YouTube's new anti-adblock measures • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#351

Post by zdragnar » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:15 AM UTC

throwaway31094 wrote: post #344

zdragnar wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a very simple answer. You want to watch some content. The content provider offers you two options: pay and get no ads, or watch for free and also sit through some ads. You are not obligated to watch ads. You are opting to watch them in exchange for the free content, then skipping out on a commitment you volunteered for while still taking the free content. The "unethical contact" argument is bullshit, because…

Do the less fortunate not deserve to have access to culture and information without being subjected to the psychological abuse that is advertising?

If they can't afford a YouTube subscription, they're not going to be buying anything that would be advertised anyway.

Let's be honest here, ads are trying to get you to buy things, but "psychological abuse" is a pretty extreme hyperbole, especially for people already in such tight poverty. They've got enough going on that someone trying to get them to buy shitty knives or switch their car insurance isn't going to be impactful.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#352

Post by plopz » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:25 AM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #162

k12sosse wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does Twitch do it? They're super aggressive and even using third party clients that do a good job and not displaying ads, you still get an occasional "commercial break" screen where they're not serving you the content, or the ad, just a "let's all go to the lobby" screen.

Those clients could be doing a better job - when twitch starts playing an ad on the main stream, they also provide a secondary stream that shows the actual content.

i believe that secondary stream is used for picture in picture so its lower quality, like 480p or something

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#353

Post by apitman » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:26 AM UTC

> On Firefox this is easily resolvable - you can use a HTML filter to filter out the script tag from the source HTML before the page even starts being parsed. But that relies on extension APIs that Chromium doesn’t support.

I'm shocked

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#354

Post by gs17 » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:28 AM UTC

tzs wrote: post #190

thangalin wrote: post #100

Mostly stolen from elsewhere: ! Stop sites from prompting to sign into Google account ||accounts.google.com/gsi/*$xhr,script,3p ! Stop annoying reels from littering friend feeds www.facebook.com##[aria-label="reel"]:upward(2) youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element-show youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel, false) youtube.com##+js(set, Object.proto…

> ! Remove "This video contains paid content" warning Why?

Not sure if it's the same one, but I managed to consistently click the "includes paid promotion" banner on video thumbnails so I open a tab with the help page explaining what sponsorships are instead of the video.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#355

Post by fsmv » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:29 AM UTC

sc11 wrote: post #46

I'd be happy to pay for premium if it actually removed all ads from the platform. I wish they forced creators to declare which segments of a video are ads for their sponsors and then removed or skipped them for premium users. Basically built-in Sponsorblock except not crowd-sourced. Alternatively, many creators already upload ad-free versions to their Patreon or other paywalled platforms, they could upload those to Y…

They actually do have this but it's only on the mobile app. Most videos if you tap to skip forward an auto skip button shows up.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#356

Post by osigurdson » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:31 AM UTC

I downloaded some free songs back in the Napster days but now I happily pay for or watch ads for any content that I consume. I have zero interest in ad blockers / other tricks as I want the content creators to get compensated.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#357

Post by andrekandre » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:31 AM UTC

Karupan wrote: post #325

stickfigure wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just pay for it? I have my whole family on my plan. Nobody gets ads. It is a bargain. You're right, I could probably finish my motorcycle build projects without videos. But why??

I’d gladly pay for YouTube or other Google services when they offer an option to not track my activity at all. For me it’s not about seeing ads just on YouTube, but being tracked all through the web and still being served inappropriate or spammy ads.

  > when they offer an option to not track my activity

this right here, im not opposed to paying for content, but the tracking and sharing is a big concern for me too

if all i'd watch are tv shows like netflix its one thing, but yt has such broad content i'd rather not be advertised/tracked about stuff i just clicked once and never again...

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#358

Post by rbits » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:32 AM UTC

tlogan wrote: post #239

Why do we justify blocking ads, even when we know the content we’re consuming isn’t free to create and even if the content is free, it still costs money to store and distribute? We often rationalize using ad blockers because ads can be intrusive or annoying. But let’s asking ourselves: Why do we feel entitled to get this for free? This isn’t a moral judgment. I genuinely want to understand the reasoning.

I don't feel entitled to it. I don't like the company Google

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#359

Post by zarzavat » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:33 AM UTC

tlogan wrote: post #239

Why do we justify blocking ads, even when we know the content we’re consuming isn’t free to create and even if the content is free, it still costs money to store and distribute? We often rationalize using ad blockers because ads can be intrusive or annoying. But let’s asking ourselves: Why do we feel entitled to get this for free? This isn’t a moral judgment. I genuinely want to understand the reasoning.

ARE YOU OVER 40 AND THE ONLY AI YOU KNOW IS CHATGPT?

The burden of proof is on the ads to justify why they should be watched, given that the ads themselves provide zero value to the viewer.

YouTube ads in particular are a cesspit of scams. I don't want to watch ads for things like Scientology.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#360

Post by eviks » Sat, Jun 21, 2025, 3:33 AM UTC

zdragnar wrote: post #322

whatshisface wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're asking the question in a way that's unreflective of how people think. They can do it and want to do it and would need a reason to not do it. So the question is, what would make someone feel like they were ethically compelled to watch an advertisement? It sounds impossible to me, maybe someone with a very unique perspective could chime in about themselves. Here's an attempt at a double-negative answer: you can'…

There's a very simple answer. You want to watch some content. The content provider offers you two options: pay and get no ads, or watch for free and also sit through some ads. You are not obligated to watch ads. You are opting to watch them in exchange for the free content, then skipping out on a commitment you volunteered for while still taking the free content. The "unethical contact" argument is bullshit, because…

> The content provider offers you two options: pay and get no ads, or watch for free and also sit through some ads.

You're wrong in both parts.

1. There is no way to pay to only remove all ads. YT premium bundles some music nonsense and also doesn't remove ads added by creators.

2. "Watching" isn't part of the contract, only "injected ads" are. Do you read every billboard in exchange for the benefit of better roads financed with ad revenue?