YouTube intensifies fight against ad blockers showing pop-ups, and users are frustrated | Blocking ad-block users::undefined
Fuck YouTube
I agree. YouTube can be very useful, but we really ought to be moving to other platforms at this point. Fuck YouTube.
I’ve been using YouTube far more than any of my paid services for years. However I’m ready for a switch. If the YouTubers who I follow switched platforms I’d go with them in a second.
Haha yeah fuck YouTube. I want the entire site to not only be free but free from ads.
You’re all retarded. This shit costs money and you’re circumventing the way to not pay them. I bought premium and use an adblocker because I’m not a cheap piece of shit.
Your content creators aren’t doing this for free so fucking pay them. What is wrong with you people?
Patrion and buying merchandise are the ways I support content creators. I’d rather make sure money goes directly to them and not to some corporation that will seize funds or cut off ad revenue at a whim with no real recourse.
I understand the economics behind hosting videos, I also don’t use Adblock. YouTube has taken ads and unwanted content to a new level in the last year and they are driving away viewers. I refuse to support them with a subscription.
If an ethical alternative pops up that has the creators I want I’d be happy to support it.
While buying merch, doing patreon, and other forms are commendable - we watch them on YouTube. Id get protesting the platform if they were making money hand over fist but we already know they don’t make a profit on the platform. Ads and premium are just methods to staunch the bleeding. I understand the ads are intrusive and are getting worse but they’ve only amped them up to compensate for users who aren’t served ads due to adblockers.
I don’t find it unethical to pay YouTube. They pay creators a fair percentage and overall are taking a loss. It’s not greed, it’s trying to stay afloat. Whether or not I support their policy changes, I’d like creators to survive off their work.
Problem is hosting all the video. You either have one host or many (P2P). Both have issues.
And both cost money, neither can exist if everyone circumvents the methods to make money.
YouTube defended their monopoly by running for free. They murdered the growth of legitimate competitions like Vimeo that had healthier business models… Because they didn’t try to run for free.
And now that they’ve saturated the market and killed off all of the serious competition it’s time to profit
Well, frankly, go fuck yourself.
So long YouTube, and thanks for all the fish. 🐬
Do you know why there are no good competitors to YouTube? It’s fucking expensive.
They have a monopoly but for what? They don’t turn a profit. The losses they take on the platform are public knowledge because shockingly, hosting hundreds of TB of data being uploaded per minute isn’t cheap.
The only sites that even spit in their general direction is like, Pornhub and oh boy don’t try to tell me that ‘ad experience’ is better Lol. Youtube has shit policies and even worse moderator decisions but it is widely a fucking charity and I think they have some right to turn it into a business instead.
That article is outdated. YouTube started to become profitable, but it took more than a decade to get there, so your point still stands.
I look forward to the updated source you have on hand. They weren’t profitable in 2009, weren’t profitable in 2015, and the only things to change since then were Premium subscriptions and more ads. What could they have done to turn a profit?
You literally just proved my point.
It wasn’t profitable. And it was free. It killed competition by losing money.
And now, by your concession, they are turning it into a business.
That’s a fundamental change in the service. Fuck that. Either it was always their intent, in which case they were lying scum the whole time. Or it wasn’t their intent and they’ve just decided spontaneously to prioritize profit, in which case it’s greed and betrayal.
Either way, fuck 'em.
… Yes. The strategy of expanding at a loss in order to recoup it later is a… business strategy. What? It’s not even an underhanded one because it carries substantial risk. They ate losses and are now trying to collect on what users like you and I have been enjoying on their dime. Adblockers was to staunch the bleeding and clearly it’s not working well enough so they’re trying new ways.
You’re confusing greed with typical business practices. The grocery store isn’t greedy, they’re trying to keep the lights on and pay employees. This isn’t “Walmart selling items at a loss until local businesses shut down and ramping them back up afterwards” - the data storage needed for this shit is beyond what most companies can do. Amazon with their AWS infrastructure is the only thing that has a shot in hell. The only reason Youtube can do it is by the sheer fact rich ass Google owns them.
Businesses typically collect this thing called money to keep supplying the service you enjoy. Adblockers remove the very essential part of this exchange in which you pay for the thing you’re using. You’ve been stealing groceries and are mad you’re now being told to pay for them.
My confusion is profound.
For sure! Which video site are you using instead?
there are a few but they’re all filled with right wing nutters and i doubt their ability to scale effectively
Great case of nut job lefty derailing and politicising every topic possible including video platforms.
ignore the problem then. it’s the same problem that killed voat
So… YouTube then
I was using newpipe x Sponsorblock on Android exclusively, and now on desktop I’ve moved to freetube. Never did get the pop up telling me to remove Adblock but decided to make the jump early.
still using Firefox and ublock and all seems fine to me
Same. I’m wondering if it’s limited to certain markets for the time being.
