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YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

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Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#631

Post by throwawayyy9382 »

crop_rotation wrote: post #126

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

At least for me, YouTube premium does not work because I do not want Google to save everyting I watch, that's why I use it as unlogged. I already have a gmail account, I use Google search, therefore Google has already quite amount of data about me, let's just not have it my Youtube history also.

When Youtube arrived first, I had an account with some playlists, then Google decided to merge account and asked me to switch a google account in order to keep my youtube account, that was the time I decided not to have an account on Youtube and subscribtion requires an account.

Also for subscriptions generally, thing are getting wild. There are several paid video / streaming services. Just to be able to watch 3 or 4 shows requires almost being subscribed to all streaming services, which is both expensive (at least for some part of the world) and ridicilous.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#633

Post by ben_w »

crop_rotation wrote: post #126

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

> Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources

How much would they save if "free" users only got 480p videos?

I'd be fine with 480p resolution.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#634

Post by BlueTemplar »

seanhunter wrote: post #627

I would happily pay for youtube premium if: - They removed the useless "shorts" - They removed the "mix" things that keep coming back like a bad smell - They let me remove youtube music - Their suggestions were less terrible. Like seriously they run the biggest data centers in the world, have some of the best ML researchers and know what I actually watch. How do they manage to be so consistently bad at this? - Their…

- if they weren't a platform

- if they weren't owned by Google

I have been burned, yet again, by YouTube just deciding that my comments were spam and removing at least the last half dozen of them. At least they haven't shadowbanned them this time.

And of course I got no warnings whatsoever about this, and trying to contact Google about this issue is likely to be a waste of time.

This is an enormous abuse of moderation (and a violation of netiquette) that I have only ever seen on platforms.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#635

Post by bdlowery »

xurukefi wrote: post #598

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Ad blocker detection is an arms race and considering how big YouTube is, people will definitely fight back and go very far out of their way to avoid ads. This could get really ugly given that Google controls Chrome and its extension ecosystem.

It’s not an arms race. Twitch has already figured it out. It’s absolutely impossible to use any sort of adblocker on twitch. It’s so bad that the best solution to “block ads” on twitch is to use a proxy to a country that isn’t serving ads.

Unless twitch has some crazy way of inserting ads into the video stream, YouTube will be able to do exactly what twitch has done.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#636

Post by Deestan »

plorkyeran wrote: post #574
tired-turtle wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also get YouTube Music, which is not as great as Spotify, but nonetheless worth something. In fact, that’s the primary reason everyone I know who has YouTube Premium subscribes: music steaming + ad-free YouTube. That needs to be factored into your calculation, no?

No, a bundled second thing that I won't use is worth $0 and so does not have to be factored in.

It's even worse, as they actively degrade the features you use.

With movies and music in the mix, international licensing agreements needs to be respected.

In short, I paid for YouTube premium to avoid ads. Then I travelled to another country where YouTube didn't have licensing rights for all of their movies and music, so my premium account was just disabled completely and I got ads again.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#637

Post by squeaky-clean »

chunes3 wrote: post #161
Zetice wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just cannot wrap my head around folks who demand content for free. How do you think the people who create this content would survive if they couldn't do it for money???

Some of us are from a time before the web was commercialized. The answer to your question is we couldn't care less. If these people who make "content" as a means of making money go bankrupt, it's no skin off our backs. It will make more room for people who host genuine works on the web.

Or it will just lead to more sponsored segments and product placement in "free" videos. Every semi-popular youtuber already has segments where they stop the actual content and talk about NordVPN or HelloFresh or Manscaped.

It's hard for me to find good reviews of Synthesizers because almost every video about a new one is a sponsored video where the instrument was given to the youtuber for free.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#639

Post by scrollaway »

seanhunter wrote: post #627

I would happily pay for youtube premium if: - They removed the useless "shorts" - They removed the "mix" things that keep coming back like a bad smell - They let me remove youtube music - Their suggestions were less terrible. Like seriously they run the biggest data centers in the world, have some of the best ML researchers and know what I actually watch. How do they manage to be so consistently bad at this? - Their…

I don’t understand. You would pay for YouTube premium if youtube had less features?

I don’t use shorts and for a long time I didn’t use YouTube music either (despite paying for premium). I now use it because it’s rather good.

And YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is crazy good, but you have to tune it. It’s a tool. You tune it by not watching shitty videos you don’t like; if you do, remove them from your history afterwards and hit thumbs down on them. Subscribe to channels you like and thumbs up videos you really like. All these things are strong signals and the recommendation algorithm will vastly improve if you do this.

I mean it when I say it’s the absolute most useful tool there is in terms of discovery on the web.

But yes their search sucks more ass than a donkey vacuum.

Re: YouTube tests blocking videos unless you disable ad blockers

#640

Post by geraldhh »

ben_w wrote: post #633
crop_rotation wrote: post #126

YouTube premium perfectly showcases why ads dominate the internet, because even when there is a paid option for a service much cheaper than any alternative, people do not want to pay (And I am not talking about too broke to pay cases). Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources (And yes Netflix is not comparable, unlike YouTube, Netflix can highly leverage cache boxes at ISPs). Vime…

> Serving an infinite video catalog is very expensive in terms of all resources How much would they save if "free" users only got 480p videos? I'd be fine with 480p resolution.

don't be so modest.

720p is an acceptable low bar

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