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YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

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Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#91
post #29

Having to pay for something so that's "less annoying" is the worst business model. YouTube Premium is very expensive. I had it for a while when I got a Pixel smartphone with a few months of YouTube Premium included. It was great. I also understand that streaming on this scale must entail incredibly high operating costs; the money has to come from somewhere. It's simply a dilemma. But there has to be a better way. Any…

In 2025 it's actually not that expensive. CDNs aggressively drive down the cost of streaming video. A 1080p music video costs about one tenth of one cent to serve to one person at retail CDN rates. You could easily host this yourself and decide what the terms are to view it. E.g. ads, or paywall or free because you benefit from the exposure. Once upon a time AdSense/YouTube saved you from getting an unmanageable $5,0…

Assuming your numbers are correct, you’re ignoring all the rest of the infra

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#92
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s a rationalization. Most people just don’t like ads no matter what they are. And I can’t blame them, ads are terrible. But this is a case where they offer a nice subscription that takes them all away, so people ought to buy that instead.

I pay for YouTube Premium, but what I am afraid will happen is that once enough users opt to pay for the service, YouTube may pull an Amazon Prime and show ads, and then ask for more money to not see the ads.

Same. But I'll certainly enjoy it while it lasts.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#93

If they ran less hostile ads, people wouldn't be as hostile to watching their ads. Some of the ads they run are just ridiculous and awful. Ads for scams, soft-core porn ads, just the worst of the worst.

Where are you located? I've never seen any of those. Pretty much all of my YouTube ads are for TV shows, movies, cars, mobile games, consumer products, and various consumer services. Volkswagen, Dove, TurboTax, etc. All incredibly mainstream. Maybe you're located in a country or region maintain advertisers avoid?

In Germany, they keep showing me Israeli propaganda ads. Couldn’t imagine a better adblock reminder myself.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#95
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 2025 it's actually not that expensive. CDNs aggressively drive down the cost of streaming video. A 1080p music video costs about one tenth of one cent to serve to one person at retail CDN rates. You could easily host this yourself and decide what the terms are to view it. E.g. ads, or paywall or free because you benefit from the exposure. Once upon a time AdSense/YouTube saved you from getting an unmanageable $5,0…

Youtube is $14/month. netflix is $17/month. That is VERY expensive, considering that most of Netflix's cost is production. Youtube has almost no production costs. Their users create content. Maybe if they paid their users more, so they didn't also have to add 'sponsor segments' inside their video's it would make more sense. The bundling music for the same price is the same crap cable and phone companies have been doi…

YouTube gives, I think, 55% of revenue (not just profits) to creators, which could be considered similar to production costs making up a majority of expenses.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#96
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are you located? I've never seen any of those. Pretty much all of my YouTube ads are for TV shows, movies, cars, mobile games, consumer products, and various consumer services. Volkswagen, Dove, TurboTax, etc. All incredibly mainstream. Maybe you're located in a country or region maintain advertisers avoid?

In Germany, they keep showing me Israeli propaganda ads. Couldn’t imagine a better adblock reminder myself.

Subtle Godwin’s law

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#99
post #3

I get they want to work against ad blockers, but as a Premium member I really wish there was an easy way to watch a video without it polluting my history or recommendations. I don't want to watch ads just due to that.

Account Switcher > Turn on Incognito. (Not the chrome incognito, but YouTube incognito)

IME this turns off the premium benefits, stupidly

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#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.prototype.adBlocksFound, 0)
    youtube.com##+js(set, ytplayer.config.args.raw_player_response.adPlacements, [])
    youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.hasAllowedInstreamAd, true)

    ! Don't use the obnoxious new bold font for titles, use the old font instead
    www.youtube.com###title h1 yt-formatted-string:style(font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important; font-weight: 400 !important;)
    www.youtube.com##h3.ytd-playlist-panel-renderer .title .yt-formatted-string:style(font-family: Arial, sans-serif !important; font-weight: 400 !important;)

    ! Remove branding bugs in the bottom corner
    www.youtube.com##div.iv-branding
    www.youtube.com##.annotation.annotation-type-custom.iv-branding

