Dear YouTube, if anyone there ever reads this.
I tried not to block ads, I would let the preroll go and usually not skip it.
I started skipping ads when they started getting long. I recall some were several minutes long at times.
I started leaving videos part way through when there were mid-roll ads, and those got long enough that I'd often forget what I was even watching.
I started blocking the ads outright when I would be watching a relaxing video, and a very loud mid-roll ad would blow out my goddamn eardrums.
Fuck you YouTube. You abused your users, you chased off good content creators, and now you're offering people no carrot and all stick. How about you offer to match the volume of the ads to the videos, limit the length of ads to something reasonable, and nicely tell viewers that you are making ads less annoying and that unblocking the ads helps pay the content creators.
to people saying YouTube is a moneysink for google:
yes it is, if you just look at direct expenses of running it. but you're overlooking the fact that it has enabled google to amass so much data(we're taking about 500 hours worth of videos being uploaded per minute) that they can train anything with it.
it's a service that's too big to fail. even whole governments, courts, and other institutions depend on it. so, I refuse to believe that YouTube will be non-existant because a sliver of users refuse to be profiled by invasive advertisements.
I haven’t watched live tv in almost 20 years because I refuse to sit through ads, and I definitely won’t sit through them on YouTube. If it was a banner or some thing on the page or the side of video that would be more acceptable, but sitting through ads to watch a YouTube video….there’s just no way.
Yeah I could care less about people saying they'd watch ads of they were less intrusive. I'm not, I don't give a fuck about YouTube's sustainability who happened to still have major growth while I ran an AdBlock this entire time.
Maybe I'd consider paying if YouTube was the actual product I was paying for. Instead I get privacy invasive spying and my data being harvested, while am paying to do so. The product I'd want to pay for would have zero privacy invasive stuff involved. Which that isn't going to exist, so I'm never going to pay.
I don't really know how people can even use YouTube without ad blockers. Sitting through minutes of advertisement is not going to make me want to buy your product if I start mentally associating your product with frustration and annoyance. If these video ads are going to be repetitive and annoying, at least make them funny.
It seems like there is nowhere on the Internet to get away from ads currently, even here, where you thought you are safe, you are now reading an ad for my newest movie (you know the one), now also available on streaming!
Youtube is getting on cable tv levels of bad. On a regular ~10min video you will first deal with a few preroll ads and at least one is unskippable, then the creator will have a 2+ minute sponsor segment (I don't mind those since they are usually well presented). There will also be multiple midroll ad spots.
Depending on video length, it's gonna soon be literally more ad than video. They are still stealing and selling your data though, and also making the web worse for everyone with DRM shit.
Fuck. Google.
I had already migrated to Invidious since last year because I degoogled everything. Seems like now its time to look for real youtube alternatives.
YouTube is the cable tv of 2023
https://github.com/gilbsgilbs/NewPipeSponsorBlock
Spread the word for non IT folks too! Fck up google! Google is evil!
See also, another attack from google: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity
Google recently announced that it's podcast service is shutting down and moving to YouTube music, I don't want or need YouTube music so I've already moved to Podcast Republic, it has a few ads but they can be removed with a small one off payment. Google just wants to shove all it's users into YouTube and YouTube music for maximum ads and data harvesting.
- 2025: Search removed. Spend a decade crippling the function, then claim the usage data support getting rid of it!
- 2027: Expiring updates. Juice those watch numbers with a new artificial scarcity measure. Marvel Bullshit 49 Theatrical Trailer, available for seven days only! Featuring AI Robin Williams and a Mr B_ast guest ad!
- 2028: Web Environment Integrity inserted. Hand warmer sales crater as mobile viewers relish their new handset functionality.
Fuck youtube
Yeah. This is becoming a problem with Google. Whatever they have created they just want to make it shit. Like everybody can't just pay and the amount of ads just makes it unwatchable.
On my firefox this rarely shows up though. I use the privacy extensions uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes.
"allowlisted" topkek
Lmao, time for anti anti-adblock! 🤣 https://reek.github.io/anti-adblock-killer/
A good ad blocker would be one that will still load the page as intended but not display the ads. There would be no way for the site to know you can't see them. Blocking their activation just signals the site that you are using an adblocker.
Edit: I was thinking more of a VM sandbox like another comment said
More PeerTube please!
Been getting that lately after successfully avoiding it for a bit. Just not gonna use it directly anymore.
Originally there was an X. Now I have to wait a few seconds before I can click the X. This pause gives me time to think if I really need to watch this video, which more and more often is turning into a "not really".
This is why we use Frontends... NewPipe, FreeTube, Invidious, Piped, etc c: Otherwise the nuclear option; "mpv https://youtu.be/url"
Yeah. This is becoming a problem with Google. Whatever they have created they just want to make it shit. Like everybody can't just pay and the amount of ads just makes it unwatchable.
On my firefox this rarely shows up though. I use the privacy extensions uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Decentraleyes.
Quick fix, if you click "Report issue" and then close the dialog that pops up, they give you an x to close this.
Streisand effect
I just wanted to say that uBlock works in removing the annoying warning. But it doesn't prevent youtube from blocking your access to videos. I'm right now in the situation that I can't watch any video until tomorrow, despite uBlock and stuff.
EDIT: Screw you, Google, now I'm watching youtube videos on VLC.
Permanently Deleted
Look this is different than pirating a game or bypassing a newspaper paywall. Watching content on YouTube simply costs money to YouTube. It's not like torrenting a game or movie, where while you haven't paid for the content, it didn't cost anything to the owner other than theoretical revenue. And it's not like bypassing a newspaper paywall, either, where the cost to the newspaper to serve you the story is practically negligible and the real costs are fixed and not related to how many people actually read the story.
Hosting video costs money and nobody can replace YouTube's massive library or realistically replicate their business model. I mean just look at image/gif hosting sites, they constantly go bust like Photobucket because storing everyone's pictures forever and for free isn't not a real business model.
YouTube needs to be paid for its gonna go the way of Photobucket.
Youtube is squeezing one party really hard while pretending the other party doesn't owe shit to keep their monopoly. Start charging uploaders. If YouTube needs to up what they're earning because of things like bandwidth cost and what not make uploaders cover some of that cost. They're a business making money off of the platform so charge them.