For me it’s a “soft” popup - a simple banner with a close button telling me not to block ads. And it doesn’t appear very often, I think I’ve seen it twice.
You will get the timer one in due course.
I first got the ‘soft’ banner, then it went to timer one (and this timer comes after watching 3 videos with ‘soft’ one.)
However, uBlock still removes the banner, but you have to click on the video after a few seconds to start it. Alternately you can hit F to fullscreen the video, and the banner just goes away and the video starts (without uBlock).
Many people have either not up-to-date filters, or are using some other addons/features that interfere with uBlock/trigger the adblock detection.
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I have never gotten a adblock popup using Firefox and ublock origin while my friend has gotten several on Chrome. I wonder if I’m just lucky that I’m not in the adblock block rollout on YouTube or if Firefox+ublock is working
Probably just lucky. They didn’t roll it out to all Firefox users at once. I got it several days after other Firefox users started reporting getting the popup. I followed the instructions to update my quick fix list in uBlock and it’s gone again. However, the first time I did it it came back after a day, so it may just be a never ending game of whack a mole.
Same Firefox and unlock setup (also sponsorblock) but I got a pop-up about ad blockers the other day and I just closed it and the rest of the site works fine.
Who asked? This comment thread is clearly about alt front ends yet here you are telling us still Firefox works for you. Okay, and???
Freetube adopter as well. The experience is actually an improvement over using the yt site. I wish I had done it earlier.
Also this seems to be the safest way as your account not linked to freetube. Yt looses all data like age, likes and comments. Only the number of views gives them any feedback. This will bring down yt. All we need is time to work out alternatives. Yt censorship and demonetizing rules are killing the platform anyway.
I don’t think anything is killing the platform as the longstanding ones seem pretty durable. Reddit did just fine throughout the API exodus and Twitter has somehow managed to survive Musk’s repeated and constant attempts to kill it. There will be enough viewers on youtube that will take whatever Google decides to throw at them. Don’t ask me why but a large portion of the viewers( redditors and tweeters, etc) just don’t care enough to make a change.
what is reddit? and what is twitter? my memory is bad.
The only issue I have with freetube is that I sometimes like to click on the recommended videos on YouTube’s front page. If I switch to freetube entirely, I’ll lose that. But if uBlock doesn’t continue to work I will make the switch and the YouTubers I wouldn’t normally see just won’t get my views any longer.
I never thought of that aspect as I’ve never used them. My subscription list is so long, I don’t have the time to watch the videos I’m subbed to, much less any bonus content. I wonder how many people use that feature.
Using ReVanced and having a fantastic time. If they find a way to block a locally patched client that is only a few versions behind, I will be impressed.
Why are so many of you alergic to paying creators to make videos? I get doing it on most sites, but buy premium of the sites like nexus mods or YouTube where people make content so they aren’t making shit you enjoy for free.
Some of us pay for premium but still use Revanced and Freetube because they are simply better youtube clients. Sponsorblock, OLED themes, customizable UI, better performance, etc. The adblocking is just icing on the cake
Wasn’t aware any of them had baked in Sponsorblock or OLED themes. I might look into those platforms if that’s the case. But yes, Youtube does need to keep up on features instead of paygating the ones that already exist (like queue).
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They have pissed 4channers. You do not piss 4channers. The last time that happened, Trump got elected.
Also they literally go on killing sprees.
Use Firefox, update the uBlockOrigin extension, update the filters, remove any other adblocking extension in case you have it. Should work just fine then.
I use Firefox with uBlockOrigin and haven’t had to do any manual updates or anything. I still seem to be unaffected by the changes everyone is talking about. Is it a slow rollout or does uBO just silently keep up with it?
It could be simply luck because it is a slow rollout, or it could also be that you got the filter updates on the background. In any case, you know what to do if you ever run into it.
not working for me anymore, I have firefox + ublock and updated the filter, they are blocking now after 3 videos
Are you signed in?
I was in the same boat, but cleaning out my cookies helped.
Fuck it. I’ll just say this instead. It’s time to break up the tech monopolies. Google, Microsoft, etc.
TRUST BUSTING: 21st CENTURY EDITION! FUCK YEAHHHH
Well of course. Now what ?
Yeah, good luck hosting a high quality video streaming service for free and eating up millions of dollars in losses.
then don’t do something for the benefit of humanity if you can’t handle not having infinite line-go-up. Numbers aren’t easily found but it looks like they generated north of a billion in profit, not revenue, profit.
If a billion, after all bills are paid, is not enough. Give it to someone to whom a billion is enough.
Wut?
companies enshittify themselves not to make money but to make more money than they did 3 months ago, repeat indefinitely.
