So I’ve been using youtube ad blockers since pretty much when ad blocker extensions were first available. Lately though I’ve been getting hit more and more with these messages that YT was sending out every 5 or so videos telling me that adblockers aren’t allowed. No problem, just gotta wait 5 seconds to x it out and then close my video. The straw that broke the camel’s back though was when instead of a close-able pop-up, they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn’t let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.
So I disabled it and… wow. It’s just so, so, trash. 2 ads before a video plus midrolls and every video ever. I tried listening to a playlist of songs and was getting a midroll ad every single time. Imagine trying to just listen to music for 3 minutes and getting interrupted by a commercial for a chevy silverado! Half the ads were for youtube premium and they specifically mentioned that it would get rid of all the ads. It just felt so damn predatory. I couldn’t enjoy anything that wasn’t already demonetized.
And you know I’m fine with ads I guess. I could live with an ad before every video, but the fact that I was getting upwards of 5 ads in a 10 minute video was just plain absurd. I also hate that youtube got rid of the yellow markers to show you when an ad was coming up, so now it’s just out of nowhere and always interrupts a key part of the video.
E: I’ve been on Firefox for over a year.
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For me, what works perfectly is this setup:
Desktop – Adguard
Android – YouTube ReVanced
Never get adverts ever. The day I’m forced is the day I stop using it altogether.
If it says they aren’t allowed should I turn off my ad block or should I just hit okay and leave it enabled?
Don’t give up your privacy by disabling adblocker. In my view I enabled AdBlock on anything I own. If YT will be persistent about it, I’ll just leave. There are plenty alternatives to YouTube frontend.
It’s only even an issue for people because they’re using shitty browsers like Chrome, lol. YouTube doesn’t even warn me and I never see ads. Firefox for life.
YouTube doesn’t even warn me
Because they’ve been slowly rolling this out. It first happened over summer to a few users and steadily to more and more. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens to you before the end of the year.
Fingers crossed it doesn’t, but in the meantime, let’s figure this out so we all can avoid the BS. I’ll check all my addons when I get home to see if there’s anything else that would be helping me. On Mobile I do have AdGuard (the one not available on the play store), but I believe I would be ad free without it just from Revanced.
There’s probably a good workaround to program. I noticed that, when in “windowed” mode on a computer, you can just drag the cursor to the end of ads and it skips them.
x
Fuck the advertisers. I care way more about them turning screws on the creators.
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Pinhole works at the network level. You need browser extensions like ublock-origin to filter this on the client side.
Edit: You also have apps like adguard, which work like Pihole, and do cosmetic filtering like ublock-origin.
It won’t stop ads delivered by the same servers as the content.
Diversion, the ad blocker built into the Merlin fork of the Asus router firmware, is able to do this. It functions in the same way as a pihole. It’s not always perfect, but serviceable on devices that can’t use an adblocker like chromecasts.
Have you tried Freetube (desktop) or Newpipe / Libretube (Android)? Working fine for me.
of course those work its just annoying seeing the main site crumble this way. I shouldn’t have to use third party workarounds when the first party site can be making improvements easily
Patch it with Revanced.
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correct
Use Invidious while it still exists as a project I’m a fan of the yewtu.be instance. Pretty reliable. The Piped project is good as well. Don’t even use the YouTube domain at all, hate giving them analytics and site usage info nevermind ads
Ok so I’m not saying the correct solution to this is to just give Google the money they want, but for me YouTube premium is the best value for any streaming service my family subscribes to. (Unless you count the lifetime Plex pass I got on sale years ago, lol)
Things like our smart TV or the kid’s iPad work flawlessly, including convenient downloads for trips. And since I watch a lot on my TV, it’s nice having higher bitrate available.
YouTube music is a nice addon for music in the car, even though it doesn’t make or break the deal.
And as I understand it, creators make significantly more money from premium views than ad-supported views. I like watching all kinds of niche scientific/tech/educational creators so I like to know they’re getting a bit more from me
You know what, I complete agree!! I realised I spend 10x the time on YouTube compared to Netflix.
And then, at least in the U.K., there’s a mobile phone plan that includes a YouTube premium membership, so it works out at 2/5ths the price.
This is my sentiment too.
Yeah, if not for Ytmusic, I wouldn’t have considered youtube premium. Seperate they don’t make much sense. Together, they add a lot of value. Plus, the bonus of not being bombarbed by multiple ads on each video is good.
is the best value for any streaming service my family subscribes to.
i mean that bar is pretty low
YouTube has turned against its users, and user-inertia is the only thing keeping it relevant. Detach yourself from it, read books, go outside, use Firefox (Not chomium or brave), get yourself a nice pirate hat. Maybe consider hosting a peertube or creating content for it. Try to take this negative and make it a positive I’d suggest.
In the 4(?) days since I got my first anti-adblock popover, I’ve completely stopped watching random videos. My few favorite channels I’ve watched in incognito without harrassment, and the only thing I’ve noticed is having more time for other things.
If those content providers were on some other platform, I’d go there, but that’s honestly asking a lot of them for a small slice of their subscribers.
