YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#61

Post by siddheshgunjal » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:26 PM UTC

louison11 wrote: post #17

This marks the moment Google officially decided it didn’t know how to innovate any longer, and that it’s time to grab all they can to increase the bottom line. Most technology companies follow this same cycle. When they’re in the innovation/disruption phase, there are less rules, they just focus on giving people the best experience. When they start stagnating, suddenly every cent matters. The irony is that the profil…

Every innovation they have tried themselves has failed and they just discontinued it. Other good things they have done are actually by buying other startups and then using their tech .

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#62

Post by kazinator » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:26 PM UTC

aestetix wrote: post #3

https://github.com/0x48piraj/fadblock

Fadblock doesn't go far enough; it should simulate clicking on the ad, loading and discarding the landing page in the background.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#63

Post by beej71 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:27 PM UTC

Lio wrote: post #27

It's not the ads it's the tracking. Paying for Youtube premium doesn't stop them spying on you.

For me, it was the ads more than the tracking. But after a while, I couldn't in good conscience pay Google any longer. They're not a good netizen, and if they luckily go bankrupt, I won't shed a tear.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#64

Post by ssl232 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:28 PM UTC

louison11 wrote: post #17

This marks the moment Google officially decided it didn’t know how to innovate any longer, and that it’s time to grab all they can to increase the bottom line. Most technology companies follow this same cycle. When they’re in the innovation/disruption phase, there are less rules, they just focus on giving people the best experience. When they start stagnating, suddenly every cent matters. The irony is that the profil…

I'm not even convinced they'll make more money clamping down on ad blocking this way. I'd happily pay £1 or £2 a month for no ads, which is still infinitely more than they make out of me now (given I never willingly click on, engage with or otherwise view their or anyone else's ads), but I know a rip-off when I see one and £12.99/month definitely is.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#65

Post by linker3000 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:28 PM UTC

karmasimida wrote: post #12

You can always choose not to use Youtube if you hate Ads so much.

Well, if that's their rules, it's a choice.

If you pick up a free newspaper on a commmute, or, say, a community "What's on" sponsored by ads, does someone look over your shoulder and insist you read every ad before they let you turn the page?

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#66

Post by beej71 » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:28 PM UTC

beepbooptheory wrote: post #60

squarefoot wrote: post #13

"Hey, AI, connect to YT using my browser and account with adblockers turned off, then check the usual channels grabbing new videos, then strip out all advertising content and make them available to me and my friends over this p2p encrypted connection."

Isn't it a little optimistic though to think that the AI itself will be free from advertising/grubby-monetization in the scheme of things? Sure, it feels great now, and maybe even you can pay for the GPU and run it on your own, but not everyone will, and either way the future is long! It just feels inevitable that somebody or something will come to collect one day, in one form or the other.

"Here's your pirated ad-free YouTube stream, brought to you by Carl's Jr!"

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#67

Post by Semaphor » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:28 PM UTC

FF, Win, uBo. I got "3 more videos till you'll be blocked" and that was it. "Watched" several more videos, but no more popups, no more nagging.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#68

Post by WirelessGigabit » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:29 PM UTC

This morning while trying to understand laser eye surgery I got an ad for some supplement that's supposed to make my eyesight perfect.

It's not even that they try to sell you a product. They're straight up scamming you.

I'll use an Adblocker.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#69

Post by pkroll » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:29 PM UTC

sva_ wrote: post #18

Aken wrote: post #10

I feel like I'm in the minority that has zero problem paying for an ad-free experience. I get tremendous value out of YouTube in both professional and personal ways. I have a daughter who watches it often. Suppressing ads while supporting the service my family enjoys regularly seems like a no-brainer to me. And I never have to worry about them circumventing my ad blocker.

Yeah but I have a problem with being bullied into paying them. It will just make me want to make their engineers life a pain by working on work-arounds.

I'm with nickthegreek: I hate ads, but YouTube saying you can't make use of our service without paying or seeing ads isn't bullying.

Re: YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

#70

Post by jlhawn » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 9:32 PM UTC

Aken wrote: post #10

I feel like I'm in the minority that has zero problem paying for an ad-free experience. I get tremendous value out of YouTube in both professional and personal ways. I have a daughter who watches it often. Suppressing ads while supporting the service my family enjoys regularly seems like a no-brainer to me. And I never have to worry about them circumventing my ad blocker.

I have zero problem paying for ad-free... but what I do have a problem with is that I have no ad-free only option. You have no choice but to also pay for their music streaming service for $14 per month when other, subjectively better music services are only $11 per month. They should have an ad-free a la carte option for something like $6 per month.