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I watched YouTube ads.
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When they got to be too much I stopped watching.
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Then I added uBlock Origin and NoScript (even on YouTube I block some scripts) and went back to watching.
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When bazillions of content creators started over-creating content just for revenue, and not to provide value, I started watching less and less.
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Now content creators are producing even more garbage via AI, and now I only watch a very few real-world content creators and videos more than 2 years old. Everything else I watch on other sites. If a content creator also posts to other sites, I watch them there and not on YT.
What other sites can you recommend?
Nebula has some of the best educational content, especially ever since Tom Scott went on to other things. There are definitely some weird ones on there, as well as a couple which I’m convinced are right-wing shills, but by and large many of the best edutainment channels have collected over there, especially if you’re into writing/world building. HAI/Wendover, Minutephysics, legaleagle, extracredits, nilered, and hellofutureme are the big ones I’m aware of that are also popular on YouTube which publish their videos over on Nebula. It’s well worth it to know that you’re supporting them more directly, and no ads.
Also, dropout (nee collegehumor) is worth it.
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Imagine going through the interview process, like 10 rounds or whatever leetcode bullshit, and being told you are going to be working on /blocking Ads-Blocker users/…
Fuck it, I am out of here!
Imagine applying to work on the youtube team because you enjoy watching videos and then you are expected to make it worse for everyone including yourself.
Noticed it for a single day, then ublock must’ve updated and everything works fine again. I will drop YT entirely before I watch a single shitty ad on there, let alone pay for a sub.
I wonder how much they spend trying to defeat adblockers versus how much revenue they lose because of them.
Even if only 1% of people used adblock, then that’s 1% of millions of dollars of ad revenue. It’s easily enough to put several people on this as a full time job if they want to.
I’m sure Google saw it as only a minor issue at first, but the number of people using adblockers is presumably going up all the time.
The irony being of course that adblock usage is skyrocketing only because companies like Google have made the Internet so thoroughly ad-polluted it’s intolerable to go without one.
I finally had to update (19.16.39 --> 20.12.46) and repatch my YouTube on Android via ReVanced. I’ll probably need to do that again in 6 months. I use uBlock Origin and LibreWolf on PC and SmartTube on my TV. I hope Google understands I won’t be watching YouTube with ads.
https://codeberg.org/librewolf
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin
Add in sponsorblock as well. Its an extension that autoskips “inline” ads that creators do in video. It uses community input to know when to skip, and is excellent. You can also submit ad time stamps very easily to help out millions of people.
Good advice! I use SponsorBlock too. Revanced and SmartTube have it integrated by default. LibreWolf/Firefox just need the extension installed. Its saved me hours (probably days at this point) of sitting through bullshit. Cheers!
Sams everything
I have a Premium subscription, but I can give you an even bigger reason to never use YouTube. They actively push brain rot in their search. No matter what words I use to search for something, it is almost always the same results. Looking for nostalgic videos from the 90s? YT: “Here is the most recent brain rot on the Internet.”
Yes. I was searching for a video about a panda refusing to bathe on YouTube app of a friend’s phone.
The first 4-6 results were Shorts, and I had no way of knowing if they were what I wanted apart from the thumbnails, since the titles were truncated. The next four were only semi-related videos, in the sense it was about a panda.
The rest of the videos that followed were absolutely bonkers. From Minecraft clips to random mobile arcade games I have never heard of, and many, many, MANY AI generated Chinese videos featuring a baby doing farm work, masonry, or other kinds of labor.
In a way, it felt like a display of arrogance. In the sense that YouTube was confident it had already served me what I was looking for in the first 10 results, and then said: “Now that you have seen what you searched for, why not watch this crap?”
Same thing on Google results. I don’t use Google but I use what are basically frontends for Google and all it feeds you with every search is AI-generated slop.
Every Google search must be precedented by writing “Reddit”, now.
Or how Google decided to choke on its own greed.
honestly waiting 3 seconds of buffering is not the end of the world. i just have ptsd from the last isp, and makes my brain think i dont have net.
currently experiencing this on librewolf, however cromite desktop loads in instantly. google also have to fight against revanced, smartube, tubular…etc. this is a long ass battle and bless every codemonkey fighting the big brother.
Google trying its best to destroy adblockers and adblockers going “lmao low diff” is sooooo entertaining.
I blocked YouTube. No ads.
Interesting writeup with some interesting techniques. I should read these some more
it’s getting hard to keep up with the changes YT does and especially as an ios uYou+ or ytLite user (like me) as now you need a jailbroken device that needs to be on an ios version that support the last youtube app version and decrypt and build the modded app with this whole workflow…
Before you ask I’m ios because reasons and need to be on it until apple drops support for my iphone 12 pro. I miss Android…
Why not just use Brave, which blocks ads and allows for picture-in-picture and background play?
Do you need to download for offline play or similar?
I use Pop_OS & the other day I was browsing the Store & stumbled on this app called ‘youtubedl-gui’. Then I found out it’s also available via apt.
Really cool little piece of software. Maybe check it out
Use the grayjay app from the FUTO team
I paid for their app and I’ve never felt more torn about recommending a product. On the one hand, it works pretty darned well (except for the inability to comment ON YouTube). On the other hand, I’ve contacted their support at LEAST three times and have no response. No bueno.
Wait, what do you mean you paid? That’s a free app😬
From the Grayjay FAQ:
Does Grayjay require a subscription?
No, We offer a way to pay for the app once. The app will function identically without paying.
I paid the one for the FUTO Keyboard, is that the same? Anywho, great job on both apps🤓🤟🏽
‘“Mark Zuckerberg buys WhatsApp”, what a douche… It’s free in the play store!’
It is both paid and free.
Paid and freeware but either way non-free, unfortunately.
Look, there’s people who host videos that we must watch at any cost. But not really any cost, because we don’t feel we should pay, or watch ads… or anything, really. But we deserve to watch these videos. It’s our right. We’re entitled damn it!
So we’re going to barge into this place and watch videos while blocking ads. We’re going to use tools to watch through the windows. We’re going to smuggle content out of the building.
Because we need these videos. We’ll modify our browsers, install new apps, change our habits, fight pointless fights, get accounts terminated…
But we’re not going to pay a dime. It’s not like Youtube means anything to us. Gross! We’d just leave if there was no choice. We’d just go to… somewhere else. These guys don’t have a hold on us.
Devil’s advocate: if you do things the legit way, absorb the ads or go for the pay tiers, do you think there’s ever a point the advertisers and platforms say “this is the right amount of ads.” ? Seems like it’s an infinite process of cramming in more garbage. Personally I’m happy to engage in the arms race because it’s not bothersome to me personally, and I’m fine with some “theft” as long as I’m paying back into the creators by whatever their preferred support structure is.
I started using adblockers when I got tired of scraping my PC clean of malware every week, but kept YouTube whitelisted. The third time they tried to show me a 27 minute ad I gave up and blocked them too.
100%
People love to discuss these fantasy realms where ad-free decentralized content forms some kind of Utopia that we all enjoy.
I’m a former content creator with millions and millions of hours of (e watched hours of) video. I have answered hundreds of comments from people who would like to suggest that my mic is better, or I use a better video camera, better lighting…
When I say hey I’d love to, can you donate a dollar so I can buy them… Crickets.
I can honestly say I never made a fucking sent on YouTube and it’s the users that are to blame. They view it as this free thing that they should be entitled. Contribute nothing willingly.
There is a huge difference between the ethical stance people portray in their online comments, and people’s in real life behavior.
