I guess it's time to finally deal with my youtube addiction.
YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
621–630 of 1001 posts
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#622It is not just about youtube. The whole internet is bloated with ads right now, and the vast majority of them quite the opposite of discrete. I just cannot browse the internet without adblocker, it is too slow, but more importantly too distracting. I could count the times that I have found an internet ad interesting in my lifetime using half the fingers of one hand. Personalised or not, the vast majority is useless,…
> I believe it is my right to adjust my browsing experience by affecting how websites are rendered in my browser to a degree I find reasonable, as well as from my side what data tracking I allow, which is already a huge compromise for me (I would rather not allow js by default in most websites).
Agree completely. I know people who are fine with watching ads to support the content creators and I agree. The creators should be compensated but Google are far too agressive with their ads.
Being able to manipulate my own machine and what I want to view is entirely up to me. This can't be infringed.
There is always the option today to block from the client side, but I can see this changing if there's enough money involved.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#623Earlier 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
>YouTube premium was probably the best decision I did. Amount of time saved on ads alone makes it worth it. Why do you get ads? I don't understand how there are people on Hacker News that don't use content blockers. Is is because of principle?
I don't use a blocker because the arms race leads to bad outcomes. I'm doing my part to postpone that as much as possible.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#624YouTube 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 switch between paying for streaming services on a regular basis, but YouTube Premium is the one that I stick with all the time. Lots of high quality content.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#625I use YouTube with an ad blocker and I am not a Premium subscriber anymore and won't pay out of principle after the dislike button removal, which has made using YouTube for tutorials and how-to videos useless for me. Instead, I support creators whose content I enjoy off-YouTube.
I am not worried about Google going forth with this. I see others asking what happens when users won't pay for a subscription and at the same time won't view ads? I believe the answer is pretty clear.
YouTube will either decide to suck up that they won't see ad revenue from a portion of the audience (ad blockers are and will always be a niche thing, there is no reality in which YouTube buckles because too many people block ads, especially since YouTube is predominantly viewed on devices where ad blocking is not as easy as in the desktop browser) or they will close up shop.
The fact is that YouTube currently occupies a spot in the online sphere which will always be occupied by someone: being the top service for hosting videos for free and showing them to audiences for free. There is a line of businesses which would jump on the opportunity of filling YouTube's "woeful" position of being the top dog in online video.
YouTube's collapse would be devastating considering the amount of culture and history stored on there. But new video content will always find a home and reach online. And Google knows this which is why they will IMO never give up on YouTube even if it were operating with loss again. Storage is only getting cheaper and their moat with YouTube is the user-generated content. Gate it too heavily and creators will find a place where they can post content more freely and users will fine a place where they can view content more freely.
I don't expect this to be anything other than YouTube pulling a Netflix with their password sharing crackdown complete with the back-paddling that ensued once they realized how replaceable they really are to a sizeable portion of their viewers loosing which would be more expensive than keeping it.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#626Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it perfectly showcases that people do not want to pay 1000% more money for the privilege of paying a monthly subscription. Youtube Premium costs $12/month [1]. Ads average something like $2 per 1000 views to the creators (in some of the most common categories) [2]. Youtube takes a ~45% cut, so Youtube makes ~$4 per 1000 views from ads. So, to reach $12/month, you would need to average 3000 views per month. At a a…
You also get YouTube Music, which is not as great as Spotify, but nonetheless worth something. In fact, that’s the primary reason everyone I know who has YouTube Premium subscribes: music steaming + ad-free YouTube. That needs to be factored into your calculation, no?
> That needs to be factored into your calculation, no?
Only if I get to pay for a lifetime of access with a hand-drawn picture of a seven-legged spider.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#627I would happily pay for youtube premium if:
- They removed the useless "shorts"
- They removed the "mix" things that keep coming back like a bad smell
- They let me remove youtube music
- Their suggestions were less terrible. Like seriously they run the biggest data centers in the world, have some of the best ML researchers and know what I actually watch. How do they manage to be so consistently bad at this?
- Their search was less terrible. They figured out search of the whole internet 20 years ago, how is search in YT worse than searching YT from duckduckgo?
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#628Earlier quoted context omitted.
Video hosting is extremely expensive. Look at the pricing of anyone who provides such base services ( https://www.cloudflare.com/en-in/products/cloudflare-stream/ ) or alternate providers like Vimeo ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28547578 ).
Live streaming is very different than recorded video - but yes its relatively expensive. But that is very different from early youtube days where there basically wasn't off the shelf solution. That is a huge difference.
Cloudflare Stream is both recorded and live streaming. Live streaming was actually added somewhat recently.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#629The thing with adverts on mobile, where the ad block hasn't worked for ages now, is I can always block them by putting the phone down for 20 seconds (or whatever length the advert is).
Having to do this for an un-skippable 20 second ad for one minute video, however, makes me press the back button.
That said, the new plays-even-if-you-can't-see-them ad-block-proof ads on desktop are annoying to the point I'm considering just giving up on the website, possibly going to the other places like Nebula and old-fashioned podcasts instead.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#630Earlier 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…
If Youtube Premium actually blocked all the ads (including sponsored content), then I would pay for it. But it doesn't, so I have to use Sponsor Block anyway. Why pay for something that won't get the job done?