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FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

freetubeapp.io

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Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#231

Post by jsnell »

lrvick wrote: post #211
jsnell wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If the grocery store allowed me to pay via gold bullion, I would pay rather than shoplift." I'm sympathetic to "I would pay for this if I could" argumentation when it comes to digital goods. But at some point the conditions you're setting become so unreasonable that nobody can reasonably fulfill them, and it becomes clear you're only doing it to get free stuff and stiff the creators. You don't want to see ads? YT al…

You talk as though a refusal to compromise privacy is unreasonable. We all need privacy to protect ourselves and each other. What happens when your searches for a medical condition are sold to your insurance company? Or when your political searches are used to inform new gerrymandering lines? Or when an anti-choice state gives Google a warrant demanding the identity of everyone who has made searches for abortion info…

Sure, it'd be extremely reasonable for you to not compromise your privacy, and only view content from creators that allow you to pay with your favorite cryptocurrency. But I thought that wasn't your stance; instead you will view the content anyway, but just make sure the creators are not compensated.

That's not a very principled defense of privacy, is it? It's just taking stuff for free because you can.

(If your real concern really is with search / watch history, those can be disabled. But two posts ago your real concern was with ad targeting, until I mentioned that it can be disabled. This makes your objections appear like excuses rather than the actual root cause.)

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#232

Post by umeshgmrl »

ksidudwbw wrote: post #205
s3p wrote: post #84

I see this is based on Electron. Do you have any plans to release a progressive web app? That would be a nice addition to win/mac/linux apps

I would also like it run in-browser. Is this technically possible?

No. It must be installed locally.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#233

Post by godshatter »

I curate links to YouTube creators and keep them in a local html file. I visit YT only in private mode, usually through a vpn, use adblock, and never log in. I drop in on creators I haven't gone to in a wild to see what they are up to. I use recommendations only to find other creators, since the actual video recommendations are usually garbage.

What I really wish YT had was a creator recommendation system. A way to find creators with content similar to the creator of the video I'm currently watching would be much more helpful to me.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#235

Post by defensem3ch »

I tried using this on my PC but it instantly brought up a dialog when trying to use Youtube (even SmartTubeNext on my nVIDIA Shield) asking me to confirm I'm not a robot. It persisted for several hours until after I stopped using FreeTube. Any workarounds for this issue?

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#236

Post by judge2020 »

lrvick wrote: post #183
judge2020 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which includes them tracking my behavior and using it to sell changes in my behavior as a service to the highest bidder. You can use Ad Block while using YT Premium.

But you cannot opt out of Google having a list of every video you watch and when/where you watch from tied to your credit card details and browser. Google will use this data to sort feeds and recommendations in a way that helps meet the behavior modification goals of their partners. When creators upload to platforms that let me anonymously pay them with money, I will happily do so. LBRY has proven this can be done.

How do you think creators gain a following in a world without a recommendation system? I can assure you only maybe a dozen of the (english) creators in the top 1000 are actually popular from word-of-mouth, with the rest entirely dependent on the recommendation system for their entire channel.

I think you misunderstand what YouTube is. YouTube's primary product IS its recommendation system. Other platforms will happily host video files for you for a marginal cost, but nobody goes to them because they won't see videos that appeal to them specifically when they visit the site's homepage.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#237

Post by system2 »

femboy wrote: post #227
system2 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike reddit, the nicknames are not too vulgar. That must be the reason why. You can find many others not taken.

How do you define vulgar?

Let me put it this way: This is a technology forum where sex, race and other personal life indicators are unnecessary which create some sort of conflict.

This is what I think. It could be different maybe others could explain differently.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#238

Post by GekkePrutser »

tintedfireglass wrote: post #201
GekkePrutser wrote: post #191

Nice app! I use newpipe sometimes but I didn't have anything good for desktop. I wish there was a BSD version though..

we could compile our own binaries ;)

Yeah I already checked the ports but it's not available.. And I'm not good with that stuff. But perhaps it will be added.

I think electron stuff is difficult to port though - Not sure what the problem is but I heard this recently from a maintainer.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#239

Post by brandnewaccount »

bogwog wrote: post #73
MR4D wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might not be understanding the context of the argument. Google has tons of information on you - way more than it needs, and yet it still doesn’t get recommendations as good as we expect (as you rightly point out). So the issue is that it has tons of extra data than they need because it * doesn’t make their recommendation any better.* Gathering data for the sake of gathering data in todays world of informa…

> For instance, my IP changes when I travel, but I’m an American who speaks English, and yet YouTube insists in showing me local ads in different languages when I’m in foreign countries, despite having my home address (verified with my credit card no less!!!) That’s just laughable. I bet those advertisers that are wasting money on ads that you don't understand aren't laughing

They only pay per click, so it may not be wasted money if these "wasted ads" have a low enough click through rate.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#240

Post by SpelingBeeChamp »

btbuildem wrote: post #228
MR4D wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you might not be understanding the context of the argument. Google has tons of information on you - way more than it needs, and yet it still doesn’t get recommendations as good as we expect (as you rightly point out). So the issue is that it has tons of extra data than they need because it * doesn’t make their recommendation any better.* Gathering data for the sake of gathering data in todays world of informa…

I think the mistake here is that google is making recommendations for the users. Google is making recommendations for google, to drive the users' attention to what benefits it most.

Bingo. I am a full-time YouTuber. I hate this reality.

Most people don’t understand the degree to which advertiser preferences dictate what they see on YouTube.

Creators are incentivized to only publish content that meets YouTube’s “advertiser-friendly guidelines.” When we publish content that is not suitable for all advertisers, YouTube doesn’t promote it, which is a death sentence for the video. YouTube claims that a video’s monetization status has no impact on discovery, but according to YouTube, all of the factors that influence whether a video is monetized directly impact video discovery. It’s smoke and mirrors.

An overwhelming majority of views on YouTube come from recommendations and suggested videos, and YouTube has little incentive to suggest or recommend content that is ‘unsuitable’ for advertisers. Because it doesn’t make them money.

To put some numbers on that, ~95% of my views come from YouTube’s suggestions and recommendations. I have millions of subscribers, but subscriber count is all-but meaningless. For any given video, subscriber notifications typically account for a negligible number of views, usually less than 5,000.

Remember when YouTube introduced the bell you have to ‘ring’ in order to receive notifications from the channels you subscribe to? That is one of many actions YouTube has taken to remove your ability to choose what you see. YouTube does this because people don’t decide what to watch based on whether or not it’s advertiser-friendly. They would rather decide for you.

I publish news. And there are highly-newsworthy stories that I haven’t covered because of the above. I hate it.

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