this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 254 points 1 year ago (79 children)

Sorry Google.

I'm gonna use YouTube ad free or I won't use it.

And I ain't gonna pay for it.

[–] [email protected] 98 points 1 year ago (36 children)

Pretty sure that they are fine with that, they are actively trying to get rid of you.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Not in the slightest. They want to have their cake and eat it, meaning they want you on the platform but using it their way. Why else would they put so much effort into this fools errand of subverting ad blockers?

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[–] [email protected] 130 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Hahahahaha, do they know that using it without the ad blocker is worse than whatever else they're going to do? I'd rather stare at 30 seconds of black screen than a 5 second ad, lmao.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago

Having a blank screen will make me less angry than seeing a long advertisement. Not to mention, I come from the days of dial up. I can wait a bit until I view the video.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I remember waiting 30 minutes for 75% of a badly compressed 1 minute pornvideo to load, I can outlast whatever they throw at us.

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[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

They couldn't possibly make the experience worse than it already is without an ad blocker.

No adblock = No youtube

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[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago

No YouTube. It is YOU that is stuck with ME and I will make YOUR experience worse.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Oh no, how unfortunate. Sadly, we don't have alternative YouTube clients like Invidious or Piped that can be used with LibRedirect to automatically redirect all YouTube links to these alternative front-ends. And unfortunately, you can't use LibreTube or NewPipe on Android, as well as Yattee with this guide on iOS, iPadOS and tvOS or SmartTubeNext on Android TV.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Can't possibly make it worse than shoving ads from hate groups. On my computer, I use Firefox with adblock, but on my phone and tablet I had been using the YouTube app until a few days ago. Google decided to show me a PragerU ad on mobile, so I decided to switch to Firefox mobile to watch YouTube. And the app either moved or removed the 'don't show this ad' selection.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (13 children)

If you're using android you might want to check out YouTube ReVanced.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (1 children)

...and your viewing experience will be far, far worse if you don't use one.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Right? Having an ad blocker means my video gets slowed down by a few seconds, not having an ad blocker means I get to watch a 30 second ad from a local politician telling me about how we need to get rid of fornicators. I think I know my choice lmao

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (6 children)

They had a long time to make the ad watching process less painful, or adding actual value to a premium subscription, but they are doing everything to make YouTube worse.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

i could maybe start to swallow the actual tech getting worse (just like everything else is lately) but this arrogant, odious attitude they're putting on lately is so obscene and anti-consumer. it's like it's their god-given right to serve us ads and our solemn duty to consume them.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I remember what the internet was like before we had ad-blockers. I concur with others who have said turning the blocker off would make it even worse. There no fucking way I'm turning off ad-blocking under any conditions. I'd rather just stop using the internet altogether. I can not verbalize how much I hate ads. I stopped watching TV because of ads a long time ago. Never again.

Oh man, I wish I could get a pair of AR-glasses with ad-blocking in real life. No more ads polluting the streets. That would be great.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Pretty sure any AR-glasses from the megacorps will add ads to real life soon enough. Any AR-glasses not from megacorp will be bought out to shut them down. Not like there is functional antitrust.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wonder how much money they've wasted trying to block the blockers

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's even more weird all that invested time into people who are going to find ways to block them either way, instead of focusing on their userbase that doesn't use them. Seems like they are rummaging through the couch cushions for pennies at this rate.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I watch YouTube content on my tv, and get ads, next to using it on my PC where I block them. Generally I did not mind the ads, since it is part of the business model.

But frankly the experience on the tv is degrading quickly in the last 12 months:

From 2 skippable ads at the start (and end) of a video, I now get 2 longer unskippable ones, but regularly it doubles to 4 and a 5th that is either short or skippable. And if it's still 2 at the start then usually 1-2 mins in I see 2 more long ads ... If I have the gall to rewind or forward the video I get 2 more long ads, usually followed by 2 short ones a minute or two later... Some of that is probably ad-space tagged by the creators, but clearly YT overrules that and places its own ad markers.

Slowly I feel it's leaning towards punishment to watch content on YT, at least on the tv.

On top of that there is the annoying interface that blocks a full 30% of the screen, often blocking the one thing I wanted to look at. Then the ads that always break subtitles of the video, or somehow enforcing subtitles in a language that I can not read.

And don't get me started on the topic-bubble the algorithm captures the user in.

YT should have left it as it was a few years ago, but it is forcing more and more ads, making things unfriendlier for both the viewer and creator, all to squeeze the viewers for more and more revenue.

It's a shame it's all so detrimental to the wealth of knowledge on there.

So if a good and proper alternative is able to stand on its feet I will gladly follow the creators and watch the new stuff on there.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (4 children)

These shenanigans have me rapidly transitioning from “I don’t want to see your annoying ads” to “I don’t want you to make any money at all”.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The ads make it pretty bad. They’d have to work really hard to make it worse without ads.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean... it definitely will if you turn off your ad blocker.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

I guarantee it's a worse experience with ads.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They still don't get it.

"Might get worse without turning of my ad-blocker" still beats "is definitely worse without ad-blocker".

I'm taking my chances.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

I'd rather pay the creators directly on their Patreon then allow Google to pester me with ads.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, it'll also make my viewing experience worse if I do so...

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

@TangledHyphae @technology
Then, use a program that is a different YouTube Front End.

On Android phones, you can download NewPipe or LibreTube from the F-Droid store. These will allow you to subscribe to channels and to watch without ads.

You can use Invidious instances or you can setup your own to watch through a website.
Invidious Instances: https://docs.invidious.io/instances
Invidious GitHub Code: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

Because YouTube does not pay most creators enough to live on, please support your favorite YouTubers using Patreon, Locals, or wherever.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

Oh no are there going to try to block the ad blockers but then the ad blockers block the ad blockers blockers? When will it end? They can keep on trying to make it worse but people will just keep figuring out how to bypass it.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Rawdogging YouTube today is a similar experience to what I had with a free trial of Hulu several years ago. The ads were so frequent and so lengthy that I cancelled several days before the trial was even over. I swear I was getting six minutes of ads for every two minutes of content.

There's a point where the greed makes the product unusable.

I watch a lot of Tubi on my TV, and I find the ads there tolerable. They don't just flood you with them. I'm totally ok with sitting through their ad breaks in exchange for a free watching experience.

(I don't know if Hulu has gotten better or worse. The experience was so god awful that I've never even slightly entertained the thought of trying it again)

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I can’t believe the amount of bootlickers in this thread trying to justify google’s blatant attempts at capitalising on the monopoly it has aggressively acquired. Fuck Google. Fuck YouTube. Fuck advertising. Fuck sundar pichai and his shitty ideas about how to ‘make money’. Aww no boo fucking Hoo has the mega-corp decided it can’t run this huge monopoly at a loss anymore after literally years of doing just fucking that? Who the fuck cares? Eat shit and go bust I literally do not give a flying fuck and I hope they go fucking bankrupt if only for their obviously anti-competitive and clearly fucking incompetent business practices. Fuck off. All advertising is theft of time. Eat shit.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And I warn Google that it would have to first find and suck my cock real good for me to consider allowing it to do that.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Luckly they're pretty good at searching for obscure stuff that nobody's seen in a while.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Isn't a blocked ad better than an ignored one for an advertiser? They don't have to pay for the blocked one. Google, of course, doesn't care if an ad is seen, only that they got paid by advertisers to show it.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I love how aggressive google is becoming. It drives more and more people into the arms of open source os and firefox

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

Suck my fat hog google

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