    ! Disable live video previews on hover
    www.youtube.com##+js(aeld, /^(?:mousemove|pointermove|pointerenter)$/, buttons)

    ! Remove "Scroll for details"
    www.youtube.com##.ytp-button.ytp-fullerscreen-edu-button

    ! Remove "This video contains paid content" warning
    www.youtube.com##.ytp-paid-content-overlay

    ! Remove badges
    www.youtube.com##.ytd-compact-video-renderer.style-scope.badges
    www.youtube.com##ytd-badge-supported-renderer.ytd-video-primary-info-renderer

    ! Remove badges in lists, expand video title to fill that space again
    www.youtube.com##.ytd-badge-supported-renderer.style-scope.badge-style-type-verified.badge
    www.youtube.com###menu > .ytd-compact-video-renderer.style-scope
    www.youtube.com##.ytd-compact-video-renderer.style-scope.metadata:style(padding-right:0!important)

    ! Remove chat
    www.youtube.com###chat

    ! Remove sidebar
    www.youtube.com##ytd-mini-guide-renderer.ytd-app.style-scope
    www.youtube.com##ytd-app[mini-guide-visible] ytd-page-manager.ytd-app:style(margin-left:0px!important)

    ! Remove the shadow over the top of videos
    www.youtube.com##div.ytp-gradient-top
    www.youtube.com##.ytp-chrome-top

    ! Reduce opacity of the shadow over the bottom of videos
    www.youtube.com##div.ytp-gradient-bottom:style(opacity: 55% !important)

    ! Reduce opacity of video length labels
    www.youtube.com##ytd-thumbnail-overlay-time-status-renderer.ytd-thumbnail.style-scope:style(opacity:75% !important)

    ! Remove Next button. I only ever hit this accidentally, losing my place
    ! and my playback buffer >:-[
    www.youtube.com##.ytp-left-controls > .ytp-button.ytp-next-button

    ! Remove Miniplayer button
    www.youtube.com##.ytp-button.ytp-miniplayer-button

    ! Force YouTube to display the complete copyright information in the description
    www.youtube.com###expanded-metadata:style(display:block !important)

    ! Don't load the preview image before the video loads (saves some bandwidth)
    ||i.ytimg.com/vi_webp/*/maxresdefault.webp
    ||i.ytimg.com/vi/*/maxresdefault.jpg

    ! Remove interactions (eg if you never login to YouTube)
    www.youtube.com###like-button
    www.youtube.com###dislike-button
    www.youtube.com###sponsor-button
    www.youtube.com###hover-overlays
    www.youtube.com###subscribe-button
    www.youtube.com###flexible-item-buttons
    www.youtube.com###button-shape
    www.youtube.com###reply-button-end

    ! Remove sidebar items that are only applicable to logged-in users
    www.youtube.com##ytd-guide-section-renderer.ytd-guide-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(1)
    www.youtube.com##ytd-guide-section-renderer.ytd-guide-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2)

    ! Remove "Watch Later" and "Add to Queue"
    www.youtube.com###hover-overlays

    ! Remove the "skeleton" shown before the page loads
    www.youtube.com##.skeleton
    www.youtube.com###info-skeleton
    www.youtube.com###meta-skeleton
    www.youtube.com###owner-name
    www.youtube.com##.skeleton-bg-color
    www.youtube.com###home-page-skeleton
    www.youtube.com###masthead-skeleton-icons
    ||www.youtube.com/s/desktop/*/cssbin/www-main-desktop-watch-page-skeleton.css
    ||www.youtube.com/s/desktop/*/cssbin/www-main-desktop-player-skeleton.css

    ! Remove the live previews on the scrubber bar (saves some bandwidth, but
    ! not worth it IMO)
    ||i.ytimg.com/sb/*
    www.youtube.com##div.ytp-tooltip-bg
    www.youtube.com##div.ytp-tooltip-image
    www.youtube.com##div.ytp-tooltip:style(border-radius:0px;!important)*
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