Ad blocker still works. They really want people to stop using YouTube though, don't they.
The real problem is that barriers to entry for competition are insurmountable.
If I wanna compete, I gotta host those files somewhere. With Google, Amazon, or Microsoft. That's basically my whole list of options.
I mean, I can opt to do it myself, but... That's beyond David v Goliath. No way I could manage the amount of spam, CSA, DMCA, terrorism/misinformation and other shit that would seek to take the competition out.
IMO a lot of the attacks on independent and federated social media probably come from their corporate competitors. Who has the most to gain from flooding Lemmy with CSAM? Reddit, obviously.
The other reason why it's impossible is simply that nobody would upload their genuine content to your site because it doesn't get as much "engagement" as on YouTube. Social inertia is why YouTube can pretty much do whatever the fuck they want and people will stay.
Twitch is the same thing for livestreams. Not even Facebook using fuck-you money to literally buy exclusivity contracts with streamers could change that. People just didn't want to watch there (although I can understand their reluctance).
If you're using an ad-blocker or skipping ads, yes, they absolutely don't give a shit if you stop using it, because you provide zero value to them and are only consuming their resources.
Your metadata is still extremely valuable to them, and it's not limited to just watch history and likes, but rather everything on how you engage in their services, including where your mouse cursor sits.
Queue all the people in the comments talking about ad blockers or alternative apps.
Those might be great (and ad blocking is important in general), but I've found I ultimately just watch YouTube less.
A good chunk of my favorite creators had been pushing Nebula for the past couple years, so I finally tried it out and it's pretty decent. I've even found new channels there that would have been buried on YouTube. Still tons of room for improvement for the platform, but it's functional now.
Other creators have their own websites with text content, or podcasts hosted elsewhere.
It's only a small handful of channels I check for on YouTube anymore. It kind of sucks that it's mostly small channels where video is a key component and they don't fit with the edu-tainment vibe of Nebula, and I don't know of another platform for them. Lots of DIY home improvement, self-sufficiency (not religious or conspiratorial lol), music videos, and channels dedicated to specific videogame franchises.
I know LTT has Floatplane too. I wonder if all of these other videos streaming options getting worse will start driving more people to smaller platforms.
You might want to give Grayjay a try. It's a cross platform video app that lets you connect to people's YouTube accounts but also Nebula and other video platforms. Don't download it from the Play Store though, sideload the apk file directly from the website. I've only used it for YouTube so far but it lets you do the things you would have needed Vanced for before and I love it
Cue*
Maybe they really just want to line them up in a large queue 🤷♂️
I was kinda worried with the LTT drama unfolding since DankPods does use Floatplane as a source of income. While Floatplane and LMG are technically separate, because it spun off of LTT people might not see it as such.
And yeah, I notice I watch YouTube a lot less now, ever since they stopped allowing people whose history was turned off to get recommendations on the front page. Maybe that's for the better. I still have a watch later backlog I should export to a text file or something.
Nebula is fantastic but I'm not sure their current price is sustainable. Although I'd easily pay 3-4x as much for the quality content there.
My only hangup is that their privacy policy is your typical "we exploit your data for profit" type thing every other modern company has that I'm not contributing to.
Ironically the linked site doesn’t show content if you’re using an ad blocker.
Recently I’ve had sites block content just for rejecting cookies.
Very rarely do I ever see a site that allows you to "reject all" cookies. Almost always they require you to consent to "strictly necessary" (but also completely unnecessary) cookies. It's so fucked up.
They're completely lost at this point I think. The 'skip ad' button is brilliant from a marketing perspective, if you ask me. One can get pretty used to tuning out ads but having that skip button keeps you actively interacting. So even if you didn't see the whole ad, if the advertiser is smart you heard their name before you skipped. Plus the user gets to feel like the ad isn't shoved down their throat, they have control.
If I were running things I'd quit this dumb battle with the users they've declared and make ads extremely easy to skip - I feel like you'd have a lot fewer refugess from the site and a lot more people less motivated to install an ad blocker in the first place.
I have the god damn chromecast with the remote thing and it's totally bullshit, and handy! But mostly bullshit. I'm a mute nazi and mute every ad immediately to the point my wife makes fun of me. Although she does admit that it makes it more peaceful to watch. I'm wait to see how they enshittify it. I give it 3 months and then they pause ads if it's muted.
