YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#481

Post by WheatMillington » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:14 AM UTC

alwayslikethis wrote: post #397

cryptoegorophy wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YouTube premium was probably the best decision I did. Amount of time saved on ads alone makes it worth it. Other bonus feature - downloading videos. If you make enough money it is a no brainer together with things like extra cloud storage from google, Apple and now ChatGPT

You can save even more time by using SponsorBlock. I believe premium only gives you fake downloading -- you can't take it out of their app (correct me if I'm wrong). In contrast yt-dlp gives you direct access to the files.

I'm a heavy YouTube user (by my own standards... 2-3 hours a day) and a happy premium subscriber, and I totally agree that sponsorblock is a must-have.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#482

Post by Prickle » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:14 AM UTC

acdha wrote: post #194

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…

> I have no problem paying for services, even for premium tiers when free tier is available. > I don't trust YouTube Premium enough to even try it. These two statements seem to be mutually incompatible unless you're trying to argue that a premium tier doesn't really exist unless you can write the terms of service and audit the company providing it. It's also somewhat hard to follow the logic here: if you don't trust…

Even if I paid for YT premium, the money wouldn't go to the YT creator people I support.

It's really that simple. I can no longer trust PayPal, and Patreon doesn't accept my local credit card so that goes down the drain too.

They already harvest my data. I refuse to pay them money to exploit me further.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#483

Post by rolenthedeep » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:15 AM UTC

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 don't want to pay YouTube

I'm happy subscribing to creators' patreons or Kofi or whatever because almost all of my money goes to them.

Whereas on YouTube, most of my money or ad-generated money goes to Google. YouTube pays creators very little and treats them very poorly. There's a new adpocalypse every few months where YouTube will randomly change the rules, retroactively demonetize and delist videos, while offering no chance to appeal or even have videos reviewed by a person.

Without even considering Google's generally evil and monopolistic behavior, why would I ever willingly give them money?

YouTube's shitty treatment of creators is why every video now has a sponsored segment in the middle. They aren't paying enough and creators need additional income sources. YouTube can decide at any moment without notice to nuke your entire business and give you no option to recover. They keep shittifying the website with shorts and aggressive ads and dark patterns to drive up ad exposure, but this doesn't translate to higher pay for creators. In no circumstance is giving google more money going to fix any of the problems.

All a YouTube plus subscription gets you is YouTube will turn off the ads and dark patterns designed to force you to pay for the subscription. As well, I have exactly zero faith that YouTube won't also start showing subscribed users ads in a year or two.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#484

Post by a123b456c » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:15 AM UTC

WheatMillington wrote: post #479

kerkeslager wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've said it before and I've said it again: ad-based content and pay content are incompatible business models. YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. The content is not worth paying for because it's been designed from the ground up to sell ads . When a website designed to sell ads fails to sell content, that's not evidence that selling content doesn't work, it's evidence that selling conten…

>YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. I beg to differ. As a hobbyist type, and also someone interested in semi trashy niche content (true crime), having access to a virtually unlimited catalogue of fresh content, a lot of it exceptionally good quality, makes it absolutely worth the money. If I could have any one subscription, it would be YouTube 10 times out of 10. And as someone who abho…

You sound like you don't subscribe to youtube premium.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#485

Post by jacooper » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:16 AM UTC

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #136

Writing's on the wall. As soon as they make ads mandatory, a competitor with no ads and better support will look a lot more attractive, and they could eventually face an exodus.

How's this competitor going to exist without ads? How is it going to pay the bills? Massive bills mind you?

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#486

Post by godzillabrennus » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:19 AM UTC

WheatMillington wrote: post #479

kerkeslager wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've said it before and I've said it again: ad-based content and pay content are incompatible business models. YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. The content is not worth paying for because it's been designed from the ground up to sell ads . When a website designed to sell ads fails to sell content, that's not evidence that selling content doesn't work, it's evidence that selling conten…

>YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. I beg to differ. As a hobbyist type, and also someone interested in semi trashy niche content (true crime), having access to a virtually unlimited catalogue of fresh content, a lot of it exceptionally good quality, makes it absolutely worth the money. If I could have any one subscription, it would be YouTube 10 times out of 10. And as someone who abho…

This mirrors my sentiments.

I love YouTube and pay for it.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#487

Post by jacooper » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:23 AM UTC

adtech772 wrote: post #218

userbinator wrote: post #155

What's next, "YouTube tests pausing videos when you look away from ads"? This is a slippery slope that I definitely do not want to be going down. At that rate, "drink verification can" is not far off. When I used to watch the actual TV I changed the channel, muted, or left the room during ads. My eyes, my ears, my brain. I will not be forced to consume.

I work in adtech, we're getting into eye tracking for verifying ad viewership on smart TVs. So.. yeah.

How does it feel to work on tech to spy on people?

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#488

Post by dialogbox » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:23 AM UTC

rolenthedeep wrote: post #483

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 don't want to pay YouTube I'm happy subscribing to creators' patreons or Kofi or whatever because almost all of my money goes to them. Whereas on YouTube, most of my money or ad-generated money goes to Google. YouTube pays creators very little and treats them very poorly. There's a new adpocalypse every few months where YouTube will randomly change the rules, retroactively demonetize and delist videos, while offeri…

You and your creators use yt as a service. Their servers and network. Payment and others. That services don't come for free. If you don't give them any money, why Google need to provide the services?

If you don't like that, you can build your own server and steam from that.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#489

Post by rolenthedeep » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:25 AM UTC

guitarbill wrote: post #480

Fogest wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem for me is that sponsor spots in videos are so common now that I feel forced to run SponsorBlock. If I'm already having to run one extension just to enjoy the experience, then I may as well also use Adblock and not even bother with Premium. But since premium doesn't give that full ad-free experience (referring to sponsors), I just don't see as much benefit. The amount of my life I save by using adb…

I hate ads, but I'm largely ok with sponsor reads. They are by far the least evil and least annoying. They are not targeted (everybody watching the video sees the same ad... for now). They don't invade my privacy. They are usually fairly short. They're usually somewhat relevant to the creator, and therefore my interests. Of course, it depends on the creator. Some have more integrity, others less. If between Youtube P…

Yeah, I'm pretty okay with sponsored segments. By and large, the people I watch only accept sponsors that appear to be legitimate, and the read is generally "here's this service and what it does, give it a try and thank them for feeding me this week!" Or "I've been using this service since they started and I think it's pretty cool"

They're generally not low quality scammy products or designed to extract money or spy (with the exception of VPN ads, but that's a different issue).

I'm alright with them. I tend to skip them more these days because I can only hear about Brilliant and Squarespace so many times in a day

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#490

Post by j-bos » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:26 AM UTC

kerkeslager wrote: post #435

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've said it before and I've said it again: ad-based content and pay content are incompatible business models. YouTube Premium fails because the content isn't worth paying for. The content is not worth paying for because it's been designed from the ground up to sell ads . When a website designed to sell ads fails to sell content, that's not evidence that selling content doesn't work, it's evidence that selling conten…

I'll drop a contrarian take. I love youtube premium. The content I "comsume" (yech!) is well worth the 12ish dollars. I could skip ads with a blocker, I could join every creator's patreon, I could watch/listen in firefox on my phone, I could yt-dl the videos for offline play.. But none of that is as convenient*cheap as a premium subscription.