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Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

drhyperion451.github.io

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Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#141
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would competition even work? How could any company succeed proving a product to a user base that doesn’t watch ads and doesn’t pay for the service? Would be like proving an alternative to cater to shoplifters.

Let's permanently dispense with this weird notion that blocking ads is theft. When you're listening to the radio, it's not theft to change the station when ads come up. When you're watching TV, it's not theft to mute the TV and get a drink when ads come up. Youtube has zero moral expectation that people will actually watch the ads it serves. They're giving a product away for free, and people are consuming it for free…

It’s not theft, but they are negative profit users. What competition would start up to collect these users?

It’s more like a restaurant kicking out a group that just wants to sit at a table for free without buying anything.

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vincent and Clara's videos are offered for free and there is zero obligation for anyone to pay either of them anything whether it be money, time, attention, or engagement. If someone who spends less of their time watching Clara's videos chooses to support Clara because they value her content more than Vincent's, or because they feel like Clara needs the money more than Vincent does, or for any other reason that's ent…

I think the current YT Premium model is more fair, creators get paid more the more you watch them. I'm glad it works like this instead of pandering to donations. Anywhere I've looked, I've seen the donations model been a complete failure. Usually I am the only person or one of less than 10 that donates to an OSS project with thousands and thousands of users. People just don't donate to things that are important and u…

> I think the current YT Premium model is more fair

I don't think it is entirely fair to invent problems for people and then demand payment from them to stop getting in their way. That said, I don't object to Google providing people with the option of giving their money to Google either, I just don't think they need the strong arm tactics.

> Likewise with YouTube, nobody will donate to well-made instructional videos or original news reporting

There are countless examples to prove you wrong. Many people on youtube doing original news reporting and providing instructional videos get donations and many earn their living entirely from money they made on youtube (either from those people who choose to donate their money directly, or those who pay Google for Premium, or those who choose to allow themselves to be subjected to ads).

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#144
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to users who bring in no revenue? Oh, sweet summer child, they already have been monetizing their users browsing behavior and selling it to advertisers. It's their main business > Complaining that Google is somehow wronging you by not giving you the free video hosting you're entitled to is asinine. Google are using our browsing and video watching data already. That's enough (and has been enough over many years) for…

> Google are using our browsing and video watching data already. Why do you think that data is valuable? Because it can better target ads to you. Ads that you then block. Making the data worthless...

> Why do you think that data is valuable? If I am not logged in and I have "Do Not Track", it's illegal for them to track my usage for marketing purposes, let alone show me personalized ads.

The only way they are allowed to legally monetize data for marketing purposes is to find other users that don't have do-not-track + opted in for marketing targeting, and show the ads to them.

Additionally, they can (and do) utilize bulk usage data (from many people) by feeding it into their ecosystem. For example, a video about cats being more popular than another will pop up higher on the search rankings when somebody searches for "cat". User "labor"/interest moderates the content on the platform, which makes it more attractive, and increases the overall number and engagement of users. Out of those users there is some % that have opted in for marketing, and can be legally targeted by personalized ads.

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#145
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While you make a good point, I think it's safe to say that Youtube is quite a lot more significant for the average person than facebook is. Say that I wanted guides or tutorials on fixing something in my car, in-depth steps for making a certain recipe, or even programming courses. Youtube is easily one of the best resources for all of these and everything in general. Saying to write-off one of the internet's best too…

> Saying to write-off one of the internet's best tools just because they've pushed out mv3 seems like giving up too quickly for me. If you find value in it, why don't you reward the people creating that value?

The people creating that value get very little from ad revenue. Google keeps most of the money. This is why many creators are turning to Patreon, etc.

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#146
post #30

what i’m reading from these comments: we will do anything, including leaving youtube, but for sure we will not be either watching ads or paying for content.

There's zero reason to think that people who are unwilling to sit through ads are also unwilling to pay for content. Many people pay content creators directly. They send donations. They buy merch. They even pay for useless shit like emojis just to show their support publicly. People simply want to choose which creators they support, when, and how, which is entirely their right

this also has the massive benefit of sending $0 to Google

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#147

Yes, but YT seems to be doing a lot of A/B testing so what works for others doesn't mean it works for you. If I see an ad I just close YT for the rest of the day.

I should generate some incompressible 4K 60 FPS videos that consist of three hours of randomly generated static and upload them out of spite.

I doubt it'd do anything to harm Google. Storage is dirt cheap and Google effectively has endless amounts of money and resources.

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#148
post #126
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you wrote is like: "Hey fellow hackers. I am a hacker myself and I totally don't work for Google. Ads are good, mkay?" Bruh, dunno what planet you live on and how brainwashed you have to be to think blocking ads is theft. It's like getting a fine when there are ads on the radio and you change the station, or ads on the TV and you changing the channel. It's your device, it's the creator's content, and Youtube fac…

> However, monetizing the trove of data they have on you is not enough for them. How do you think they're monetizing your data? By definition it's not by showing you ads, you're blocking them. Also not by using the data to make their paid service so good that you'll really want to subscribe, since you obviously are entitled to the service for free. The reality is that your data is worthless, and your use of the servi…

> The reality is that your data is worthless, and your use of the service is a liability rather than an asset. And you'll be equally worthless to any competitor, which was the GP's actual point.

I disagree. Bulk usage data is a type of platform moderation which makes certain content more or less popular, and it improves the quality of the platform overall when fed into their algorithms. That's how google search is made as well. That rises the number of users to the platform. Out of that number, some don't mind paying for it, and some don't mind being tracked/showed ads.

In a nutshell, mine and your usage usage/engagement, regardless if we block ads or not, helped them improve heir platform, which resulted in increase in paying users.

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad metaphor. No one is stealing anything from YouTube. Meanwhile a tantrum is a display of socially unacceptable behavior because you don’t like something. Very much a tantrum.

bandwidth and hosting have associated costs. unlike piracy, which is just creating copies, this is using Google’s electricity to provide you a service without giving anything in return.

Google is always free to stop serving me anything at all if they choose to.

However, once they serve me something and it’s received by my user agent, I will use that user agent however I see fit to parse and display (or not display) that content.

Re: Does uBlock Origin bypass the latest YouTube anti-adblock script?

#150
post #30

what i’m reading from these comments: we will do anything, including leaving youtube, but for sure we will not be either watching ads or paying for content.

I'm kind of torn. On one hand, I agree that if you use a service, paying for it so it can continue to be enjoyed by all makes sense. On the other, I'm not sure there's a tech company fighting against my interests as a regular person harder than Google is, and I don't really want to give them money out of principle. Maybe there's some hyperbole in that last sentence but hopefully my point is made at least.

Depending on your age you've either been paying for the service that is youtube with your data and content for your entire life or for at least as long as Youtube has existed. Please don't waste any time feeling bad about Google not getting what they're owed. Trust me, at this point they owe you.

The story is a bit different when it comes to the creators themselves who would get money from those ads. They offer their videos for free, and you have no obligation to support them monetarily, but if there is a youtuber whose content you really want to support there is probably some means already to pay them directly without giving anything to Google.

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