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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

#731

Post by yardie »

MandieD wrote: post #690
rixrax wrote: post #678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Ads crank up the volume to 11. We were watching Eurovision singing contest the other day from YT and my gawd was that annoying. Adds in the middle of every song, volume being cranked up for the adds, and as a icing on the cake, probably due to bug somewhere, the playback went to pause after each ad (iPhone airplaying to AppleTV).

That’s what TV (first, broadcast, and then, cable) was like in the 80s and 90s, and was a small part of why we jumped at internet video. For TV, there were devices that promised to automatically lower the volume when commercials came on - I don’t remember how they were supposed to work.

I had one of those but it was built into our TV, a Magnavox. It relied on a small black frame that local broadcasters used to insert their ads. National broadcaster like NBC would stream to their local affiliates. And the stream would have blank spaces to an insert their own ads. It’s very fast ,0.1s, that your eye would see briefly but to smart enough electronics was very perceptible. Once the commercial block was detected volume goes down. And the subsequent black frame turns it back up.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#732

Post by lofaszvanitt »

meindnoch wrote: post #719
lofaszvanitt wrote: post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with YT is: - I start the video, an ad is shown within 30 secs. - I fast forward a few minutes, the SAME ad is shown again. - I jump to anywhere on the timeline, the SAME ad is shown again. At least show me something that is relevant, like facebook does. The ads there reflect what I usually look for. On YT, none of the ads are relevant to me, ever. It's just ridiculous.

Spaced repetition ;) It works, and they know it.

It doesn't work for me, It just makes me hate the platform even more.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#733

Post by martin_a »

jamiequint wrote: post #724
red_admiral wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad-blocking also gives you similar if not more extra security to anti-virus software, with fewer downsides (faster not slower). I'm afraid the ad ecosystem is so big that occasionally, threats slip through.

This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platforms.

YouTubes "first-party ad platform" is delivering some of the worst ads on the whole internet.

It's not only the big-boobed characters promoting mobile games, there are (video) ads for pyramid and other "get rich quick" schemes, conspiracy theories (government will force everyone to become transgender!) and whatnot.

They don't give just the tiniest bit of a shit for all of this, as long as they are earning money with it.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#735

Post by worldofmatthew »

jamiequint wrote: post #724
red_admiral wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad-blocking also gives you similar if not more extra security to anti-virus software, with fewer downsides (faster not slower). I'm afraid the ad ecosystem is so big that occasionally, threats slip through.

This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platforms.

YouTube and its parent Google are known for being infested with ads linking to viruses and malware.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#736

Post by Gareth321 »

freehorse wrote: post #615

It 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,…

You've hit on the reason I think the Brave token is such a great idea (https://brave.com/brave-rewards/). I know it's en vogue to trash gimmicky cryptocurrencies, and to be honest I don't care how this gets implemented. The concept is great: a shared, fungible way to easily support random websites one visits, and control the kinds of ads one accepts. If sites had a little tip jar which I could easily tap to avoid ads, I'd use it. There's just too much friction today in supporting sites, and all of them want a subscription.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#737

Post by olvy0 »

redbell wrote: post #653
freehorse wrote: post #615

It 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 totally agree on this! Some websites just keep throwing an enormous number of ads into your face to the the extent you start losing consciousness why you came here in the first place. On computer, you still able to use an AdBlock but on mobile, I suffer terribly, not only because I could not disable ads but because on some sites while you are reading an article a random ad video that took about half of the screen k…

If you don't mind using Opera mobile, their ad blocking is very good, at least for the sites I frequent (including youtube). They're Chinese owned now, but I don't ever use it for banking, shopping or social media. For those I use Firefox.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#738

Post by matheusmoreira »

MrZander wrote: post #369
matheusmoreira wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paying to skip ads just raises the value of your attention even further because now they know you've got enough disposable income to pay for such frivolous things. The truth is that not advertising to everyone at all times is leaving money on the table and it's only a matter of time before some bonus-seeking executive turns that into his payday opportunity. Besides, even if you pay for premium you'll still get ads ha…

> Ads are immoral How do you justify this claim? How can advertising your product to attract customers be morally wrong?

I justify it by stating that my attention belongs to me. No one is entitled to it. My attention is not a currency that can be used to pay for products. It doesn't belong to the corporation and it absolutely isn't something they can sell off to the highest bidder.

I choose what to pay attention to. Anyone and anything that grabs my attention without my consent is violating my boundaries. Advertising's entire business model consists of mind raping people for profit. Forcibly injecting their little brands, slogans, ideas into people's minds whether they want it or not. It increases revenue so everyone is heavily incentivized to consider it legitimate. Well I don't consider that activity to be legitimate at all.

Ad blocker? It's just self defense. I don't lose any sleep over it and neither should anyone else.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#739

Post by _bohm »

jamiequint wrote: post #724
red_admiral wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ad-blocking also gives you similar if not more extra security to anti-virus software, with fewer downsides (faster not slower). I'm afraid the ad ecosystem is so big that occasionally, threats slip through.

This may be true on random-site-X on the internet, but is not true on sites like YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Facebook, etc that run their own first-party ad platforms.

The most outlandish and obvious scam advertisements I have seen (by far) have all been on Instagram

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#740

Post by benhurmarcel »

arp242 wrote: post #340
diebeforei485 wrote: post #80

Youtube Premium keeps raising their prices. I'd be happy to pay less for something that doesn't include Music streaming.

There's a "lite" option for €7/month (instead of €12) which only removes ads, but doesn't include music and all the other stuff. Prices may differ per region; this is what it shows for me.

It's only being experimented in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
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