Get tourself smart tube. It's a million times better than the youtube tv app. I got a chromecast tv specifically so I could side load smart tube cause i was sick of the youtube app on my tv
Do yourself a favour and sideload Smarttubenext onto the chromecast. No more YouTube ads.
good thing i use revanced 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍📌
edit: not the pin
My revanced has been out of date and non functional for a while, do you happen to recall how to update it? For some reason I'm struggling to remember the install process.
Huh. My solution (for years now) has been to kill the YouTube ap entirely and watch videos on Firefox with uBlock Origin.
I may have to see if Revanced is a better experience.
easy fix: don't use the app on your phone.
instead use youtube via your browser with adblock (for instance safari + adblock pro) and create a shortcut on your homescreen. you can use youtube just like in the app, you won't have any ads and you also can play videos with your screen turned off
I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future they make it so the only way to watch Youtube on mobile is through their app. It seems like they're getting desperate, and that seems like the logical conclusion.
I really hope not. Otherwise that would be the end for me. Same as reddit I simply would delete my account and uninstall everything related to it :)
If that's annoying have the people writing this article looked at their own website, ads on ads (and ads placeholders with adblock) with cookie and email subscription popups and SEO bullshit.
They've also gone hard on those 10 minute ads that go on and on unless you press skip, which I often can't cause I'm doing dishes or have my hands busy while watching videos.
Also recently I've been getting the prompt to skip an ad, and when I press the skip button, it gives me two more unskipable ads
That's the most frustrating part. I don't mind watching limited ads. I get you gotta pay for your shit somehow. But don't give me 30 minute ads, and don't haphazardly place the ads in the video so there's no transition from an important part of the video to your ad.
I typically use an adblocker but for some uses (smart TV) I'm too lazy to set up a workaround. It doesn't bother me that much.
Jsyk smart tube is incredibly easy to hook up on an android or firetv and provides adfree viewing and sponsor-block
At some point this has to be counterproductive to their profits. When YouTube had way fewer and shorter ads than now, I spent a lot more of my time there than I do now. They literally drove my eyeballs away by showing too many ads.
I wonder if they know the dollar figure in sales that ads, for all their expense, have gained out of me. I’d say it’s near zero. You may say I am subconsciously influenced and even if I don’t click the ad, I may buy the product at some other date due to recognition. Maybe. But that individual ad impression that someone paid for that I did not click (or blocked) does not know that. And it’s quite likely they don’t care, because ever missed click is still getting the word out so to speak.
But what they should care about is the absolute dislike I have towards aggressive advertising. And I am not alone. When I face an unskippable or full page or pop up ad, I don’t subconsciously want that product then or later. I consciously hate the product just a little more and more with each impression.
And now that it’s an arms race, the lines are being drawn, the hatred being cultivated, and the whole effort has lost its entire point: To make me friendly toward the product and to buy it. And I feel like sites like YouTube essentially don’t give a shit. They have the advertisers convinced through some great effort that ads are effective and worth it. All while doing everything that they can to keep us corralled and our eyes pried open to view them.
If you want people to disable content blockers on your website, it's best not to treat the people who don't have one on like shit YouTube.
Oh, the irony.
knocking on wood so far with firefox and ublock/noscript and disabled hardware acceleration, i will get audio but no video when these ads autoplay-- instead of pressing the skip button, i just hit f5 and poof, gone. still more work than i prefer but i hate advertising as much as anything
I tried using sunshine/moonlight to stream hockey from my PC to my tv and the stream was black (until I disabled hardware acceleration). Legit blew my fucking mind. I was 30% impressed and 70% angry. Once again paying customers are the ones with the shitty UX.
I'm sure the average person doesn't give a fuck but I am slowly but surely being driven away from any and all paid content. I can't watch 40 dudes skate around in circles without being fucking bombarded with gambling ads from every fucking possible avenue. Because millions isn't enough they need more millions.
I'm getting so fucking jaded.
ADs? What ADs?
On mobile? Use Firefox.
On pc? Free tube.
more like
On mobile? Use Firefox.
On pc? Use Firefox.
I would pay for YouTube Premium, like I had been when I was a student ($7.99/month), but I'm not a student anymore and they want $19 a month. Fuck no.
$19? I don't see that option
more like fuckyoutube amirite yes i am
Download an add blocker, it's not just a better experience but can protect you from some malware exploits.
What this—a tiny, ad-skip button for antz?
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