Technology

They have been pushing adblock detecting technologies in some regions. I'm preparing for having to stop using Youtube when they roll it out here.

Ad blocking is basic hygiene at this point.

I recently had to adjust ublock origin manually after ads started popping up on youtube.

That's because that's what it says. They're hardly trying to hide it.

I'm old enough to remember when none of this stuff existed. I have a threshold Beyond which I simply stop using the service.

I'm actually pretty close to my lifestyle from before 1995. I don't have any cable I have basic internet I don't do any of the Music Services. Video-wise I only have Prime and any free services I can get on Chromecast for TV. I'm getting close to my threshold with prime, as the annual fee is getting real high.

I'm already starting to lose interest in most YouTube channels. It's not so bad here, really. I get to experience reality more.

Check out PeerTube.

Smart content creators have been setting up websites, Patreons, merchandise shops, and all they need to jump ship when YouTube finally capsizes. The likely/easy/inexpensive alternative for content creators, is PeerTube.

I seriously wish Patreon would improve the UI because I can see that being where I get my videos. Until then, Nebula is where most of my favorite creators are flocking.

Enshitification

Boiling the frog is one of Google's favorite strategies

Would be nice if they started recruiting people who create tutorials too. It’s almost impossible to find video tutorials on blender outside of YouTube and now tiktok

Big Same. I’ve had it for three years now and it’s been really great to see a YouTube alternative actually flourish and survive. My subscription is almost due, and they have a lifetime option for $250 (normally $300, I think the discount is for my last years fee) that I’m sorely tempted by.

Edit: Just to note, so no one’s put off from subscribing, the current rate is $30/year. It was $50 last year. Which does mean the lifetime pass is 10 years at the current rate. But if they’re successful, that rate’s not going to stay static for all of that time. Not trying to be a shill for them, but if you like any of the creators on there it’s a good way of supporting them.

I've had several lifetime subscriptions that have been made into paid monthly subscriptions. Lifetime subscription is a gamble that I have yet to see pay off.

It's much more banal. YouTube is simply a monopoly abusing its market power. People would use alternatives if they existed.

The problem is that there is no valid alternative at the moment, so I wouldn't call that Stockholm sybdrome. Hosting that much content for free costs ungodly amounts of money to Google

I've massively reduced my time spent with youtube over the last year or so when I noticed that the overall experience was just getting worse and worse.

Previously I'd watch a video, and from there jump to another interesting video, and so on - now pretty much all the top level suggestions are useless already, and it's rare that after watching a video you get something worth watching recommended.

I assume it's not just youtubes fault - while I do think youtube is pushing those videos even from people I used to like I now see more videos where they go on for 20 minutes about something that should've been said in 3 minutes max.

I now almost exclusively use youtube to watch videos from people I've subscribed years ago, and as they either become annoying to go with youtubes algorithm, or eventually stop/slow uploading my usage goes down. Nowadays I often enough don't open youtube for two weeks, while previously there rarely was a day without checking at least a few videos.