121–130 of 168 posts
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Sponsorblock only works because YT allows you to skip anywhere in a video.
This. It's why in-stream ads were so straightforward to implement for Twitch too. Can't fast forward a live stream.
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I used to work in ads, and I agree this is an arms race that the advertisers could win, at least in cases like YouTube where they control the whole stack. I don't think it would be trivial, but YouTube could do it if they decided to.
Are there any workarounds for smart tv apps (browser, player)? They probably already "won" there and the user experience is horrible.
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Give me a break. You don't want advertising, you don't want to subscribe, and you don't want a network of sites using the same subscription. What possible solution exists that satisfies your criteria, which are way more demanding than "remotely reasonable"? This is just an excuse you've fabricated to justify your own convenience, stinginess and/or laziness.
I said what solution I wanted. Micropayments have been researched for 30 years. Anonymous crypto payments have been deployed for maybe 10. Yes, there are scaling issues. No, they're not that hard. The real problem is getting everybody to agree on what to use. ... and if a site directly tells me it doesn't like my ad blocker, I leave. I haven't gone to the ad-blocker-blocker level. I don't think that's unreasonable.
You may not be aware that many such messages are themselves blocked by the default lists in ublock origin. Examples:
https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues?q=is%3Aissue+...
I suspect yt-dlp and VLC will also function well.
Your best video option is a third-party media viewer, in any regard.
Invidious: https://invidious.io/>
Piped: https://piped.video/>
yt-dlp: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp> Fork of youtube-dl, command-line client which can download or stream to a local player, supports video, audio only, and many, many, many, many services / hosts other than its namesake.
VLC: https://www.videolan.org/vlc/> Full GUI media player, includes streaming capabilities for multiple sites & services.
There are numerous other media player front-ends for Linux and other platforms such as Xine, mplayer, and more, check your OS's package archive / repos.
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I used to work in ads, and I agree this is an arms race that the advertisers could win, at least in cases like YouTube where they control the whole stack. I don't think it would be trivial, but YouTube could do it if they decided to.
Are there any workarounds for smart tv apps (browser, player)? They probably already "won" there and the user experience is horrible.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This. It's why in-stream ads were so straightforward to implement for Twitch too. Can't fast forward a live stream.
If you're willing to buffer a few minutes of video, you can work around this. Tivo is a decent example of how this has been done in the past.
The insidious aspect of this is the bait and switch YouTube did to consolidate their monopoly. A huge amount of videos were uploaded under the (idealistic and misguided) pretence they would be freely accessible without ads and so on. Had the YT UX been this way the whole time then the online video landscape would be much more competitive today.
How would youtube work without ads or subscriptions? Do you just not want there to be something like youtube?
This is where I get conflicted with ad blockers, on the one hand most website ads are trash, on the other hand there is great content on YT and I want those creators to make enough to carry on to get to the level where they proper sponsors. But, YT is so egregious with its ad insertions at times that it drives me mad and I don’t trust the creators will get fairly compensated if I go to premium.
I don’t feel like there’s any conflict. The ad blockers want a free ride. We all know what would happen to YouTube if 100% of its users were able to block ads. It would become paid-only or go out of business. The only reason it’s tolerated by so many websites is because only a small sliver of users know how to install ad-blocking software. These are real people spending real time and money making content. On the YouT…
Fantastic. Then people would have to host their videos elsewhere, perhaps on PeerTube.
YouTube's crackdown on ad blockers intensifies - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 - Oct 2023 (140 comments)
YouTube is testing new “skip ads” button that makes it just a bit harder to skip - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37224622 - Aug 2023 (12 comments)
YouTube is testing a three-strikes policy for ad blocking - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36747367 - July 2023 (72 comments)
YouTube is blocking videos for users who block ads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36583277 - July 2023 (91 comments)
YouTube Threatens to Cut Off Ad Blocker Users After Just Three Ad-Less Vids - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36538577 - June 2023 (50 comments)
YouTube confirms three-strikes test for ad blocking - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36535417 - June 2023 (7 comments)
YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36517238 - June 2023 (1343 comments)
YouTube Blocks Ad Blockers Amid Declining Ad Revenue - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 - June 2023 (30 comments)
YouTube on TVs getting unskippable 30-second and pause screen ads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35986992 - May 2023 (190 comments)
YouTube is going to stop you from using ad blockers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35954648 - May 2023 (23 comments)
YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 - May 2023 (1405 comments)
Apparently Ad Blockers are not allowed on YouTube. Is this a new thing? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 - May 2023 (52 comments)
YouTube May Force You to Watch 10 (Or More) Unskippable Ads in a Row - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32911676 - Sept 2022 (128 comments)
The free YouTube tier is about to become unbearable with even more ads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32866976 - Sept 2022 (96 comments)
YouTube ads appear to be ramping up, with as many as 10 unskippable ads - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32859438 - Sept 2022 (143 comments)
YouTube Free Is Silently Testing 5 Ads, Instead of 2, Before Your Video Starts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32851367 - Sept 2022 (21 comments)
YouTube currently testing 5 to 10 unskippable ads before video starts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32835071 - Sept 2022 (266 comments)
YouTube will now show ads on all videos even if creators don’t want them - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25149206 - Nov 2020 (758 comments)
Tell HN: Adblocker doesn't block YouTube ads anymore - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22658093 - March 2020 (17 comments)
I get that it's annoying, but YouTube Premium is by far the best value streaming subscription I pay every month. I once cancelled it and couldn't make it a day before re-subscribing.