Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

bleepingcomputer.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 1001 posts

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#231

Post by porkbeer »

diego_sandoval wrote: post #186
everdrive wrote: post #89

I'm pretty torn here. I don't believe I deserve access to free content, and there's _nothing_ wrong with any site blocking access if you don't want to see ads. I've done a lot of digital curtailing in my life, but Youtube has been hard to avoid. It's both good and bad, as they have some of the most amazing content in the whole world, but also some of the most addictive trash that I can't stop watching. Because the se…

Have you tried deleting your watch history so that the "bad" content srops being suggested to you?

I have and it did not seem to help at all.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#232

Post by crop_rotation »

kawogi wrote: post #229
crop_rotation wrote: post #126

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

I'd be ok woth paying for their service, as we use youtube a lot. But youtube forces you to create a google account and stay logged in. This way they can easily track almost everything you do on the web, and I'm definitely not ok with paying for being tracked. If this was a youtube-only account (as it was in the past) then I'll immediately start paying for their service.

This is a fair point. I too would appreciate some way to have an isolated YouTube account.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#233

Post by vbezhenar »

crop_rotation wrote: post #126

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

Peer to peer and microtransactions might work. So some people with computers can keep one tab open and earn some crypto cents.

I'm not sure if it's possible to build P2P network with zero trust that could work like that.

One issue could be that participating person might technically be involved with distribution of forbidden content like child porn or disney cartoon. So even if they didn't know that and everything was encrypted, they might still be accountable for it, especially because they made money doing it.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#235

Post by MBCook »

mertd wrote: post #148
crop_rotation wrote: post #126

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

I have YT premium and it is easily the best money I spend most months. I'll just play devil's advocate. Maybe people are imagining a pay per view type of experience?

I agree. I love YT Premium and I think it’s worth it for the amount I watch YT.

But almost everyone I ask thinks it’s a “scam”. The more technical the user, the more likely they are say something like “why should I have to pay when I have an add blocker”.

Like so many thing, there is almost a sense of entitlement to free content with clickable ads, which doesn’t bode well for the future.

The others either are willing to put up with the ads or think the price is much too high for the value of not seeing ads even if they watch tons of content.

I pay because I want to support the channels I watch and at this point the YT ads are just infuriating to me.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#237

Post by LikelyClueless »

sundvor wrote: post #181
mertd wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have YT premium and it is easily the best money I spend most months. I'll just play devil's advocate. Maybe people are imagining a pay per view type of experience?

Yep, of all my subscriptions, YTP will be the last to go. The experience truly is a premium one, only marred by the inability to disable YouTube shorts. (I recently made near exactly the same comment in a recent, related story thread - but it's worth repeating).

On Android, I disabled the YouTube app and use Firefox for YouTube, entirely because of the shorts. It lets you remove the shorts for 30 days in the browser. I did have to switch text messaging apps because the default option wouldn't work without YouTube enabled whenever someone sent a YouTube link.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#238

Post by dmbche »

crop_rotation wrote: post #230
dmbche wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it Youtube's problem to make their business profitable? It's not a binary - they could offer a different deal with Premium, market it differently. Customers aren't rational - just like humans. They are a massive multinational - if anyone can figure it out, it's them. Maybe the ad model doesn't work, and people are not clear on what they are actually paying for, since it's effortless to get the same service for…

It is YouTube's problem to make their business profitable. And hence they will make efforts like what the article says. If things don't work they might require login and enforce ads somehow (YouTube will survive that I think, even if there is some viewership drop). There is no magic wand here that they can figure out (look at competing video services like Vimeo for an example). In the long run in 20 years if YouTube…

I guess I'm fine with that! Or maybe some billionaire will make it it's gift to humanity. Crazy that we have public libraries but no public youtube/wiki government supported

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#239

Post by hkt »

falcolas wrote: post #204
TeMPOraL wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay There's also a factor of quality and trust. I don't trust YouTube Premium enough to even try it. This is mostly colored by their constant, invasive disruption of my YouTube experience (particularly apparent on mobile) with YT Premium a…

When I heard how much more a YouTube Red view was worth to a creator than an ad impression, I was convinced that it's a reasonable compromise. I don't necessarily trust Google, but creators are vetting that Google is holding up their end of the bargain. So why shouldn't I?

In terms of Google holding up their end of the bargain, the reason you shouldn't trust them is simple: it is the CEO and board's fiduciary duty to the shareholders to make the most of Google's immense market power. The legal requirements governing their behaviour are such that they have to ensure that of all the participants in a transaction, they win biggest and most often.

See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiduciary

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#240

Post by RadiozRadioz »

Nextgrid wrote: post #82

Invidious is a third-party frontend (you can self-host) that solves this problem: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious As a bonus, it is super fast because it doesn't have to justify the salaries of dozens (hundreds?) of frontend developers and can get away with server-side-rendered HTML and minimal amounts of Javascript.

Your bonus is my primary reason for using the service. Invidious, old.reddit.com, Gmail HTML Mode, are perfect examples of the great user experiences we've lost in the pursuit for New Shiny. Directly comparable with their "modern" counterparts. It would be nice if websites started to offer a cut-down version as an option, especially for users in 3rd world countries.
Post reply on HN