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Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#21

Post by comex »

HaEB4zcjbp wrote: post #4

https://adblockplus.org/ https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl

Personally, while I'm almost frustrated enough with YouTube ads to use an ad blocker, I'm hesitant to do so because the authors of the videos I watch are often precisely the kind of people I want to support, and I've heard YouTube is hard enough to depend on for income without people blocking ads. I'd love to have an option to directly pay money instead, but I doubt it'll ever happen.

Twitch.tv is similar but considerably more annoying - but it provides such an option, and I'm considering buying it, although (unlike YouTube) I probably don't watch enough Twitch videos for it to be worthwhile.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#22

Post by simcop2387 »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #13

I can confirm that. It also used to skip pre-rolls when you reloaded the page, now it will keep displaying the pre-roll until you watch it.

I've had it show the pre-roll ad every time I watch a video before, i suspect it's a malfunction but can never be sure.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#23

Post by yeukhon »

herbig wrote: post #7
HaEB4zcjbp wrote: post #4

https://adblockplus.org/ https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl

After having used adblock plus for like the last 2 years, I disabled it the other day and have been amazed at how terrible the Internet is without it.

You should read this: https://adblockplus.org/blog/acceptable-ads-by-the-numbers

after hearing a talk Robert Hansen gave at AppSec USA, I then realize why adblock plus has been doing a poor job :( it can't stop most of the pop ups and ads anymore.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#26

Post by ceejayoz »

Amadou wrote: post #19

The net is soooo ripe for a distributed replacement of Youtube, Facebook, Gmail, etc. Once upon a time those sorts of sites provided real value in hosting files, pictures, video and providing a well-known endpoint like gmail. But now we have phones with 64GB of flash for canonical storing of files, p2p protocols for efficient transfer of files and distributed hash tables for finding files. Someone is going to come al…

> But now we have phones with 64GB of flash for canonical storing of files, p2p protocols for efficient transfer of files and distributed hash tables for finding files.

And 2 GB data caps. I don't want my phone's hard drive, processing power, and my cell phone bill all being used up for P2P videos.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#27

Post by graeme »

alanctgardner2 wrote: post #8

I don't know why it did't happen sooner. I started pre-roll seeing ads on mobile as well, which I don't remember until recently. I don't get why it's disgusting. This is how video creators and Google are supposed to get paid. It's annoying to me that people want free content, and they keep pushing companies to "get traction first, then monetize". This is what has to happen, or else Google has to keep subsidizing prog…

Here's one example use case where the ads are horrible: playlists.

Youtube has these "top tracks" playlists. When I discover a new artist, I'll often put that on and go do something else.

If a rollover ad comes on, I have to come back to the computer, and click the "skip" button, since I'm not sitting down.

One thing I was wondering: does the content creator make money when I skip the ad, or only when I take some kind of action based on it?

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#28

Post by eloff »

Amadou wrote: post #19

The net is soooo ripe for a distributed replacement of Youtube, Facebook, Gmail, etc. Once upon a time those sorts of sites provided real value in hosting files, pictures, video and providing a well-known endpoint like gmail. But now we have phones with 64GB of flash for canonical storing of files, p2p protocols for efficient transfer of files and distributed hash tables for finding files. Someone is going to come al…

If you think it's so easy, then you build it. Some of that has been done, some of it has yet to be done. But so far it sucks compared to the centralized system.

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#29

Post by HaEB4zcjbp »

yeukhon wrote: post #23
herbig wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After having used adblock plus for like the last 2 years, I disabled it the other day and have been amazed at how terrible the Internet is without it.

You should read this: https://adblockplus.org/blog/acceptable-ads-by-the-numbers after hearing a talk Robert Hansen gave at AppSec USA, I then realize why adblock plus has been doing a poor job :( it can't stop most of the pop ups and ads anymore.

It does if you uncheck "Allow some non-intrusive advertising"

Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or has YouTube gone fanatical on ads?

#30

Post by dredmorbius »

HaEB4zcjbp wrote: post #4

https://adblockplus.org/ https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl

For people who are missing your second link: youtube-dl is a video downloader, and it works on far, far more than just YouTube.

The benefits: you download videos at your discretion and preference. You can archive them if you want (I do this largely for documentary / lecture videos), and play them back locally using the video player of your preference. I generally prefer either mplayer or xine, both offer keyboard controls over playback, vastly better rewind / forward control than YouTube's default player (or anyone else's for that matter), consistent video controls for all videos, and the ability to speed up (I run most straight presentation videos at 120 - 160% of normal) or slow down (things going boom) videos as desired.

Embedded players are OK for getting a quick sample of something or very brief content, but not for serious viewing.

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