Brave Browser gets around YT’s ads.
I haven’t had to deal with video ads for years simply because I don’t use the website and use patched APKs to block ads. I’m thinking it was/is the right choice due to gøøgl€’s ongoing war against ad blocking in general. Don’t know a solution to the browser problem outside of using alternative frontends like libretube or invidious or whatever if you don’t mind not logging in.
Another option is paying a couple bucks and not having to worry about it. Might even make you feel good knowing you’re supporting the platform.
I don’t fault you for tinkering and finding ways around it - that’s fun. But in the end, you’re leeching off a service you enjoy.
I know this isn’t YouTube’s fault but one thing that bugs me about yet premium is when creators dump baked in ads.
As a user you have 3 options:
- Deal with it and manual skip (in a way this feels like skipping commercials on cable tv Dvr)
- Get ready to buy a ton of patreon subscriptions (kills the point of getting yt premium).
- Get a modded client/ use browser extensions and use sponsorblock
Now the one exception to this is nebula where like YouTube you pay an all access fee but no baked in ads (I pay for this currently).
I do wonder if creators had the option to make videos available via YouTube premium only (say early access and no baked in ads). Would more people pay and would creators use this system? (They wouldn’t have to worry about demonetization).
Curious on your thoughts
@Deemo @locuester About the first option, if you’re talking about sponsor sections, you can autoskip them using #sponsorblock. It’s an addon which does… well… what the name says.
I do use sponsorblock 😅
Only gripe is your stuck to the web version of youtube (especially on ios).
If you want sponsorblock in the native youtube app you have to side load a mod which means either dealing with apple’s 7 day limit refresh or paying for a apple dev acount/ signing service subscription.
Android there is revanced (no sideloading subscriptions needed).
On a final note I am considering trying https://grayjay.app/
It bundles odessy, nebula, youtube and a few other platforms in one app (it also includes sponsorblock and return dislikes for youtube).
in the end, you’re leeching off a service you enjoy.
I don’t think that’s a fair or true statement.
For one thing, the “service” here has risen to a point of ubiquity that it’s a de facto public space. Everything is on YouTube – legacy media channels, individual enthusiasts, alternative media outlets, the worlds of tech, fashion, politics, sports – you name it. If you were deprived of all access to it, you would have a qualitatively poorer access of what is going on in society. So it’s not equivalent to a traditional service like a trade.
For another, blocking ads is not merely refusal to pay a fee of some kind. Advertisements are cognitively intrusive, designed to affect your willpower and decision-making, used to track and control your behaviour, compromise your digital safety, and turn you into a product for companies to whom you do not give your consent for the opportunity to be exploited. Blocking that system of “payment” is not simply prudent but right, and the choice between paying a monetary fee or being so exploited is not a fair choice at all.
So mediums with advertising should not be allowed to seek monetary payment? Only mediums without advertising should do so?
I’m not understanding your logic here.
For me it’s pretty simple. There is a product - would you like to pay for it?
I feel that all the scary words you can add to a paragraph about advertising based revenue for digital mediums is just your tool to justify your behavior of sticking it to the man.
So mediums with advertising should not be allowed to seek monetary payment? Only mediums without advertising should do so?
Not quite sure how you got to the point you did there. There are different ways to advertise – billboards and TV/radio adverts, e.g., while often odious, are something you can more easily divert your attention from and which are not tracking devices or the product of turning you personally into an item for sale. I dislike them and would prefer a world without them but I don’t think their being attached to organisations in and of itself ought to deprive those organisations of income.
I’m not understanding your logic here.
That is apparent.
For me it’s pretty simple. There is a product - would you like to pay for it?
This is called “begging the question” as a response to me – I’ve called into question exactly both your premise and conclusion, for reasons you’ve not actually engaged with, and then you’ve re-asserted them. You have assumed what you’ve set out to prove.
(1) it is not simply a product (or service – you’ve changed tune there), for the reasons I’ve already outlined. Its use and availability is not analogous to something you can pick off the shelf or pay a tradesperson to do for you. (2) therefore, the question of paying for it (and how) demands different kinds of answer. In the country I’m from, e.g., healthcare is a right and not paid for, neither is early-years education up to 18, and so on. Both are “products” or “services” in some sense of the term, but to speak of payment here is complex and the answer doesn’t simply carry over from thinking about normal products/services.
I feel that all the scary words you can add to a paragraph about advertising based revenue for digital mediums is just your tool to justify your behavior of sticking it to the man.
This can only be a disingenuous response, surely? Rather than engage with the criticism of the nature of modern internet advertising and how corporations use it to affect people, you’ll just summarise it as “scary words”.
I’m being completely serious and I’m interested to understand more about what you mean. You are saying that YouTube is not merely a service and then you’re equating it to something like healthcare and education. Now I must ask are you the one that is being serious?
I’m being completely serious and I’m interested to understand more about what you mean.
It doesn’t strike me that way when you also write things like this:
you’re equating it to something like healthcare and education.
“equating” sets up a straw man. Such a tactic gives me the impression you think of this as some sort of battle that you want to win rather than a good-faith discussion.
