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YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

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Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#521

Post by kerkeslager »

Jensson wrote: post #393
userinanother wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially considering that YouTube gets the content for almost free

> YouTube gets the content for almost free Google pays out about 50% of ad revenue to content creators, that isn't "almost free" that is many billions of dollars.

If a channel hasn't make any ad/premium revenue yet, Google still has the content for the cost of supporting the upload--i.e. they got it almost for free.

The fact is, Google takes on no risk and does none of the work of creating content, and takes a 45% cut for distribution, and is free to continue changing their terms to make things worse for content creators.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#522

Post by [deleted] »

daeros wrote: post #356

While it has ultimately come up in this discussion my honest input is most of the comments I see here evaded the elephant in the room of all of it which is that Google doesn't do a good enough job of vetting the people who advertise with it, its search engines have repeatedly allowed malware to slip through the cracks leading to people being exploited and nothing stops those same malware developers from serving up ad…

[deleted]

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#523

Post by HeeroML »

eqvinox wrote: post #427

This is of course bringing up the discussion on the "morality" of Adblocking. I'd like to point out something that I don't think is getting enough attention. There was a point in the past where video platforms were competing, and by no means was it clear that YouTube would end up dominating this area to the point of being close to a monopoly. When YouTube won that race, they won it with a given set of parameters, inc…

Just that energy and such got more costly. Why should YouTube pay extra cause you feel you had an agreement with them on how much ads there are?

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#524

Post by [deleted] »

globular-toast wrote: post #196
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.

I'll try to explain why I use adblock, use YouTube, but won't be paying for YouTube premium. First of all, I absolutely will not have ads in my own home. Ads are bad enough in public, but they will not be in my home. This is completely non-negotiable. So then, what are my choices? Well there are paid-for services like Netflix, for example. This is a straightforward choice for me: I either pay for it or I don't. Simpl…

[deleted]

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#525

Post by giantrobot »

ryandrake wrote: post #339
giantrobot wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the GP but I spend very little time on YouTube. Even me binging YouTube is watching maybe one or two videos in a row. I hate YouTube ads because they're usually worse than the most obnoxious TV ads with blaring audio or just obnoxious content. I don't watch YouTube enough that Premium is anywhere close to worth the money. So I happily block ads and will drop YouTube in a second if they block me for using an ad bl…

> I hate YouTube ads because they're usually worse than the most obnoxious TV ads with blaring audio or just obnoxious content. It's the absolute bottom of the barrel, too. AI voices pitching scam colon cleanses and scam detox shakes, and yes everything is LOOOOUD and interruptive. At least on network TV, the content has natural pauses for ads, but on YouTube they just shove em in whenever. Nothing quite like listeni…

> Nothing quite like listening to quiet ambient or classical piano music and then all of a sudden some giant, roided-out asshole is screaming at me: "LET ME HELP YOU GET RRRRRRRIPPED AT THE GYMMM!!!"

To expand on this I find ads are even on random videos. So you might get one video with no ads followed by a video that has mid-roll ads. There's no rhyme or reason to it. There's no clear expectation set that a video is going to have ads or not, let alone their super obnoxious ads. Ads on YouTube are a total shit show.

There's no aspect of YouTube that makes me think "damn I should watch more YouTube" and certainly nothing that makes me think I should pay for it. It seems everything YouTube does is try to drive me away by being frustrating. Maybe they are because I've fallen into some A/B test group that makes the YouTube experience too obnoxious to use.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#526

Post by throwaway5959 »

Look, just say you’re a cheapskate if you use Adblock and don’t pay for Premium. Just say “I want to get something for nothing”. There are people that refuse to tip because they think the tipping system in the US is immoral. No, they’re just cheap. People are here writing tomes on why they don’t want to pay with attention or $$$ when they’re really just cheap.

Edit: Look if you’re going to downvote, at least provide a coherent rebuttal. K8sToGo already failed in that regard with this gem: “Well since you are not cheap you can just buy premium for all of us. Thanks in advance.”

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#528

Post by HeeroML »

j16sdiz wrote: post #482
axelthegerman wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree this is the real problem. Where do creators go if not YouTube!? Ideally they could self host videos which could be expensive AND not bring any revenue, neither do they are they discoverable - this is where the internet is broken these days. And maybe this is where micro transactions would have a proper use case, i.e. if you had a browser extension where you add $5 and then you can dish out 1ct or 10ct f…

Nebula was created by a few creator, trying to solve this problem. I have no idea how well it worked out - I am still contented with the ad-filled YouTube

No it actually wasn’t. Nebula isn’t sustainable. It’s co financed by curiositystream.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#529

Post by HeeroML »

lxgr wrote: post #477
philistine wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And no, I won't pay for YouTube Premium — because that wasn't part of the deal either. There's also the ridiculous fact it is literally impossible to pay to remove the ads without also getting the horrible Youtube Music service.

What makes me really sad is that Google doesn't just not offer a "Music-less Youtube Premium" (due to a lack of attention or whatever) – no: They used to offer that product in some markets and have actively discontinued it.

Just that it does. You only get ads in music videos then.

Re: YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin

#530

Post by amadvance »

Buttons840 wrote: post #369
cj wrote: post #76

At a technical level, what prevents Google from deploying unblockable ads on YouTube? I’m honestly surprised adblockers are able to block YouTube at all. The easiest way to prevent an adblocker from blocking is to make ads and real content indistinguishable in frontend code and network requests. Tie ads and real content together in a way that if you block ads, the video also doesn’t load. Or in the case of video ads,…

If ads are indistinguishable from the regular video, can't people just skip past them? Afterall, regular video can be fast-forwarded / skipped. I will tell my computer to automatically skip video that was originally marked as unskippable. If things really escalate, I will tell my computer to blank the screen and mute the audio when an ad is playing. I will do this with a keybinding, or maybe with an AI. This will be…

> I will tell my computer to blank the screen and mute the audio when an ad is playing.

Indeed, but you'll still have to wait for the ad to play. YouTube can definitively win this race if they decide so.

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