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YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

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Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#211
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how there's a perfect counter to every single point you posted. It seems like some people just want to hate. > - I can't upload random video to the netflix, and I have a certain expectation regarding content there That's a bug, not a feature. You're basically restricted to the tastes of Netflix's buyers. > - 99% of videos on youtube are not something I would pay for or expected to be paid for uploading Then yo…

>Then you're watching the wrong videos. Re-read the sentence you're replying to. "99% of videos on youtube ", not "99% of videos I watch". >You can easily skip these, not sure what the issue is here. You can also ad-block. The issue is that even paying for YouTube isn't enough to not see any ads on YouTube. >Additionally, there has never been a greater investment made on storing and distributing video like the one Go…

> "99% of videos on youtube", not "99% of videos I watch".

And in the context, this is even less sensible. 99% of content on Netflix is what "you" don't watch. So there's literally no difference on that point for YT and Netflix.

> The issue is that even paying for YouTube isn't enough to not see any ads on YouTube.

Native ads are skippable and are already providing revenue for the creator - skipping them doesn't affect creator's income. Ad-block screws over the creators. There's a difference...

> YouTube merely provides the logistical support.

Have you ever worked at a production company? Because providing legal, logistical and marketing support is also what production companies do - that is what YouTube provides to creators. If you apply the same logic, then Universal Media Group isn't a production company - because they also primarily provide those functions.

Not to mention that YouTube has produced, may even still produce, original content.

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#212

At the end of the day people just don’t want to pay: ad blockers, piracy, etc. Of course people will whine when you stop them from getting stuff for free.

Google created the youtube "moat" by giving away the service for free for 15 years. In that time, an actually good, sustainable, paid video service could have emerged and everybody would be ok with it. Instead we got current Youtube, with its inescrutable algorithmic feed, content restrictions, and demonetization rules, and Google are asking us to pay for that with the argument that nothing else like it exists. Of co…

But it hasn't been free for 15 years. There's been ads on YouTube since 2009 (14 years). The narrative you are trying to paint is built on an incorrect premise.

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#213
post #182
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love how there's a perfect counter to every single point you posted. It seems like some people just want to hate. > - I can't upload random video to the netflix, and I have a certain expectation regarding content there That's a bug, not a feature. You're basically restricted to the tastes of Netflix's buyers. > - 99% of videos on youtube are not something I would pay for or expected to be paid for uploading Then yo…

No hate, I simply can understand why paying for youtube feels different from paying for netflix. These are not some bulletprof arguments why nobody should pay money, it's just why I personally can feel it's different than paid content provider/producer. >You're basically restricted to the tastes of Netflix's buyers. Same as going to the cinema. I don't expect to see 5 minutes of figuring out camera settings and 2 hou…

You can feel whatever you want, your rationalizations are wrong though.

And if someone uses false rationalizations to use ad-blockers, while claiming to support the content creators - I can only sense hypocrisy and entitlement.

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#214
I think everyone should pay for Youtube Premium, there should be no free tiers. And we should ban sponsorship too, a creator should be banned if the content is sponsored. It lowers the quality of the content, the user experience and, worse imo, introduces biasis and conflict of interests. Also mandatoring a paid plan could help get rid of all those scam bots. Also creators could get paid more if everyone was a Premium user.

There is no free lunch. At some point you have to pay people for their work. Not paying is slavery. Either pay with your attention span or pay with money to get an adless experience.

The Premium plan gives you more features (and a music streaming that would cost you 10$ in and of itself if you were to use another music streaming service).

I am glad Youtube takes this issue seriously.

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#215

It strikes me as so odd that people readily pay for netflix, hulu, HBO etc, but when the idea of paying for youtube comes along, who directly profit shares with small creators you adore, people fall over backwards in disgust. I guess it has to do with initial value proposition. If you hand out lemonade for free, people are going to be pissed when you start charging a dollar, regardless of how good of a deal it is. Ev…

Not really. What pisses me off is they still have a free tier backed by an advertising+surveillance business model. They should charge everyone for access, stop advertising and stop tracking us.

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People might be less disgusted with paying for YouTube if their model was "make a good product for end users" instead of "premium is to make the experience less worse by removing the worst part of a bad experience".

This is exactly why I refuse to give Google money voluntarily. All of my issues with YouTube they created intentionally. I just recently found a trick that had YouTube play in the background when I switched tabs and I recalled how life was before they created Red and it annoyed me all over again. Google is the devil of today's tech companies - most of what they do utilizes the outright theft of our data and what they…

So... Why do you use YouTube? Ask your creators to move to something like Patreon and you'll be free. You'll have to pay, but you will not be paying Google.

Why do you personally think that you're entitled to consume content from YouTube?

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#217

It's amazing to me how Google is allowed to control every side of the market with no real repercussions. I don't want to be the cynic who says Google has been paying lots of money to "the right people" in order to keep the status quo, but.. Google has been paying lots of money.. That might be a moderate huge win for Firefox.. until someone at Google makes a phone call to Mozilla's offices. Worst case scenario it help…

Why are you consuming any YT videos, then? Why are so many people feel entitled to YT videos without ads?

Probably the bait and switch. Fire up an ad free platform, drum up a viewer and creator base to undermine competitor sites (remember Vimeo?), and once they're all irrelevant or outright gone, start pulling this crap? Yea, people will be annoyed. At least until the content creators get smart, and start posting their content across the various alternatives that have been popping up since YouTube has become a cesspool, such as Rumble, Bitchute, or Odysee.

I don't see a reason to be too upset about this all though; it doesn't take much to still block these ads, and meanwhile, this is going to just help motivate creators to finally do the smart thing and move to the less abusive platforms.

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't they give you that choice, with Youtube Premium?

Still has ads hardcoded in videos. Still has Google surveillance capitalism. Still sends other people videos for free which means you're paying for the privilege of segmenting yourself into the upper echelons of the market where the people with disposable income are, driving the value of your attention up and making them want to advertise to you even more.

> Still has ads hardcoded in videos.

You're talking about when the content creator puts an ad in their video? What would you have Google do about that?

Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#219
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If YT only live streams content, content caching services will strip out the ads, and play with a delay. Youtube will never monetise tech savvy users and should just stop trying. We only need to be slipperier than the average gazelle and the lions will never catch us.

> content caching services will strip out the ads, and play with a delay. To achieve this, you’ll need computation, storage, and bandwidth on the scale of YouTube. Do you think whoever offers that service will do so without ads or payment? Your whole scheme is based on hoping “kind” and knowledgeable volunteers do free labor for you. Good luck. I for one am tech savvy and am happy to pay $20 for the ad free service.…

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Re: YouTube's 'War' on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one else wants to run a lemonade stand because they can see customers do not want to pay for lemondade. See the Vid.me rise and fall illustrates this perfectly. Their closing letter to users even says in so many words "Ya'll don't want to pay, so how can we stay open?"

> Ya'll don't want to pay It's easy to wonder why. The status quo at the time had been that user-submitted video content (YouTube) is free. It was only free because Alphabet had their losses from YouTube subsidized by their profits from Google. Maybe not for all, but for many this is an anti-trust issue.

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