• celerate@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Dear YouTube, if anyone there ever reads this.

    I tried not to block ads, I would let the preroll go and usually not skip it.

    I started skipping ads when they started getting long. I recall some were several minutes long at times.

    I started leaving videos part way through when there were mid-roll ads, and those got long enough that I’d often forget what I was even watching.

    I started blocking the ads outright when I would be watching a relaxing video, and a very loud mid-roll ad would blow out my goddamn eardrums.

    Fuck you YouTube. You abused your users, you chased off good content creators, and now you’re offering people no carrot and all stick. How about you offer to match the volume of the ads to the videos, limit the length of ads to something reasonable, and nicely tell viewers that you are making ads less annoying and that unblocking the ads helps pay the content creators.

    • CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      I used to make animations for YouTube, which weren’t monetized because I hate ads, and one day they copyright struck me for some very provably public domain music, but the way they did it was to insert ads into my video without my consent so they could monetize them to send the money to the scammer who flagged me. So I just deleted my entire account, fuck them.

    • BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      if they’re anything like cable ads, they actually make the ads louder than the regular programming on purpose to try to make sure you hear it if you tune out or just walk away. no relaxed, unfocused watching for you!

    • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Lmao “you purposely made your stuff shit. Now, if you offered a basic service without all the shit, I might pay for that.”

      Bruh, you don’t pay for something because it’s not shit, you pay for something because it’s good. By paying for a basic service simply because it’s not shit, you are incentivising them to enshittify their service and offer a premium “not shit” version, instead of actually improving their service.

      It’s just like the people who buy the new iPhone because it actually has a headphone jack this time.

    • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      They get away with this because people don’t use the alternatives. Odysee and Rumble are actually good alternatives. No, they’re not as good as YouTube, but they’re good enough. We just need creators to also upload to those platforms. Since YouTube keeps banning and demobilising them, this problem might solve itself.

        • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          If your feed is “100% fascist Nazi bullshit” may I suggest you watch less Nazi bullshit, and stop subscribing to them?

          • Oshka@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Lmfao. I had literally never heard of Rumble. I opened up a private browser window and pulled it up for the first time ever…the “Featured” was fucking Newsmax TV. Now obviously this isn’t indicative of the whole site but damn that does not help your point when that’s the featured for a brand new potential user

            • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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              11 months ago

              I’m not claiming it doesn’t have Newsmax on it. I’m claiming the service is solid. If you subscribe to people you care about (and you can find creators you like) it’s a good platform alternative. I’m the first to argue we need more YouTube creators to cross-post.

                • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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                  11 months ago

                  There are Nazis on YouTube, Reddit, and Lemmy. Why are you here? You are not automatically associated with Nazis just because they might use a platform. This is like saying veganism is evil because Hitler was a vegan.

      • papertowels@lemmy.one
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        11 months ago

        Curious, how does monetization work on those platforms? The bigger “Content creators” typically will be making videos as a job, so to draw them you’d need a halfway decent way to monetize.

        • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
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          11 months ago

          They have ads, but I think YouTube pays better. Which I suppose is why creators stick with YouTube for now.

  • Hal-5700X@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If you’re using uBlock Origin. Go to “Filter Lists” and Purge All Caches. That may help.

    • MoogleMaestro@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      I imagine they’ll eventually find a way to prevent us from blocking ads. Twitch TV for example has found some ways to make adblock useless.

      It’s a shame, and it’s really just a side effect of google racing to the bottom of the adspace game. If ads weren’t as cheap as they are today, they wouldn’t be trying to maximize the amount of users who are forced to see advertisements.

      • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I suspect ad blocking will always be an arms race. The server can only ask the client to play the ad, and then rely on the client to truthfully report whether it did so.

        • shamrock@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s only a matter of time before they start embedding them into the video like podcasts do and you won’t be able tell the difference between ad and video with software.

          • Gabu@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Timestamps can still be voluntarily marked for an auto-skip feature to jump throughthe ads.

        • Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz
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          11 months ago

          Oh, that’s just brilliant! Instead of being interrupted by intrusive ads, I’m seeing videos of fluffy cats doing adorable and funny stuff all the time.

      • stardust@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Worst case scenario I think I’d just resort to downloading the videos to watch. Live videos is the challenge, but luckily I don’t watch live streams.

        • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Bruh, your not gonna believe this, but the ducks at the park are free. if you use one of these, you can download all the ducks you want. I downloaded 9000 ducks so far.

          • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            To be fair, he was talking about live streams, as in watching people in real-time.

            That can be a fairly different experience, especially since downloaders don’t grab the chat at the moment. Also for unarchived streams, they can only be downloaded if you are aware and able to download at the time that the stream is still active.

      • dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        They’ll start banning Google accounts, that’ll stop quite alot of people just because of how many users use gmail or drive.

        • Chailles@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I don’t think they’ll resort to that because that would mean getting rid of their own source of income. YouTube may not be getting ad revenue, but they still collect data and that’s where the real value is.

    • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I just did the zap element thing on that warning. So far so good, except you can’t scroll down.

