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Youtube let the other shoe drop in their end-stage enshittification this week. Last month, they required you to turn on Youtube History to view the feed of youtube videos recommendations. That seems reasonable, so I did it. But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don't get much from my choices. It still did a pretty good job of showing me stuff I was interested in watching.

Then on Oct 1, they threw up a "You're using an Ad Blocker" overlay on videos. I'd use my trusty Overlay Remover plugin to remove the annoying javascript graphic and watch what I wanted. I didn't have to click the X to dismiss the obnoxious page.

Last week, they started placing a timer with the X so you had to wait 5 seconds for the X to appear so you could dismiss blocking graphic.

Today, there was a new graphic. It allowed you to view three videos before you had to turn off your Ad Blocker. I viewed a video 3 times just to see what happens.

Now all I see is this.

Google has out and out made it a violation of their ToS to have an ad blocker to view Youtube. Or you can pay them $$$.

I ban such sites from my systems by replacing their DNS name in my hosts file routed to 127.0.0.1 which means I can't view the site. I have quite a few banned sites now.

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[-] db2@sopuli.xyz 240 points 1 year ago

But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don't get much from my choices.

Implying that deleting them from your view actually deleted them.

[-] AFreeLarryHoover@lemmy.world 128 points 1 year ago

My man thought he was permanently erasing it from history.

[-] almar_quigley@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Next you’ll tell me cognito mode isn’t keeping my browsing completely private! /s

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[-] TwoGems@lemmy.world 222 points 1 year ago

All the morons defending a mindless corporation in this thread forgot that Google has far overstepped it's boundaries in general. It got to where it is from harvesting free data from users. And now is initiating a web DRM that will far overstep any boundary seen. If a website decides to adopt it, everyone is screwed.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/googles-web-integrity-api-sounds-like-drm-for-the-web/

[-] stardust@lemmy.ca 78 points 1 year ago

It really is quite something seeing people so concerned on behalf Google's revenue streams, and dedicating such passionate advocacy for them.

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[-] BReel@lemmy.one 132 points 1 year ago

“You can go ad free with YouTube premium!”

Buys premium

youtube shows ad for paramount plus under my video

Cancels YouTube premium.

So anywho there’s a thing called freetube. Just saying. Idk that it’s a perfect alternative, but it’s at least one step further from googles prying eyes and grubby hands.

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[-] Jordan117@lemmy.world 130 points 1 year ago

Tbh, I block ads when I can but have a hard time getting angry about this. YouTube is both incredibly useful and incredibly expensive to operate -- seriously, what other service lets you upload hours of HD video which anyone in the world can access instantly, indefinitely, for free, and at the same scale YT does? It's a peerless engineering marvel and it would be a tragedy if it were to shut down. If seeing some short skippable ads is what it takes to keep that resource viable, that's honestly pretty fair.

[-] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 76 points 1 year ago

I just pay for YouTube Premium. It gets me YouTube Music, so for slightly more than the cost of Spotify I get music streaming and ad-free YouTube, and the channels I watch on YouTube get more value out of my streaming than if I watched with ads. And far more than if I watched with an adblocker.

Google Play Music was so much better than YouTube Music, unfortunately, but YouTube Music is still usable.

I understand that everyone hates ads. I hate ads, too. But video streaming and content creation aren’t free. I want to support the platform and support the creators whose content I enjoy, and I don’t want ads. So YouTube Premium seems like the easy option.

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[-] squeakycat@lemmy.ml 55 points 1 year ago

The tragedy is that the centralized, profit-driven, socially-damaging platform keeps so much value under ransom because the parent company can operate it for so long at a loss.

I get that the platform is a marvel, it's just disappointing that its purpose is tailored to keep eyes watching more ads rather than contribute to society as a whole.

[-] 418teapot@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I would have more sympathy for Youtube if 1. it wasn't the de-facto standard where essentially all video media gets uploaded to (which Youtube itself has done everything in its power to make happen) and 2. the company that owned it didn't also own the most popular phone OS, most popular search engine, most popular email provider, most popular ad network, most popular maps, most popular online office suite, most popular airline booking, 2nd most popular cloud hosting... The list goes on

Until a federated solution like peertube gains more traction I have no problem paying content creators directly via patreon, and do everything in my power to not pay Google a dime. Trust me, they can afford it just fine.

[-] Traister101@lemmy.today 37 points 1 year ago

I only looked into blocking ads sometime around like 2014-2016? I was perfectly fine with them for a very long time, they got more and more invasive and poor quality to the point I looked into blocking them. Haven't gone without an ad blocker ever since. No way in hell am I dealing with the current state of YouTube ads which are drastically worse than what pushed me to start blocking them to begin with.

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[-] SmoothIsFast@citizensgaming.com 121 points 1 year ago

So, stop using Chrome ffs, ublock and Firefox have zero issues

[-] SupraMario@lemmy.world 35 points 1 year ago

Swapped over about 3 months ago, it's good to be back in the FF ecosystem. Swapped to chrome long ago after FF became super fat on the resources, now it's the other way around.

FF + pihole is awesome.

