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

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

#411

Post by guerrilla »

Saris wrote: post #405
guerrilla wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If we take say, Vultr as an example for outgoing data costs, that's something like $100,000 of data for a single video. I'm not really sure what you didn't understand about distributing the video and cost.

Can you explain it a little? Because I'm not sure I get it. As far as I know peertube is centralized with a P2P element on top, but P2P only works if at least one side has an open port.

It sounds like you get it but what I'm saying is you just add colo'd (or whatever) peers. Nobody in particular needs to be responsible for that. Bandwidth in Eastern Europe, for example, is dirt cheap - practically free. It'd be similar to how we do Mastodon: a bunch of different peer networks with a bunch of different funding and management models. You don't need to rely on the instance server for hosting, just initial seeding. Think of it like the original seeder in BitTorrent (a model which we see working great to this day because people rent dirt cheap seedboxes.)

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

#412

Post by aeze »

dageshi wrote: post #280
simiones wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They _say_ they will, but I find often people will want to substitute their own terms (Well, youtube premium is $x, but I think it's only worth $y, so I'm going to just block ads completely). That just means, by definition, that the prices YouTube are trying to charge are too high, doesn't it? What we're seeing is basically a negotiation tactic: you either reduce the price, or we'll keep using ad blockers. Not to m…

In this circumstance there isn't a price those people would be willing to pay. They simply want the service for free, refuse to pay but are unwilling to come out and say as much, so they use host of justifications to avoid it.

I think they are simply saying they’d rather not have the platform at all than pay for it.

Which is fair.

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

#413

Post by lopis »

CubsFan1060 wrote: post #259
jacquesm wrote: post #234

What is most interesting about this whole adblocking war: we're winning. If we weren't youtube/Google wouldn't be making such a fuss. So keep it up. I can also heartily recommend the 'unhook' browser extension, it takes care of all of those upsells and feeds.

What does winning mean in this context? If we take this to an extreme, doesn't content just not get made? Do you think Google is going to go to a model where things are freely accessible without ads? Feels like even when a company provides a way to get rid of ads, many people still won't pay. They _say_ they will, but I find often people will want to substitute their own terms (Well, youtube premium is $x, but I thin…

If content creators leave YouTube for better platforms, and those platforms become even better as a consequence, I count that as a big win. I would love if platforms like Nebula would get a real chance at life. But nebula is only for educational content. I miss the comedy part of YouTube and would gladly pay the same I pay nebula for an extra "comedy tube" subscription of comparable content quality.

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

#414

Post by tibbydudeza »

zlg_codes wrote: post #188
tibbydudeza wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same kind of folks who refused to accept the reality of MP3 and punted Ogg Vorbis. Is it really worth $13.99 to die on - nope it is not.

That's $13.99/mo, so it's $168/yr or so. I don't even spend that much on games every year. Youtube is stupid if they think I'll pay $14/mo for access to anything.

But how much you spend eating out/DoorDash/Uber Eats in a month ???.

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

#415

Post by whywhywhywhy »

miki123211 wrote: post #138
CrzyLngPwd wrote: post #57

Youtube seems to me to be a bullshit test platform. They will work around ad blockers and continue to pile on repetitive and banal adverts that have nothing to do with the user until they reach breaking point (where people flee and seek alternatives), and then they will relax their system to show marginally less bullshit. The confusing part of this battle is the app users, who do not agree with the avalanche of adver…

Video hosting is expensive and needs to be paid for somehow. Any competitor will have the same problems as Youtube does. You can go the Nebula route and require users to pay (which means far fewer users) or require creators to pay (which means far fewer creators). You could also require creators to host the videos themselves, but that also requires money, expertise and causes downtime when a video goes viral. There's…

>Video hosting is expensive and needs to be paid for somehow

If it's SO expensive, and SO needs to be paid somehow by someone why do they waste so much time and money trying to push videos on me I've either A) Already watched, B) have blocked and said "Don't recommend this channel" or C) are not even related to my search query at all, yeah YouTube I'm aware Sniperwolf and MrBeast exist, No I don't want to watch them now or ever I'm searching for pasta recipes and I'm certain you have more than 4 you could show me before trying to get me to watch asinine sniperbeast content.