  • lemmesay@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    to people saying YouTube is a moneysink for google:

    yes it is, if you just look at direct expenses of running it. but you’re overlooking the fact that it has enabled google to amass so much data(we’re taking about 500 hours worth of videos being uploaded per minute) that they can train anything with it.

    it’s a service that’s too big to fail. even whole governments, courts, and other institutions depend on it. so, I refuse to believe that YouTube will be non-existant because a sliver of users refuse to be profiled by invasive advertisements.

  • Kumabear@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I am much, much more likely to be willing to pay for Ublock than I am YouTube.

  • anewbeginning@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I haven’t watched live tv in almost 20 years because I refuse to sit through ads, and I definitely won’t sit through them on YouTube. If it was a banner or some thing on the page or the side of video that would be more acceptable, but sitting through ads to watch a YouTube video….there’s just no way.

      • Ashyr@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        I basically don’t subscribe to any streaming services, but we got the family plan years ago and share it with a few friends and family that chip in a couple bucks each.

        It’s so affordable and the content on YouTube is second to none.

        I’m so happy to help content creators earn a living content I genuinely care about rather than studios led by c-suite committees.

      • Polar@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        Lemmy users only want to use foss and not pay a single penny. How dare you suggest they pay a tiny amount to help pay for servers and the creators they’re watching!

        • FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It feels like a culture war between corporations and the OG user base. They reeled us in and monopolized the market with the idea of “free”. Now that competitors are few and far between, they want to change the game and reel in literal billions. I have absolutely no sympathy for their “lost profits”. They are making enough as-is, and I have no problems saying that out loud.

        • manapropos@lemmy.basedcount.com
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          11 months ago

          Lol you again being a cuck. Literally a perfect consumer. Give all your money away, and maybe I should give you a link to my PayPal since you’re such a philanthropist. Take your privilege and fuck off

          • Polar@lemmy.ca
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            11 months ago

            My privilege? You’re expecting servers to pay for themselves without ads or subscriptions. Idiot.

              • Polar@lemmy.ca
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                11 months ago

                How? Because I understand how the world works? How do you expect servers to get paid for? Genuine question. Ads or subscriptions are the only way.

                Continue to be a begging chooser.

                • manapropos@lemmy.basedcount.com
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                  11 months ago

                  You’re gonna continue paying for shit that I will get for free, like it or not. People smarter than you and I have found solutions to this kind of greed for years and they’ll continue to do the same. So you can get on your high horse or you can shut your bitch ass up because we’re both getting the same content and I’m not paying shit. Again, shove your privilege up your ass because throwing money around doesn’t make you white-savior wannabe ass any more righteous than me

  • rwhitisissle@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    It’s an end of an era. I’ve been on reddit for over a decade, and on youtube for even longer. Crazy to think I might be giving up both of those services within a few months of each other. Feels like the internet is dying. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back to reading a shitload.

  • Margot Robbie@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I don’t really know how people can even use YouTube without ad blockers. Sitting through minutes of advertisement is not going to make me want to buy your product if I start mentally associating your product with frustration and annoyance. If these video ads are going to be repetitive and annoying, at least make them funny.

    It seems like there is nowhere on the Internet to get away from ads currently, even here, where you thought you are safe, you are now reading an ad for my newest movie (you know the one), now also available on streaming!

  • net00@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Youtube is getting on cable tv levels of bad. On a regular ~10min video you will first deal with a few preroll ads and at least one is unskippable, then the creator will have a 2+ minute sponsor segment (I don’t mind those since they are usually well presented). There will also be multiple midroll ad spots.

    Depending on video length, it’s gonna soon be literally more ad than video. They are still stealing and selling your data though, and also making the web worse for everyone with DRM shit.

    Fuck. Google.

    I had already migrated to Invidious since last year because I degoogled everything. Seems like now its time to look for real youtube alternatives.

  • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Yeah I could care less about people saying they’d watch ads of they were less intrusive. I’m not, I don’t give a fuck about YouTube’s sustainability who happened to still have major growth while I ran an AdBlock this entire time.

    Maybe I’d consider paying if YouTube was the actual product I was paying for. Instead I get privacy invasive spying and my data being harvested, while am paying to do so. The product I’d want to pay for would have zero privacy invasive stuff involved. Which that isn’t going to exist, so I’m never going to pay.

  • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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    11 months ago

    Does anyone else remember back in the days of VCR, the networks wanted to push a technology that disallows you from fast-forwarding through ad breaks on the stuff you recorded?

    Pepperidge Farm remembers.

  • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    If you’re using UBlock Origin do the following:

    Go to settings. Go to Filter Lists. Click purge all caches. Click update now.

    That’s it, this message should disappear entirely.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I haven’t turned off ad-blocking in 20 years. That’s because I “don’t allow” companies to use my home and my computer as their place of business.

  • drathvedro@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    Unpopular opinion: They should’ve just started charging big creators, kind of like Vimeo. Mofos be having youtube ads, sponsorships, built-in ads, courses, merch stores and patreon, and then they whine when youtube wants them to comply with advertiser’s demands.