What I had written was not an equating – and I think you should have or indeed did see that – only a comparison to show that something’s being describable as a product or service “in some sense” does not mean it is the sort of thing we pay for in a traditional way. This contradicts the central inference of your argument.
The answer to how I would actually characterise the “service” of YouTube is already in the first comment, so I’ll just quote it again:
For one thing, the “service” here has risen to a point of ubiquity that it’s a de facto public space. Everything is on YouTube – legacy media channels, individual enthusiasts, alternative media outlets, the worlds of tech, fashion, politics, sports – you name it. If you were deprived of all access to it, you would have a qualitatively poorer access [to] what is going on in society. So it’s not equivalent to a traditional service like a trade.
I stand by that; YouTube has a near monopoly over that media form, and if you require access to information and essentially a key plank of the online public square, then you need to go through it. I regard it as a (positive rather than negative) right that we do all have – not to use YouTube specifically but for information, opinion, discourse, politics and more to be available to us all. As it happens, YouTube is a key platform for the arrangement of all these things. Twitter also is/was, which is why Musk’s buyout was in principle concerning, and then in practice very shit once he created a two tier system of access to and impact on that public space.
I’m open to having this discussion but every single response from you begins with you telling me that I’m not interested in having this discussion. If you could just leave that part out so we can have the discussion, it would be much easier. I believe that’s referred to as ad hominem. If you don’t think it is - ok, it’s not. But please stop allowing that to distract from a discussion if you could.
These “near monopolistic public spaces” such as Twitter and YouTube have costs associated with them. How do you feel that we as users/consumers/citizens of the public space support it’s existence?
yeah google really needs more money, poor guys
The day YouTube successfullly made it so that it won’t work without playing ads is the day I delete every google account I have
I’m not putting up with it
I don’t think they’ll care or miss you, to be honest. It’s not like they’re making money off you.
You underestimate the amount of data google collects from it’s users, and then sells to advertisers, whether or not they view ads
Who would pay for data on a person you can’t advertise to?
Do you seriously think advertisers buy each user’s data individually, and sometimes Google goes “oh hey guys just a heads up, that individual is using an ad blocker 👍🏼”?
No, but having a handful of people who will never see their ads devalues the whole package.
I could totally see a company doing a market analysis paying for this data. They’d be looking for for counts of people interested in a thing or in a demographic…then they can determine if it’d be worth it to develop a product targeting that group
They’re absolutely making money
How? How do they profit off someone who refuses to view ads?
With their personal data obviously.
their personal data that they use to show them… ads
Personal data isn’t only used for ads. In this case a users watching history can be sold especially if it’s connected in some way to a demographic profile. There could be many more ways to monetize many other things the user does.
They don’t sell data. They sell ads. Selling data would directly erode their ability to sell ads.
You can watch YT without google account.
Sure but it would still be a massively ad filled experience, not worth my time
Anyone here subscribed to Nebula or CuriosityStream? On paper it seems like a much better arrangement for creators and viewers but I’m curious as to anyone’s personal experience with the quality of the service.
I subscribed to Nebula for a month for Philosophytube, then I promptly unsubscribed because I couldn’t find any other content I was interested in watching. It’s way too many video essays and not a hell of a lot else. Not worth it, imo.
I really wanna check out nebula when I have consistent income again lol
I caught that deal some time ago where a subscription to CuriosityStream would also grant you a sub to Nebula. I love Nebula, in theory - I spend a lot of time listening to video essays, and I love the quantity and quality of creators there. But the android app has a lot of buffering for me, and up until the last time I’d used it, it wouldn’t remember my watch history / where I left off, making it really burdensome to watch long essays there, so I always just opted for YT Revanced. Just now, I went to check, and the app seems to remember my progress in a video so…!! I guess I’ll be giving it a second serious chance! :D
I tried watching some stuff on CuriosityStream, but I’ve gotten so used to YT-style essays and documentaries, that now anything that has costant background music and fast paced montages kinda bugs me out, lol. But if you like classic-style documentaries, there’s a big catalogue, I’d recommend it! Overall, I think it depends on how much you pay a year - I think I pay around 15/20$/y and I think it’s a steal, even though I enjoy but a fraction of what’s being offered to me. If I used it more consistently, I’d be happy to pay double.
I’m subbed to both and it’s awesome. No ads, no algorithm, longer videos with better production values especially over topics that YouTube couldn’t have.
The modern conflict series is my favorite example
Great, thanks. Pretty much all of the accounts I subscribe to on YouTube advertize one service or the other and it only recently crossed my mind that maybe they’re promoting it because they… believe in it?
So there’s actually a pretty good video that one of the founders made, I think it was RealLifeLore, that talks about the making of Nebula. It’s a good watch if you want perspective on the service
It was Wendover. Sam is also now the chief content officer at Nebula.
That’s the one! I always get them confused for some reason
Wake me when they support standard payment methods. Seriously how can you even attempt to get European customers without accepting SEPA transfers.
YouTube- is a terrible experience.
