Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android • Hacker News Board

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#181

Post by toastercat » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:48 PM UTC

wbobeirne wrote: post #18

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

Everytime* we have a thread about third-party YouTube clients, there are comments like yours by folks who fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of these third-party tools. The same happened year(s) ago with a thread about NewPipe.

The purpose of these apps (including Vanced) is not solely to get past ad-block; Vanced (and NewPipe, and Piped, and Invidious) do far more than just give an ad-free viewing experience -- they provide a breadth of quality of life features on top of usually being more privacy-friendly.

The frustrating thing about this is that we can avoid these questions if commenters would just click the link and read.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#182

Post by leetcrew » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:48 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #126

leetcrew wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. I personally find categorical imperative arguments to be ridiculous. almost anything could be bad if everyone did them all the time. the reality is that adblocking, torrenting, and similar workarounds are used by a small subset of technically savvy users. most people just don't care enough to configure any…

> I don't feel any obligation to allow Google to use my own device and internet connection to serve me ad content that I don't wish to see. That's disingenuous because you're omitting the other half of the transaction: You are choosing, voluntarily, to consume the content that they are offering on their website. The implied arrangement is that you watch the ads (at least the first five seconds until the skip button a…

I don't know what to tell you other than I simply don't agree. at a high level, the YouTube website is a wrapper for endpoints that serve ads and endpoints that serve content. nowhere in the flow of clicking a video from the homepage and watching it does there appear any language saying that I need to hit both sets of endpoints to use the service at all. they merely make it inconvenient not to do so.

this is essentially a rehash of the "what constitutes unauthorized access to unsecured resources?" debate. my personal opinion is that access cannot be unauthorized when the authN/authZ mechanism does not exist at all. others may disagree.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#183

Post by willcipriano » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:49 PM UTC

wbobeirne wrote: post #18

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

A significant percentage of what I watch on YouTube was uploaded by people who don't have rights to that content. For me, turnabout is fair play. YouTube can profit off of pirated content, and I can pirate YouTube.

I use newpipe though.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#184

Post by smukherjee19 » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:49 PM UTC

wbobeirne wrote: post #18

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

Here's another angle: a LOT of common people out there don't even bother blocking ads, let alone even thinking about the possibility that it's possible to block ads without using Youtube Premium. They either:

a) Live with ads, thinking that's the norm or not giving it much thought, or, b) Subscribe to Youtube Premium without considering the possibility of ways around it.

So, realistically speaking, the probability of everyone starting to use Vance overnight is almost zero.

I also used to feel the same: why can't people just use adblockers!? Then I realized that me and the type of people I normally interact with != the general public, atleast in terms of tech-savviness and/or curiousity.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#185

Post by bduerst » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:50 PM UTC

bmicraft wrote: post #110

Pooge wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now everyone is anti-ad I became anti-ad. I absolutely cannot browse the web normally without having uBlock Origin installed. Websites that place intrusive ads are responsible for this. > they still feel entitled to consume content for free Yes, and I agree with you. But even if YouTube became a paid service, Google would still find a way to track you and continue its shady privacy practices. There's some entitleme…

The real problem with ads is that you have to pay vastly more to remove them through a subscription (where it is even possible) than the revenue they would have brought.

That's because the demand for subscription content is magnitudes less than ad-subsidized free content.

Even if you made a hybrid model, the content isn't that interchangeable. The type of customer who pays for a subscription is going to consume vastly different content than the freemium customer.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#186

Post by no_time » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:50 PM UTC

fma wrote: post #125

no_time wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm doing everything in my power to not give any money to GOOG/MS/AAPL. I would not shed a tear for YT in it's current state if it were to shut down because of revenue problems.

A more effective way would be to just boycott YouTube. Rather than block ads, block their domain on all your devices. Increasing a video view count entices the video producer to create more. More content = more views from users who see ads.

I could go full Stallman on every aspect of my life. I do admire his strict adherence to his own moral code. But at some point you have to realize if you are a gifted person like Stallman, with a large capacity to bring change to this world through uncompromising attitude OR you are just average joe with no real chance of making any meaningful change.

To be frank with you I sleep really well knowing I'm not directly contributing money towards tech giants getting even more powerful while at the same time not completely alienating myself from popular culture.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#187

Post by polski-g » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:51 PM UTC

wbobeirne wrote: post #18

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

I dislike Google's censorship. So I don't want them to make more money to engage in more censorship.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#188

Post by wbobeirne » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:52 PM UTC

operator-name wrote: post #95

wbobeirne wrote: post #18

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

Vanced isn't equivalent to paying for premium. It includes features like ReturnYoutubeDislikes and SponsorBlock which would normally be available via extensions (as would the premium's lack of ads via adblock), as well as further customisability. It replaces some enhancements that are normally done via browser extentions and I personally find it extremely handy to be able to copy with a timestamp, set a video on infi…

That's a very good point, and I agree that Vanced brings a lot to the table over just ad removal. I may even consider using it even though I pay for Premium already. But I imagine that that's a demographic that a very small percentage of Vanced users fall into.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#189

Post by AnyTimeTraveler » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:52 PM UTC

leetcrew wrote: post #81

wbobeirne wrote: post #18

Asking this question in good faith and in the interest of a productive discussion: Can someone give me their reasoning for why to use this over just paying for YouTube premium? They're providing a service that you value and spend enough time on to warrant looking for a way to not have to view ads, and if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. It fee…

> if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. I personally find categorical imperative arguments to be ridiculous. almost anything could be bad if everyone did them all the time. the reality is that adblocking, torrenting, and similar workarounds are used by a small subset of technically savvy users. most people just don't care enough to configure any…

YouTube Vanced also has experimental support for the SponsorBlock, which skips those sections of videos.

You have to enable it manually and it works amazingly well.

Re: Vanced: YouTube adblocker for Android

#190

Post by ineptech » Wed, Feb 23, 2022, 8:52 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #126

leetcrew wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if everyone were to start using Vanced overnight, YouTube wouldn't be able to justify staying up indefinitely. I personally find categorical imperative arguments to be ridiculous. almost anything could be bad if everyone did them all the time. the reality is that adblocking, torrenting, and similar workarounds are used by a small subset of technically savvy users. most people just don't care enough to configure any…

> I don't feel any obligation to allow Google to use my own device and internet connection to serve me ad content that I don't wish to see. That's disingenuous because you're omitting the other half of the transaction: You are choosing, voluntarily, to consume the content that they are offering on their website. The implied arrangement is that you watch the ads (at least the first five seconds until the skip button a…

This might be the right model if web media were an ideal marketplace, with a variety of competing options to choose from.

That's clearly not the case. A better model is that Google has tried to limit your options to "either do business with us or don't watch popular media", with only partial success because a lot of people don't like either option. I think the truth of this model is betrayed by the fact that Google has not (yet) embedded the ad in to the same video stream as the content. They have not really tried to out-block ublock because they'd rather you steal youtube videos than support a different platform.