When you share a YouTube video using the share button it adds “si=some_unique_code” to the URL. If you don’t remove that it shows your personal account to anyone who receives it so that they can chat directly with you. For a lot of people this is their real name.

I’ve seen it all over Lemmy so I figured I’d mention it here! You only need the stuff before the question mark in the URL to let others see the video.

This can also be turned off in your YouTube settings under the privacy section. The setting is “channel visibility for shared links”. It will still add the si code for tracking though.

  • Chaunticleer@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    Here’s another. If the video you want to share is on youtube, it’s also on invidious. Without ads, downloadable and just generally none of youtube’s bullshit. It even uses the same video vURL address.

    • vogi@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      tbh I would still prefer receiving the raw youtube link so everybody can redirect it to their preferred way of watching e.g. Morphee. Invidious instances can go down or stop working.

      • lyrial@anarchist.nexusEnglish
        0·
        10 days ago

        I haven’t had a positive experience with an invidious instance in years. They are usually either down or horribly slow for me.

        • vogi@piefed.socialEnglish
          0·
          9 days ago

          Me neither. Even tried to host it locally at home it the hopes that a private IP would go under googles radar, but after a month or so they blocked me as well. Same goes for LibreTube NewPipe and what not. All just fail on me after a while. The only way is to make it usable with uBlock + Unhook and Morphee Patches on Android. Its honestly not a bad experience except for the added setTimeout when Youtube notices. :)