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YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

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Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#41
post #6

Or just download with yt-dlp ( https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp ).

Why even download? You can use third party media players like MPC-BE or MPC-HC that leverage yt-dlp to stream the video into a media player without any ads of course. Yes, sometimes it makes sense to download if you want to keep the video, but to just watch just stream it via yt-dlp to a media player.

> Why even download?

A major part apart from building a queue by getting behind is the ability of the file manager to sort, to classify, to filter, to move into folders, to search, etc. Far better than the youtube web interface, which only has the options of displaying your subscriptions as a grid or as a list. So I now have a local queue of videos which I can use, in which weird expeditions into obscure genres are into their own folders, must-match-now videos are tagged, etc, and I can pick and choose according to my own tastes of the moment.

That is one of my pet peeves in UI design in the last decade and it is not only web applications – shoebox apps are often as limited. If you want to do anything to your data or just have different sort orders or views, you only have what the app developer allows and often that is nothing.

Thanks to the web and shoebox apps I appreciate file managers like Finder even more now. It’s amazing what UI controls like NSTableView/NSOutlineView gives the user in functionality. Modern collection views often look better and I appreciate that, but I do miss the functionality which, while possible, often simply is not implemented.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#42
post #3

If YouTube blocks me from watching videos because I use an ad blocker then I'll stop watching videos on YouTube. I don't care if this doesn't hurt YouTube... it will help me stop spending so much time on YouTube.

same, i think that will save me a lot of time.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this, I'm not watching ads. I haven't really seen any advertising on my electronic devices in a decade (edit: actually closer to two decades) and that's the way it will continue to be. My time is valuable, my mental space is valuable, my computer is mine. You will not make it do things I don't want it to do. Advertising is a plague on society. (I speak from experience, I worked for 3 years at an ad agency.)

…you can purchase ad free YouTube.

I'm not going to be extorted lol. If you're showing me something I have a right to ignore the parts I don't care about, and I have a right to have a computer do the ignoring for me so I don't waste my time/mental effort.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#44

the people who have a blockers enabled are also the lest likely to click an ad or buy anything advertised . advertisers should want these people to not be shown ads.

The people who have ad blockers installed are an extremely self-selective demographic who have taken a physical action. This type of demographic is extraordinarily valuable to sell advertising to.

Which is why allowing self serve adverts would benefit everyone. Uccasionally I want to see related items for sale, but there is no option if the video uploader hasnt already put monitized affiliate links. Seems like its leaving money, and viewer satisfaction, on the table.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#46
post #34
post #4

On a related note as someone who uses YouTube constantly YouTube Premium is absolutely worth it.

What makes it worth it? Isn't the experience the same as just running an ad-blocker?

In theory, but you actually help the creators you enjoy watching.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#48
post #20
post #3

If YouTube blocks me from watching videos because I use an ad blocker then I'll stop watching videos on YouTube. I don't care if this doesn't hurt YouTube... it will help me stop spending so much time on YouTube.

> it will help me stop spending so much time Oh gosh, really? Don't you think you'll come back after a few weeks? I think the bigger impact is that it'll impede new user adoption. I use an adblocker (but pay for YouTube,) and I never use sites that block me for using an adblocker.

You state you never use sites that block adblockers, right after disagreeing (questioning? Exclaiming??) with the parent for for expressing the exact same point?

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#50
I only block the in video ads because they are so intrusive. I don't mind any of the other ads on the platform and am not against advertising in general. They have also gotten money from me via their 30% cut of super chat fees so I probably do earn Youtube more money than the average user.
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