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FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

freetubeapp.io

61–70 of 259 posts

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#61
post #57

I think as developers we have to be careful that we don't overstep logical boundaries. Youtube provides a free service that hosts immense volumes of video and creates an ecosystem allowing creators to earn a living. It's selfish to use the services of YouTube while removing their main source of revenue. If you have a problem with YouTube's tracking, simply don't use it

If there was a pay to anonymously support Youtube creators directly with micropayments using only open source privacy respecting software like LBRY does, I would use it. Sadly YouTube has monopolized a lot of content, has mandatory tracking, and also censors and suppresses things and uses algorithms to put people in maximally profitable filter bubbles regardless of mental health. Ideally more creators will realize th…

You can pay for ad free YouTube by paying for YouTube Premium. No annoying micropayments. All the content with none of the ads.

It does not satisfy your anonymous requirement but very little does. Most content creators appreciate (directly or indirectly) the features a non anonymous platform provides.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#62
post #53

People here talking about how they don't want YouTube to make a profile of their preferences, and here I am, wishing YouTube had a better profile of my preferences. Lately, there is almost no new videos in my recommendation feed. It's mostly either the things I've already watched or new videos from the channels I'm already subscribed to. It really feels like I've exhausted the internet at some point. This can't possi…

As it is a new development (been seeing the same thing happen since a few months ago, and lot of people seem to have the complaint), I'd assume YouTube is exactly taking account all the data it has on its users, and are applying what they see as the best strategy for their bottom line.

I wouldn't expect more data or better profiling to bridge that gap.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#63
post #53

People here talking about how they don't want YouTube to make a profile of their preferences, and here I am, wishing YouTube had a better profile of my preferences. Lately, there is almost no new videos in my recommendation feed. It's mostly either the things I've already watched or new videos from the channels I'm already subscribed to. It really feels like I've exhausted the internet at some point. This can't possi…

Where oh where can I get a body cavity search?! Won't anybody tell me?

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#64

I think as developers we have to be careful that we don't overstep logical boundaries. Youtube provides a free service that hosts immense volumes of video and creates an ecosystem allowing creators to earn a living. It's selfish to use the services of YouTube while removing their main source of revenue. If you have a problem with YouTube's tracking, simply don't use it

This is how I feel about all the bold circumvention of paywalls. It’s a legally fuzzy area in some cases, but to me at least, it is basically people saying, “here, let me help you steal!”

When you consume ads, tracking supported content, and money-sorted content targeting, you are voting that it is okay to give anyone the ability to modify your behavior, and of others in your network and household.

People are told their only options are to consent to corporate behavior modification or be effectively ejected from modern society.

That is a bullshit choice and everyone should feel no guilt for opting to consume content anonymously. In fact many -need- to do this to protect themselves from politicians who are unfriendly to basic human rights.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#65
post #53

People here talking about how they don't want YouTube to make a profile of their preferences, and here I am, wishing YouTube had a better profile of my preferences. Lately, there is almost no new videos in my recommendation feed. It's mostly either the things I've already watched or new videos from the channels I'm already subscribed to. It really feels like I've exhausted the internet at some point. This can't possi…

I found that disabling autoplay helped with this. I regularly watch youtube while getting to sleep. It would end up autoplaying previously seen videos all night, which I guess trained it to think I loved rewatching the same videos over and over.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#67
post #58

I think as developers we have to be careful that we don't overstep logical boundaries. Youtube provides a free service that hosts immense volumes of video and creates an ecosystem allowing creators to earn a living. It's selfish to use the services of YouTube while removing their main source of revenue. If you have a problem with YouTube's tracking, simply don't use it

This sounds plausible enough until you examine it and realize you're turning viewing ads into some kind of moral duty. "Have you witnessed the requisite quantity of behavior-modifying media today, Citizen? Remember, we all have to do our part. I see you only internalized five minutes' worth yesterday. This is below target. Your beliefs and desires have not been sufficiently altered to meet corporate goals. We require…

What is immoral is people being told to either give up all privacy or stop using the internet.

A true third choice does not exist, so we are left with no choice but to create one. Strip the ads and remove the trackers until alternatives like anonymous micro-transactions are implemented.

This needs to go down like DRM. When enough people voted no to DRM by obtaining music via alternative channels, music sales portals started dropped DRM letting people have unrestricted copies of what they paid for.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#68

I think as developers we have to be careful that we don't overstep logical boundaries. Youtube provides a free service that hosts immense volumes of video and creates an ecosystem allowing creators to earn a living. It's selfish to use the services of YouTube while removing their main source of revenue. If you have a problem with YouTube's tracking, simply don't use it

> It's selfish to use the services of YouTube while removing their main source of revenue.

The entire edifice of Capitalism, which we celebrate, is built on selfishness. And yet you use the word here as if it were a bad thing. I am confused :)

> If you have a problem with YouTube's tracking, simply don't use it

Why "simply" avoid a problem when with some effort you can improve it? In this case optimising the service to make it free from ads and tracking appears to be an improvement.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#69
post #54

How is this any different than running youtube in a Firefox container? I feel like it's a lot of reinventing the wheel if you have to do things like Sponsorblock, Adblock, etc. all over again instead of just relying on your current browser setup.

You can route all traffic through community invidious instances so Google can not even track what content is consumed by your IP.

It also automatically skips all ads, even sponsor segments in videos.

You also avoid needing to have a Google account to keep up with subscriptions, and you avoid content suppression as the sponsor-prioritized advertiser-friendly algorithms are turned off.

Re: FreeTube – A Private YouTube Client

#70
post #53

People here talking about how they don't want YouTube to make a profile of their preferences, and here I am, wishing YouTube had a better profile of my preferences. Lately, there is almost no new videos in my recommendation feed. It's mostly either the things I've already watched or new videos from the channels I'm already subscribed to. It really feels like I've exhausted the internet at some point. This can't possi…

The goal of the YouTube algorithm is not to give you great videos but keep you mildly entertained for long periods of time.

In my experience the 'suggested videos' next to the video you're watching is more than good enough to get recs.

I use newpipe and put all the videos I like in a playlist. So everytime I want new videos I just scroll through the list, click on a video and just try something from suggested videos.

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