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YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

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Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#901

Post by l33tfr4gg3r »

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote: post #414

The primary thing that makes advertisements disagreeable is their irrelevance. That’s not to say whether or not the advertisement is for a product or service for which the viewer is interested in purchasing but how it relates to the context in which it is viewed. People complain about billboards next to a countryside highway because it is entirely irrelevant to driving through the countryside. Actual complaints may b…

The way I've come to think about this is that the relevance of the ad to you (as a YouTube viewer), is irrelevant. It matters not whether they are relevant to the content/topic of the video, or whether they are of the kind that SponsorBlock blocks, or those shown by YT algos. The ads serve one purpose, and one purpose alone - to bolster revenue for Google. What may have started out as a 'well-intentioned' (using the term loosely) means to recreate Costco-like ads for the digital realm in the early days of the web, was quickly consumed, like most everything else, by Corporate greed and morphed into a source of user frustration over time.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#902

Post by golergka »

zwnow wrote: post #523
scoofy wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also pay for YouTube. I do. It’s nice, not crazy expensive. No ads. Creators get paid. Everyone wins.

Why would you pay though its really simple to block ads and youtube is already rich enough. Why bow down to consumerism and enrichment of the already rich?

Because they provide a great service that delivers more value than the subscription is worth.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#903

Post by golergka »

Brian_K_White wrote: post #515
scoofy wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also pay for YouTube. I do. It’s nice, not crazy expensive. No ads. Creators get paid. Everyone wins.

I pay for youtube too and it still completely sucks. I hate when people try this bs. * I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it. * I pay for youtube but I don't always get to use my account. Other people's houses and devices exist. Other people's accounts exist even on my own device. * I pay for youtube and still have to get all the baked in ads. * I pay for youtube and have a wonderful black sc…

> * I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it.

The whole point of YouTube is watching your subscriptions or recommendations based on your previous history. What is your use case if you don't even want to be logged into it?

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#904

Post by dylan604 »

socalgal2 wrote: post #869
dylan604 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should look closely at the wildly inappropriate and downright scammy ads they are hosting This is one of the things that kills me. Even in broadcasting TV, you get typical :15, :30, :60 ads with the occasional :45 or longer :90. The ad pods are also defined so that you get a set number say something like 3:00 max. YT has scammy ads where if you are just trying to let something stream in the background while you…

You realize don't have to watch youtube right? I'm not saying I like it. I'm saying that because I don't like it I don't watch.

That's such a low effort bit of criticism of me calling out their scammy behavior. Yes, I could not watch, but that does nothing to solve the actual problem. By ignoring the problem, you're just giving them the okay to continue with scammy behavior. If they behaved like normal broadcasters and had standards on what ads they showed, I'd have much less of a problem. Some of the content that theGoogs allows and accepts and distributes is appalling.

Being unable to accept critical comments and just brush them off with "just don't watch" is just really not appropriate. You can also just not reply to comments on HN when you don't have anything that contributes the conversation, but yet you chose not to do that yourself.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#905

Post by lobf »

hirvi74 wrote: post #403
dylan604 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should look closely at the wildly inappropriate and downright scammy ads they are hosting This is one of the things that kills me. Even in broadcasting TV, you get typical :15, :30, :60 ads with the occasional :45 or longer :90. The ad pods are also defined so that you get a set number say something like 3:00 max. YT has scammy ads where if you are just trying to let something stream in the background while you…

> This is one of the things that kills me. Even in broadcasting TV, you get typical :15, :30, :60 ads with the occasional :45 or longer :90. You are absolutely on to something. I think the seemingly random length of ads makes them feel somewhat more jarring to me. I also hate how sometimes the ads are just randomly interjected into a video. I know creators can control this to some degree, but older videos seem to suf…

I use a plugin on Safari called Vinegar, which converts all videos to HTML5. Because of this, I can just scrub right through an ad of any length. Only use it when signed out of your account, though, because they will eventually ban you if you do it while logged in.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#906

Post by StefanBatory »

socalgal2 wrote: post #869
dylan604 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we should look closely at the wildly inappropriate and downright scammy ads they are hosting This is one of the things that kills me. Even in broadcasting TV, you get typical :15, :30, :60 ads with the occasional :45 or longer :90. The ad pods are also defined so that you get a set number say something like 3:00 max. YT has scammy ads where if you are just trying to let something stream in the background while you…

You realize don't have to watch youtube right? I'm not saying I like it. I'm saying that because I don't like it I don't watch.

"You criticise society, yet you live in it. Curious."

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#907

Post by SvenL »

wwweston wrote: post #848

Paying for YouTube has probably been the digital subscription with the single greatest return on a dozen dollars. Content is uninterrupted without having to engage in the arms race. Music selection is great. Random movies are available.

Yes, one thing for me is, that Youtube is offering music (in the form of videos) which you can't get on any other platform.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#908

Post by lrvick »

IshKebab wrote: post #862
kolektiv wrote: post #819

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As spoken by thousands of tech companies over and over - if only the ads were more relevant, users would like them! No, they never will. That's because an advert is effectively an unasked-for imposition on my attention intended to benefit somebody else more than it benefits me (should it be considered to benefit me at all ). There's a name for behaviour like that: rude. I am not blind to commercial imperatives, but e…

I totally disagree. There have once or twice been adverts that I've seen where I've thought "yes! I do want one of those!". Obviously I like those adverts. If there really was a way to magically make all adverts relevant then yes - users would like them! But that's a totally impossible ask. Not only do websites mostly have no idea what's relevant to me (even with all the tracking) but they obviously have huge financi…

Even if it is something I would like if a friend told me about it, if I am bombarded by ads I hate it and often will find or make an alternative.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#909

Post by georgebcrawford »

golergka wrote: post #903
Brian_K_White wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pay for youtube too and it still completely sucks. I hate when people try this bs. * I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it. * I pay for youtube but I don't always get to use my account. Other people's houses and devices exist. Other people's accounts exist even on my own device. * I pay for youtube and still have to get all the baked in ads. * I pay for youtube and have a wonderful black sc…

> * I don't want to have to have an account and be logged in to it. The whole point of YouTube is watching your subscriptions or recommendations based on your previous history. What is your use case if you don't even want to be logged into it?

That's only partially true for me. Recommendations? Not at all.

Subscriptions less and less. I can think of two that I regularly watch, and even those I'll just binge their most recent 2-3 every couple of months.

For me it's Ctrl/CMD+L "y [thing I'm searching for]" Enter.

I've dabbled with tools like PinchFlat to archive/stream via Jellyfin but there's niggles I haven't tackled.

Re: YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

#910

Post by whatevertrevor »

the_af wrote: post #440
BeetleB wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone really likes Youtube content - sure, I guess. For me the cost isn't worth it - when I compare with other streaming services. I got rid of the Youtube app from my Roku many months ago, and I haven't missed it. That wouldn't be the case for most other streaming apps that I still have. I think for me - right from the day Youtube launched - I never liked the interface. It's the worst streaming interface of all…

Hm, in my opinion there's no such thing as "YouTube content". Content, that's the blanket word I object to. What there is is people (and companies) uploading stuff. Some useful, some entertaining, some mindless, some for me, some not for me. I cannot say "YouTube content" is -- or is not -- for me because the notion is meaningless. Individual videos and channels are definitely for me, and are hard to find elsewhere.…

Yeah putting a reaction video in the same category as a video essayist/documentary is strange. In a sea of content farm videos there are still many interesting islands of thought-provoking stuff on youtube.
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