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Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

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Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#71

Post by gorgoiler »

roenxi wrote: post #6

I'm torn. I'm not a huge fan of Google and I don't have a lot of respect for the YouTube selection algorithm. However this culture of expecting Google to host the data then freeloading off it by blocking the tracking and ads is also a bit ugly. There is an unwritten social contract here. Google is willing to host and organise a vast number of videos because that'll attract an audience for ads. If there are too may fr…

YouTube is similar to a free museum where the gift shop as the only source of revenue. How does the museum handle people who deliberately show up without money and exit via the main entrance?

From a business perspective the building is a shop. Anyone without money is provably there to just wander around looking at things. Doing this a lot is weird, especially given that 99% of visitors buy a coffee or a pencil to keep the museum going.

From a user perspective it’s a museum — the whole point is to wander around looking at things! Should it be required that you buy something, or at least be forced to exit through the gift shop?

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#72

Post by jeffbee »

VogonPoetry wrote: post #65
jeffbee wrote: post #28

Let's try it. 20 seconds to first start on a M2 mac mini, not amazing. Search takes about 3-5 seconds. Navigate to video another 3-5 seconds. No 4k. No casting. Can't change the playback speed. Can't jump on timeline with 0-9 keys. Doesn't sync to my other devices. Doesn't know about my membership perks, of course. After a few minutes I would say this is easily the worst way to watch YouTube short of printing the vid…

The 20 seconds first start is because it is only an x86_64 binary -- no native Arm build.

It's their fault for shipping Chrome instead of shipping HTML.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#73

Post by Unai »

MBCook wrote: post #36
stavros wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that I don't care. I've had it with everyone wanting "just" $9.99/mo. I watch a few random two-minute videos a day, that's not worth as much as Netflix to me. I don't want the TV shows, I don't want the music channels, I just want to watch my little videos without ads. How much are you making from me on ads? Just charge me that and remove them.

Then watch with ads. That’s a fair choice. Why are you entitled to ad free viewing? “It’s only a few so it’s ok I take something for nothing” is not a legal concept I think would hold up in other contexts.

I don't think neither legality nor ad-free viewing entitlement are even factors in this conversation.

What I'm entitled to is to do whatever I want with every bit of data I download through my browser. The day this stops being the way things are, is the day the web dies, and I can't believe anyone (particularly here) could be defending that.

YouTube provides their data freely. You don't have to sign-up or accept a contract. You open a link and locally download said data. It's on my device, and I control my device, not Google. I can do whatever I want with the data I download, I can make the background pink, I can change some text for something else, and I can take out the parts that I don't like, like ads.

If YouTube wants to stop providing their data with no strings attached, they can. Reddit didn't like the way many of their users used their API, so they blocked it, and I don't use Reddit anymore. If someone doesn't like the way the open web works, they are free to leave, but they can't change the rules.

You ask why we are entitled to ad-free viewing. I ask why do you think Google is entitled to dictate what I do with the local files in my personal device. Do you feel entitled to open your browser's dev tools right now and modify this comment I just wrote?

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#74

Post by grugagag »

cen4 wrote: post #38
roenxi wrote: post #6

I'm torn. I'm not a huge fan of Google and I don't have a lot of respect for the YouTube selection algorithm. However this culture of expecting Google to host the data then freeloading off it by blocking the tracking and ads is also a bit ugly. There is an unwritten social contract here. Google is willing to host and organise a vast number of videos because that'll attract an audience for ads. If there are too may fr…

But there is more content than there are people who can watch it. What do you think happens when the production curve grows way past the consumption curve?

Genuinely curios. What happens?

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#75

Post by mrmetanoia »

rcdemski wrote: post #11
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #4

If it can hide videos with overexpressive faces on the title cards, I'm in.

I use the dearrow extension to nuke the title cards https://dearrow.ajay.app/

This is like someone turned the volume down in my brain. I had not seen this, very cool.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#76

Post by HKH2 »

toastercat wrote: post #50
MBCook wrote: post #22

Or if you don’t want to see ads you could pay for it instead. Like an adult. Works great. They present a perfectly valid choice to you, and it works great. It’s a reasonable enough price (not great but reasonable), but it supports the creators you watch with part of your subscription money. Plus it has other benefits if you care, like free TV shows and movies and YouTube music. I don’t use that stuff but it is there.

[flagged]

> Frankly, the only solution I see is banning adblock extensions like uBlock Origin from extension marketplaces.

Not a solution when browsers like Brave come with ad blockers built in.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#77

Post by Brian_K_White »

roenxi wrote: post #6

I'm torn. I'm not a huge fan of Google and I don't have a lot of respect for the YouTube selection algorithm. However this culture of expecting Google to host the data then freeloading off it by blocking the tracking and ads is also a bit ugly. There is an unwritten social contract here. Google is willing to host and organise a vast number of videos because that'll attract an audience for ads. If there are too may fr…

Google can stop making the official experience terrible any time it wants. Until then they deserve nothing. Poor poor abused google definitely on the bottom of this abusive relationship.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#78

Post by HKH2 »

dreamymoon wrote: post #67

yup been using for 3/4 months now. tho it is filled with bugs. if you use extended screens, good luck. and a few more like app crashing, unable to handle multiple app launches at once, and so on. I am looking for a better open-source alternative tbh.

On Android, NewPipe is great (but it sometimes breaks when there are API changes).

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#79

Post by toastercat »

HKH2 wrote: post #76
toastercat wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Frankly, the only solution I see is banning adblock extensions like uBlock Origin from extension marketplaces. Not a solution when browsers like Brave come with ad blockers built in.

Browsers like Brave should be made illegal. Adblock == Piracy. Simple as that.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#80

Post by toastercat »

ethanol-brain wrote: post #56
toastercat wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. But I would like to take it a step further -- anytime you visit a page anywhere on the internet, there is an unwritten social contract that you will not block ads or trackers. For this reason, adblock in itself is unethical and basically equivalent to piracy. Additionally, actors like Mozilla who build tracker-blocking tech into their browsers should be held accountable for encouraging this disgusting behavi…

No, the burden is on you. The web is public by default. If you join it and think there is a burden on your visitors to pay you by viewing some bullshit that you serve them from some megacorporation who sells their identity, you are the one being unethical.

This is classic "big corporations are bad". Simply put, the internet would be dead if it were not for megacorporations as you call them, like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Google have provided an invaluable source of information all for free. The least you can do is watch some ads and let them harvest your data.

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