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YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

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Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#101

Post by Cilvic »

ketzo wrote: post #52
MostlyStable wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither side is wrong. Youtube has every right to try as hard as it can to get users to view ads. And users have every right to try as hard as they can to block those ads. I don't have a right to ad-free youtube, but I do have every right to try and control what things get sent to and viewed on my computer. If I (and people like me) are abundant enough and succesful enough, then youtube and other services will be for…

I think this is a great take, with one exception: I think the loss of (free) ad-supported YouTube would be a devastating loss for the world at large.

I agree that GP is a great take on the situation.

I'm less sure that humanity is incapable of finding another way to foster the creativity and the education/entertainment value the world gets out of youtube. I'd love to see us try and only go back to advertising if that is indeed the only/best way.

Yes ad-supported YT is "free" of direct cash payment, but how much do we (society) "pay" in form of thoughts that we wouldn't have had where it not for an advertiser to force it onto us. I sometimes wonder if advertising is a kind of corruption and will be outlawed / considered inhumane at some point in the future.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#102

Post by aorth »

Sad to see this because Google won't let me pay for Premium—it is not available in most of the countries I've lived in for the last few years. I wish I could pay for the right for my kids to not see ads, but Google won't let me. It's terrible when a relaxing piano video gets interrupted by some loud, materialistic ad and my kids can't take their eyes off it.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#103

Post by alin23 »

microtonal wrote: post #93
alin23 wrote: post #62

As the dev of a macOS app that breaks all the time because of external hardware, the tone of the article hits close to home. (I’m talking about https://lunar.fyi/ whose brightness control commands can be blocked by USB-C hubs, “smart” monitors, too long cables etc.) I had to disable public GitHub issues on the app repo [1] because people seemed to fuel each other with spiteful comments and “why can’t you just!!” sent…

:( So sorry to hear this. I don't use Lunar, but know many people who love it. They all appreciate the work that you are doing!

To be honest I sometimes (rarely) do get heartfelt messages like these, and it’s what still keeps me working on apps. Sure, it feels ok to sell a bunch of licenses and get a few thousand dollars at the end of the month, but it feels so much better to see your hard work appreciated and people improving their lives with it.

So really, thank you!

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#104

Post by cj »

SlackingOff123 wrote: post #74

I've been wondering, how much does the average YouTube viewer generate in revenue by watching ads? $0.1 a month? $0.25? $0.5 if avid viewer? Given that I'm not an avid viewer and I do not care at all for YouTube Music, I just find the monthly cost of YouTube Premium too high. I don't know what the right price should be, but by comparing with other digital subscriptions I have, I think I would be OK with paying someth…

Paying $20-40 per thousand views isn’t unusual on the advertiser side.

If you watch 100 videos that’s $2 if there’s 1 ad per video. But these days it’s more like 2-3 ads per video (or dozens for long videos)

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#105

Post by dutchCourage »

MostlyStable wrote: post #23
ketzo wrote: post #8

Why, from first principles, should YouTube allow this? Why shouldn’t they go thermonuclear? I understand ads are annoying - I block as many as I can! - but I’ve never seen someone put together a coherent defense of the practice.

Neither side is wrong. Youtube has every right to try as hard as it can to get users to view ads. And users have every right to try as hard as they can to block those ads. I don't have a right to ad-free youtube, but I do have every right to try and control what things get sent to and viewed on my computer. If I (and people like me) are abundant enough and succesful enough, then youtube and other services will be for…

> I do have every right to try and control what things get sent to and viewed on my computer.

I agree with your statement but I'm not sure how it applies to ads. I hate ads as much as the next person, but blocking them is kind of like using the service and refusing to pay for it.

There are two proper ways to not see ads on Youtube. You can either pay for Youtube premium, or not watch Youtube videos.

There are legitimate reasons to block ads, like preventing tracking. But if you're blocking ads because you think the service you're using isn't worth letting them through, then don't use the service?

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#106

Post by taftster »

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #94
crop_rotation wrote: post #9

Apart from the Youtube stuff, the post also highlights something else, entitlement towards free services like uBlock origin. > It’s one thing to play cat and mouse with YouTube. It’s quite another to deal with a wave of angry users. > And then one of the moderators actually deleted their Reddit account. “The ID in the post wasn’t updated because my mother was hospitalized,” they said. It’s sad to see them leave becau…

But I don't understand why this would be annoying at all to the developers. I have absolutely zero conundrum with just ignoring a request if I'm not in the mood to do it. Most of them I even delete outright, but I still have requests that were sent to me in 00s that I'm keeping just in case one day "I'm in the mood". And yes, people request (demand!) crazy things, and have done so for decades. There are even "If you…

I mean, you still read them though, right? And you somewhat sort out the ones based on how much of a buffoon the user is? Maybe someone with excellent writing skills and having demonstrated reading all the documentation and FAQs is still asking for help in a respectful and intelligent way, and so maybe you engage.

All of that is mental tax. And it gets tiring, even if you're mostly ignoring the request. It's still tiring even when you're in the mood for it.

Just saying, it's a hard thing and I definitely sympathize for the way which open source / open project / volunteer collaborators get treated.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#108

Post by bo1024 »

MostlyStable wrote: post #23
ketzo wrote: post #8

Why, from first principles, should YouTube allow this? Why shouldn’t they go thermonuclear? I understand ads are annoying - I block as many as I can! - but I’ve never seen someone put together a coherent defense of the practice.

Neither side is wrong. Youtube has every right to try as hard as it can to get users to view ads. And users have every right to try as hard as they can to block those ads. I don't have a right to ad-free youtube, but I do have every right to try and control what things get sent to and viewed on my computer. If I (and people like me) are abundant enough and succesful enough, then youtube and other services will be for…

These are good points. There is also a separate point to make, which is that YouTube doesn't (in large part) create videos, they "just" host other people's videos. YouTube wants to capture a bigger and bigger slice of the value created by interactions of other people with each other. There is a question of how much monetization YouTube "deserves" versus how much they are able to actually extract from people by being a de-facto monopoly. (This is Doctorow's "enshittification" process.)

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#109

Post by crop_rotation »

darthrupert wrote: post #85
ketzo wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a great take, with one exception: I think the loss of (free) ad-supported YouTube would be a devastating loss for the world at large.

How's that? Its algorithm is not exactly making the world a better place. It's filled with propaganda from all corners of the political spectrum with about zero responsibility. But there is also TikTok, which is even worse. So yeah, in that way you could be right. If only we could pay for the things we use, and only that.

YouTube has been such a big boon to the world in helping people learn. The amount of people who have learnt several skills from YouTube enabling them to make a living is very very large. I know several people who had non STEM education and taught them CS via YouTube and went on to have good SWE careers. Whole of MIT OCS is hosted on Youtube. All of Khan Academy videos are also hosted on Youtube.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#110

Post by crop_rotation »

aorth wrote: post #102

Sad to see this because Google won't let me pay for Premium—it is not available in most of the countries I've lived in for the last few years. I wish I could pay for the right for my kids to not see ads, but Google won't let me. It's terrible when a relaxing piano video gets interrupted by some loud, materialistic ad and my kids can't take their eyes off it.

Just out of curiosity what countries are those?
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