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YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

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Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#181

I feel this was the inevitable outcome of the increased availability/popularity/awareness of ad blockers - a tragedy of the commons scenario that's set us on an escalating feedback loop that won't end well for anyone involved. EDIT: I do wonder if the price point of youtube premium is too high to capture an audience that simply doesn't want ads but doesn't care about any other features. $6/mo feels higher than the ty…

It will end just fine. It'll become a bit harder to adblock, less people will do it as a result, and because of that it will drop off the radar again and we can keep adblocking as usual.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#183

From the article: >“YouTube’s ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people globally access to content for free with ads,” the company’s statement says. Let's at least be 100% honest with everyone and stop with the disingenuous garbage: 1. Ad-blocker usage is roughly 25-30% of US users. 2. The average YouTube content creator makes less than 0.02 per ad view and thus why…

>>“YouTube’s ad-supported model supports a diverse ecosystem of creators, and provides billions of people globally access to content for free with ads,” the company’s statement says. Before I switched to using adblocking on my phone for youtube (like I did for my desktop), I made sure I will never ever buy whatever crap was presented in YT ads. I believe I am not the only one for which ads have a contrary effect to t…

When I was younger, and more energetic, I would actually seek out an owner's website after seeing an advertisement. There would be a big splash ad for a movie on IGN or something, and I'd find the site for the movie, find the email address, and write some internet-crazy rant about how I'd never watch the movie, and tell everyone I knew that the movie sucked, all because I was shown an advertisement for the movie. It was pretty immature of me, but I felt so strongly about it at the time.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#184
post #151

I mean they want you to subscribe to YouTube premium. At least they’re being honest about this and give you the option. I have a few issues with google but this isn’t one (After being forced to spend many hours upgrading to google analytics rev 4….) It’s expensive, but I’ve done it, but it also includes YouTube music which I like.

You can pay a overly expensive fee, but you still won't have an ad free experience, since in-video ads aren't removed. ReVanced is the only option I know so far.

NewPipe with Sponsorblock for Mobile,

FreeTube for PC

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#186
post #144

I mean they want you to subscribe to YouTube premium. At least they’re being honest about this and give you the option. I have a few issues with google but this isn’t one (After being forced to spend many hours upgrading to google analytics rev 4….) It’s expensive, but I’ve done it, but it also includes YouTube music which I like.

At least over here in Finland you can get premium light which is just 6.99e per month, and does not include youtube music. Which was the thing that finally made me upgrade, as I already have a preferred music streaming service, I refused the premium bundle out of principle for a long time. As a principle, I think each product and service should stand by itself and bundling things up just makes the experience worse fo…

But that still does not allow for offline playback, background playback from a mobile app so they can still suck it.

It also makes no sense that you need a family account for more than one profile with a single paid account. At least price wise it is a tough sell against actual streaming services with actual (developed or licensed) content that do offer multiple profiles per account.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#187

I mean they want you to subscribe to YouTube premium. At least they’re being honest about this and give you the option. I have a few issues with google but this isn’t one (After being forced to spend many hours upgrading to google analytics rev 4….) It’s expensive, but I’ve done it, but it also includes YouTube music which I like.

I found YouTube Music surprisingly full-fledged. The library is not as complete as Spotify or Apple Music of course, but, you also get the user uploads, which is a much more reliable resource for those few odd tracks. With Premium you also get to minimize the YouTube app on the phone. It's nice for talks and discussions that are not uploaded as podcasts.

With Apple Music you can add your privately owned music to the library too. It even outdates Apple Music with a now legacy service called iTunes Plus that allowed you to stream your private music collection with iTunes from ‘the cloud’ for €25/year.

Back in the day I even used this to ‘white-wash’ low quality mp3 files to 256kbps acc files instead.

I think it is actually user-hostile to force users to pay for YouTube Music when you want access to ad free YouTube videos, probably why in Europe YouTube Premium Lite exists (without Music), because tie-in purchases (translated term) are generally not allowed here.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#188

Anyone know, if there is an adblocker with a "hide" mode instead of a "block" mode? I mean, instead of blocking the connection fetch the ad, but hide it visually? I would be fine with a YouTube ad blocker, that allows ads to play, but just mutes and `display:none`'s the video player element.

adnauseam[1]. it does load all the ads, but makes them invisible and clicks all of them.

[1] https://adnauseam.io/

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#189
post #120

So YouTube is going to make it impossible to watch without ads. Reddit's communities are going dark because Reddit (essentially) wants more ad revenue. Facebook and Instagram have been plastered with ads for longer than they haven't. And we're just a short hop from ads being "Attention required" with eyeballs tracked. I wonder if there's a possibility that this will shake Youtube from it's dominance.

Reminds me of 'PLEASE DRINK VERIFICATION CAN' copypasta Ads are truly a cancer on human culture, I hope society decides to wage a war on them soon.

The commercialization of the internet ruined it for the most part. Ads and tracking everywhere and people are centralized in a handful of networks of a handful of companies that want to make the most profit at all costs.

It's refreshing to see how people are starting to revolt on platforms like Reddit and Twitch. People are done with this stuff. Even if it is only a small percentage of the total amount of users, it allows for new platforms to thrive and grow, while the old platforms slowly decay. I hope this day will come for Youtube as well.

Re: YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers

#190

So YouTube is going to make it impossible to watch without ads. Reddit's communities are going dark because Reddit (essentially) wants more ad revenue. Facebook and Instagram have been plastered with ads for longer than they haven't. And we're just a short hop from ads being "Attention required" with eyeballs tracked. I wonder if there's a possibility that this will shake Youtube from it's dominance.

Nah Reddit is pretty much back to normal. The protest is over. There are a few big subreddits like r/interestingasfuck that are still closed, but these are more like meme channels than communities. People can just get the same dozen gifs a day from r/damnthatsinteresting, r/whoadude, etc.

That may look like it, but I think the most important 1% has already left or will leave Reddit this week. Those people are the people that are also the bigfest contributers of the platform, be that as content creators, moderators or app/tool developers.

Even more important: Alternative platforms had a huge surge in usercount. They don't reach the number of Reddit of course, but rheu don't need to. They are their own thing and many do now have enough users to replace Reddit for most usecases of many users.

I've been having a blast on the Ferdiverse for the last few weeks. I'm also trying out tildes.net and squabbles.io. It's all very refreshing and reminds me of early reddit and old forums.

I'm actually somewhat glad this all happend. I'd have never dicovered all these platforms otherwise. And I'm not alone in that perspective

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