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

#416

Post by throwuwu »

musictubes wrote: post #341
throwuwu wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure and platforms _say_ they will give you an ad free experience if you pay them a monthly fee but they always wind up adding ads once they’ve captured their audience.

So you don’t support them because of what they might do later? That’s insane. Support the platforms you like right now. If they get worse you stop supporting them. “Captured” is such a dramatic term. Nothing stops a person from walking away from a video service. Can’t help but think the worry about future ads is simply rationalization for pirating now.

I have a hard time having sympathy for a platform that ruined my suggested videos feed and then proceeds to put two unskippable ads plus a skippable one at the start of videos plus more ads in the middle and end. When uBlock stopped working I actually stuck with chrome and thought I’d give ads a shot knowing that some of the money would go to creators but the ads literally got worse over the course of a few weeks so I’m happily going back to blocking now.

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

#417

Post by jrm4 »

CubsFan1060 wrote: post #259
jacquesm wrote: post #234

What is most interesting about this whole adblocking war: we're winning. If we weren't youtube/Google wouldn't be making such a fuss. So keep it up. I can also heartily recommend the 'unhook' browser extension, it takes care of all of those upsells and feeds.

What does winning mean in this context? If we take this to an extreme, doesn't content just not get made? Do you think Google is going to go to a model where things are freely accessible without ads? Feels like even when a company provides a way to get rid of ads, many people still won't pay. They _say_ they will, but I find often people will want to substitute their own terms (Well, youtube premium is $x, but I thin…

It's utterly bizarre to me that this people still get this idea that everything would just stop?

Peertube et al exist. Patreon exists. Vimeo, Twitch, Tiktok. On one hand I'm absolutely aware that the TYPE of video content we have would change.

On the other, I'm not at all convinced that the destruction of YouTubes particular monetizing model would be a bad thing. I don't think much of value at all would be lost if people couldn't make money off Youtube the way they do now.

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

#418

Post by tmtvl »

jacquesm wrote: post #345
dageshi wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube premium also pays out the content creators you watch in lieu of the ads you don't watch does it not? At least that was my understanding. If so it's not just the infrastructure cost which itself is not trivial for a site like youtube.

Infrastructure costs are such that they're a rounding error on the total google budget.

With all respect, do you have a source for that? I thought Alphabet was losing money hand over fist on YT before they started being so aggressive with the ads.

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

#419

Post by shortsunblack »

Very likely probing user client state to detect ad-blockers without consent is illegal in EU law.

Directive 2002/58/EC legal text: 3. Member States shall ensure that the use of electronic communications networks to store information or to gain access to information stored in the terminal equipment of a subscriber or user is only allowed on condition that the subscriber or user concerned is provided with clear and comprehensive information in accordance with Directive 95/46/EC, inter alia about the purposes of the processing, and is offered the right to refuse such processing by the data controller. This shall not prevent any technical storage or access for the sole purpose of carrying out or facilitating the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network, or as strictly necessary in order to provide an information society service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user.

Alexander Hanff has been fighting the fight to make this a reality and recognized by courts.

Mainstream media coverage of the story: https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/7/23950513/youtube-ad-block...

Not only it is illegal, it's also not at all how HTTP was designed to work. If a business use case makes it so that the system doesn't want to serve a request, the server can (and should) return one of 4xx error messages. Returning with OK and then doing invasive malware-esque data mining is not A-OK.

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

#420

Post by shortsunblack »

blibble wrote: post #146
autoexec wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Perhaps Google should reassess its business strategy and start monetizing creators, not users. It is literally not our responsibility to develop sound business strategy for billion dollar corpos. They can hire McKinsey for that.
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