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[-] CrypticFawn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 89 points 1 year ago

If you're on PC use Firefox with uBlock Origin.

For Android, Im personally using Libretube but using mobile Firefox with uBlock Origin also works.

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[-] jenniebuckley@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago

YouTube: starts putting 2, sometimes even 3 ads that are often unskippable before and in the middle of 10 minute videos

Also YouTube: Why are people using adblockers?

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[-] CapitanStrider@lemmy.dbzer0.com 86 points 1 year ago

Ublock Origin literally works fine for youtube. If you ever receive a warning like this just clear your cache and refresh your filters.

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[-] hunt4peas@lemmy.ml 81 points 1 year ago

PC: Install Firefox. Then install these extensions: Sponsorblock for YouTube, Enhancer for YouTube, uBlock Origins with all the filters turned on except the language filters (you can use them if you wish) and Return YouTube Dislike. Keep uBlock Filters updated by checking for filter updates once a day.

Android: There's Revanced. I use pre-built apks along with Vanced MicroG from RVX Lite in Telegram.

Android TV: Install SmartTubeNext.

Enjoy.

[-] Plopp@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

Another tip: For security reasons, always install the absolute minimum number of browser extensions you can get by with. And only from devs you trust.

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[-] Comfortably_Wet@lemmy.world 78 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just to let you know, if you use uBlock you can expect it to adapt to this new shenanigan pretty quickly. Also I think €120/year are ridiciously overpriced. Ask me about €30/year and I might consider it for a second.

To be honest, I wouldn't mind ads on Youtube if they were less per hour and less obnoxious. But no, every 12 second video now has an ad leading to it.

Not to mention, if I would pay for every single Video service the usual 8-15€ I would pay like €1000 per year and THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Give me "pretty much everything" for €100 per year and we can talk. My offer stands.

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[-] AlexisFR@jlai.lu 76 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You don't have a choice.

Also Ublock Origin on Firefox already bypass this.

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[-] dynamojoe@lemmy.world 74 points 1 year ago

When they take out uBlock Origin, they take me out as well.

[-] spudwart@spudwart.com 53 points 1 year ago

If only peertube had the same culture as Lemmy and Mastodon.

But it feels like, imo, Peertube has fallen to the same pitfalls as other YouTube alternatives. 99% of vids I see on Peertube instances are far-right conspiracy theory videos among other obviously abhorrent content that would otherwise be banned on youtube.

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[-] Rukmer@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago

Newpipe is still working great, I haven't used an official interface in like 3 years.

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[-] Polar@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 year ago

Lmfao, no one is dropping YouTube. You'll be back one way or another.

[-] tyrant@lemmy.world 89 points 1 year ago

Many are on lemmy because they dropped Reddit. Myself included. I was an active user on Reddit for well over a decade. This guy seems pretty serious

[-] ours@lemmy.film 75 points 1 year ago

But replacing Youtube is sadly much harder.

I bet we'll just get better ad blockers.

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[-] K3zi4@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

Firefox + ublock origin is the way forward.

However, as a teacher, my school IT system default browser is chrome, and adverts on YT videos when you're trying to teach a lesson can really suck all the momentum and attention from the class.

Chrome allows you to save javascript as a bookmark URL called bookmarklets. I'm not so clued up on java, but I found this code that zips through the adverts super quickly. Someone can probably improve on this;

javascript: var v = document.querySelector('video'); var t = 16; v.playbackRate = parseFloat(t)

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[-] WheatleyInc@lemmy.world 34 points 1 year ago

They're begging for a direct competitor.

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ublock, revanced, newpipe and more

[-] Metal_Zealot@lemmy.ml 32 points 1 year ago

Ohhhh how I wish my favorite youtubers would create their own Peertube instances...
They'd have complete control of their own content, and any donations could go directly to them.

I know it's kind of a pipe dream, but let me dream dammit.

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[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 31 points 1 year ago

Route to 0.0.0.0 instead, localhost gives a delay while zero just fails.

[-] locuester@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I enjoy watching YouTube with no ads so I bought premium. I actually bought the family one and share it with 4 others. Personally, I find it to be a great deal.

I also pay for extra storage (even tho I have a nas) because it’s convenient to have.

I’m a pirate at heart, have a 3k movie library on Plex and use nefarious to queue download, and I’m a long time crypto nut so I understand privacy and sticking it to the man.

But I also find great quality of life improvements by simply paying fair prices for good content 🤷‍♂️

It’s a fun hobby to try and dodge ads and steal and stick it to these companies. But really can be time consuming and gets old (it did at least for me when I got old).

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[-] WhipTheLlama@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago

I hate ads as much as anyone and have been blocking them for almost as long as ad blockers have existed. I still acknowledge the fact that ads are the primary revenue source for a lot of things on the Internet, and I selectively enable them for content I want to pay for.

How do you think Youtube is supposed to survive without ads or subscriptions? When they puts ads on their site, the unsaid agreement is that you exchange your ad views for their service.

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[-] Tangent5280@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

I haven't seen so many shills in one place since the Russian special military operation began.

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this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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