the fuck is wrong with you? It was bound to happen, from the moment it was announced, the entire internet started joking about the fact that this thing will be dead in two years!

I refuse to pay for a Google product nowadays. It's like paying for a live service game at release, it's rolling the dice and betting against the colossal odds that this thing will be dead in two years. So, unless it's a Pixel, so I can slap something else than stock Android, Google can suck it. They won't get a cent from me.

It's not like I paid for Prenium Lite because I loved YouTube. Hell, YouTube stopped being a good product a long time ago, I was paying for the content I was watching. Gotta support creators, you know? And also, because I watched a lot of YouTube on my TV, and you can't slap Ublock on that. It was a reasonable enough price. But now? Fuck YouTube, I'm done with this. I've been hating this platform more and more for a while now, the algorithm is awful, it keeps recommanding me stuff I don't want (why the hell does YouTube insist and recommanding me far right content, jesus christ, stop!). And even without ads, you still get them because monetization is so damn inconsistent creators can only depend on sponsors, I could go on and on.

So now, it's NewPipe on mobile, Piped on desktop and I guess I'll just find something better to watch on TV. I'm paying for Nebula, it's cheap, doesn't have even a third of the people who I watched on YouTube, but at least it's creator centric and it's got a lot of good, interesting stuff on it. I've been watching lots of Twitch lately, and while yes, I agree, fuck Amazon, at least I can just pay for the people who I watch most to get no ads, it's a reasonable price, support them and Twitch ads are not nerely as horrendous YouTube's are in terms of frequency. So, yeah. I don't miss it.

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[-] kzhe@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

Consider Piped, Invidious, etc. Yes you can't log in, but on Piped you can create a Piped account and on mobile use Yattee (iOS) or Libretube (Android). No recommendations on home screen, but subscriptions feed and recommendations per video.

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[-] hellequin67@lemm.ee 20 points 1 year ago

This is why I use Smartube on my android TV and revanced/NewPipe on my phone.

The few times I've witnessed naked YouTube it's made be realise that if any of the sources mentioned stop working then I'm simply not going to use YouTube.

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[-] Zink@programming.dev 20 points 1 year ago

Ok so I’m not saying the correct solution to this is to just give Google the money they want, but for me YouTube premium is the best value for any streaming service my family subscribes to. (Unless you count the lifetime Plex pass I got on sale years ago, lol)

Things like our smart TV or the kid’s iPad work flawlessly, including convenient downloads for trips. And since I watch a lot on my TV, it’s nice having higher bitrate available.

YouTube music is a nice addon for music in the car, even though it doesn’t make or break the deal.

And as I understand it, creators make significantly more money from premium views than ad-supported views. I like watching all kinds of niche scientific/tech/educational creators so I like to know they’re getting a bit more from me

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[-] StereoTypo@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago

I stayed at a place last year that had a RokuTV, YouTube was practically unusable on it due to the absurd number of ads that would play. Even more infuriating was that they were often the same ad, repeated.

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 14 points 1 year ago

Why are people not using Ublock Origin ?

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[-] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago

For those with iOS, please watch through Firefox Focus. It blocks YT ads!

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[-] Auzy@beehaw.org 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Here in Australia, there are so many F**king Betting ads on it too.

Just wish they'd ban any form of casino/gambling adverts

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[-] Teknikal@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

I tried to give YouTube ads a chance at one point but they got ridiculous to the point I just can't.

[-] CrypticFawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 year ago

they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn’t let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.

I've never had this happen to me with Firefox + ublock origin.

If you want youtube on mobile, I recommend Libretube. Or just use mobile Firefox with ublock origin.

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[-] JokeDeity@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Quit using shitty browsers? I see zero ads on YouTube in Firefox with ad blockers. I mean there's about a million other reasons to not use Chrome as well, but use this anger as your catalyst.

[-] bermuda@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

I've been using Firefox for over a year, so thanks for the assumption boss.

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[-] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago
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[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 11 points 1 year ago

I highly recommend using either Piped (has an app for android, too) or invidious (several instances to choose from). No need to use adblock or anything while watching from them. Some videos don't play, seems more common with music videos, but for most stuff it'll work fine.

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[-] loops@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

I use NoScript to block every script from google except for ytimg and youtube and I haven't seen anything like that; though, I do only watch 1-2 videos at a time, maybe I haven't 'triggered' it.

I can even disable origin and still not see any ads because NoScript blocks them from loading in the first place.

[-] Corgana@startrek.website 9 points 1 year ago

Anyone here subscribed to Nebula or CuriosityStream? On paper it seems like a much better arrangement for creators and viewers but I'm curious as to anyone's personal experience with the quality of the service.

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

I had a playlist that I was watching when I was working with raw meat (can't touch the phone). Next video comes up and it's a 8 minute ad that I can't skip because I can't touch my phone. Argh.

[-] Hegar@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

A rich right wing lunatic (but I repeat myself) in Australia had a 45m ad for his vanity political campaign. A friend of mine sent a screenshot.

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this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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