seems like Google is running dry here
enshitification
YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
831–840 of 1001 posts
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#832Earlier 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? The website that had such a large advertising campaign for GTA 6 beta that people started doing meme videos about it?
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#833Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least for YT there's a solution: YT Vanced Or other YouTube clients with ads disabled :) There is even a SmartTV YouTube App that works like a charm. It even skips as blocks in the video itself. Only casting then uses the original app with ads. Edit:// as long as I would need 2 premium accounts for all my active devices I don't accept that as a real solution
Vanced has essentially been disabled recently, unable to play anything. I don't know if YouTube is going on a murdering spree of everything that threatens ads on the platform.
Actually it lives again in the form of Revanced.
You do have to build an APK yourself by applying patches to an official YT APK but it's pretty easy to so with the CLI tool and works a treat.
Also legally much safer than Vance's.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#834Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t understand. You would pay for YouTube premium if youtube had less features? I don’t use shorts and for a long time I didn’t use YouTube music either (despite paying for premium). I now use it because it’s rather good. And YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is crazy good, but you have to tune it. It’s a tool. You tune it by not watching shitty videos you don’t like; if you do, remove them from your history aft…
Yes it would be better if it didn't have those features in the same way that I would pay more for a Burrito if someone had not taken a shit in it. I might be a weird edge case. I do all the things you say but the recommendations totally suck for me. I only watch videos I like. I watch a lot of videos. If I ever watch something I didn't like I remove it and thumbs down and yet all the recommendations are total garbage…
> that I would pay more for a Burrito if someone had not taken a shit in it.
It sounds more like you’re unhappy to be getting 2 burritos and you’d rather get only 1 for the exact same price.
Just don’t watch the shorts. All they are is a line on the homepage. I ignore it.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#835It 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 a…
That was the original intention of HashCash, the inspiration to Bitcoin. Antispam micropayments to add some trivial level of cost to online interactions to make scale unaffordable.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#836Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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 sh…
> 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. The part I dislike about this is that they will demonetize a video for content reasons, but still show ads on it. I also don't know how it works with YouTube Premium. If I have Premium and I watch a creator, does YouTube pay t…
> If I have Premium and I watch a creator, does YouTube pay them some tiny % of my subscription fee to offset the ads that I'm no longer watching?
I'm not a content creator but Google do claim that a small % of the pool goes to the creators you watch, I guess kind of like a Spotify model.
> Will creators still be paid with YouTube Premium? Yes. In fact, YouTube Premium gives a secondary revenue stream for creators in addition to what you're already earning today through ads.
[0] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6306276?hl=en#zipp...
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#837The thing is it was youtube that pushed me to using an addblock in the first place. I was happy with umatrix, hell I preferred it, For the most part I did not mind ads, as long as they were served from the same domain. I put up with youtube ads for a long while but they got so obnoxious I started looking to see if an actual add blocker could make things better, it did and I have not gone back.
At this point it is an arms race. I don't think out right refusing to serve the video will fly for long, the next target is to make the noise(the ad) undecidable from the signal. They already sort of tried this, which made it hard for umatrix to filter out the ads. but they will get better at it.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#838Earlier 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).
You know, if someone would constantly burst into rooms shouting at the top of their lungs for you to give them money, we'd beat them with a wrench. Yet this same behavior is not only tolerated and excused, but encouraged , when done in the name of business profits. And we wonder why society is so fucked up.
Excellent point!!
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#839Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN/Reddit : For years, "I'm happy to pay for services that has no/few ads". Companies: Here's a ad-free version. Subscribe HN/Reddit: Why are you asking me to subscribe? I hate this
The rule of thumb according to youtubers is that 1000 video views is worth about $1 of ad share. Youtube's ad share is about 50%, so 1000 video views should be worth about $2 of ad money for Youtube. Youtube Premium costs $12 a month which is equivalent to 6000 video views per month or ~200 video views per day. If I'm on a very youtuby mood I'll maybe watch 10 videos in a day. So, best case scenario, paying for premi…
The people willing to pay are the ones advertisers want to reach. Obviously we don't know the breakdown, but it's reasonable to think that advertisers would be willing to spend 20x less per ad if the high value users never saw them.
Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers
#840Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN/Reddit : For years, "I'm happy to pay for services that has no/few ads". Companies: Here's a ad-free version. Subscribe HN/Reddit: Why are you asking me to subscribe? I hate this
Except we paid for other streamers for an ad-free experience – until they started inserting ads again. Do we believe that Google of all companies won't pull a switcheroo in a few years? Not on my dime.
youtube premium isn't a contract that punishes cancelling. If you don't like the service stop subscribing.