If you didn’t have to meet that metric, and were happy with generating a billion dollars a year and didn’t have to make it 1.3B by next year, and 1.6B by the following, then you wouldn’t have to shittify your product to do so.
So when people are like “oh but poor YouTube won’t make any money if they make their product user friendly” don’t mean they will make no money, it’s that they will fall short of making 30% more money than last year and “only” make 10% more than last year.
(all numbers made up for illustrative purposes only)
all numbers made up for illustrative purposes only
That’s your problem here. YouTube’s revenue growth is less than 2% YoY. That’s below inflation. Meaning they effectively lose money.
Where did you get that number from?
And Inflationary costs are taken into account before profit, so no, they aren’t losing money.
YouTube is a public company, all numbers are publicly available.
Youtube was doing it for years before Google acquired them.
YouTube only existed for about 20 months before Google acquired them
It didn’t exist that long. And it didn’t allow you to watch 4K or even Full HD videos.
Breaking up big tech doesn’t mean that we all have to host our own YouTube.
It doesn’t. But you need to have a replacement. So, go ahead, and create a free video hosting!
They don’t have to be dicks about it. Neither do you.
87.7% of the users watch on mobile, they are this mad about 12.3% possibly having access to an adblock.
I watch on mobile and have all ads blocked. There are multiple options a ton of people use
Insert smug “I run YouTube with Firefox with adblock installed” comment here. I’ve not seen any of the anti block stuff yet
[Laughs nervously in NewPipe]
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I was fine with ads a couple years ago, but the number, length and frequency of them keeps ramping up. This wouldn’t need to be such a struggle if they just were reasonable about it.
Me : clicks a helpful tutorial of 5 minutes. YT: here have an unskippable ad 5 seconds. Me: annoying but the creators have to make money somehow I guess. YT: and now here’s your skippable ad. Me: I just want this to be over with. YT content creator: Hello guys this video is sponsored by Raycons. 10 seconds blabbering on the product, skip skip Me: closes video.
Sponsorblock might be helpful for you on some of that at least.
Sponsor lock is a godsend
Use Revanced on phone. Works like a charm.
Does anyone else kinda miss when youtube was more informal, random, less edited, and more janky? Nowadays everybody has a title card, and a two minute intro greeting, high-end camera setup, and tightly rehearsed script. It’s like they all decided to just recreate the unnecessary bloat and ceremony from classical television, for the sake of “appearing professional” or something?
For example, a tutorial doesn’t need to begin with a “Hey guys, it’s your pal ASDFGHJKL. Have you ever got your foreskin trapped in a whatever and yada yada yada? Well today I’m gonna show you how to blah blah blah. Now let’s get into the video. But first a word from our sponsor Lockheed Martin…”
What’s with the “today”? I’m always watching it “today” by definition. And I wouldn’t have clicked it if I wasn’t in that particular predicament. Why not just immediately start showing the solution?
There is no being reasonable in a capitalist society. The only thing that matters is profit potential
It was never reasonable. Not ever.
If you’re old enough to remember the original need for pop-up blockers you would know that. Just 30 screens pop-up in a cascading order filling your screen with crap. Auto play video, auto-installing toolbars (Thanks
ObamaMicrosoft).I definitely remember those days, a lot of sites were just unusable, and I hear some places like the Fandom wiki are returning to that level.
I believe there is a small amount of ads it’s acceptable to live with, I do accept that content needs to be paid for somehow, but corporations can’t seem to ever accept a limit for themselves. Even though YouTube is already perfectly profitable and has been for years, it continues to escalate. Not to mention the rampant data-tracking that there is all over the place that people just accept because it’s invisible. Or that Google is working to weaken ad blocking and enhance tracking at a browser level.
It doesn’t matter if you made 1,5 billion dollars last year. If you are not making 2 this year, you are a bad business and should declare bankruptcy.
They would never not ramp up the ads, even if youtube was the most profitable thing ever.
There is something fundamentally wrong with Capitalism. Watching the unhinged ways corporations behave pushes me further to the left every day.
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corporations can’t seem to ever accept a limit for themselves.
This is the result of competition. When success is measured relative to others, it’s forever a moving target. Under this definition of success, self improvement is equally effective as sabotaging another. And as we can see, it’s not just businesses sabotaging one another. If a business can get away with sabotaging its own consumers, as it can in the case of a monopoly, a cartel, or regulatory capture, it will.
I kinda get your point, but is there even any competition when it comes to YouTube? Everybody pretty much accepts it’s the only viable publicly available online video publishing platform. Who are they even competing with? Twitch and TikTok work in a completely different ways that don’t really supplant it. Vimeo and Dailymotion are so small they might as well not exist. Seems like they are still keeping at it even bereft of competition.
Unfortunately there’s too many people that just roll over and take it at much higher levels than is reasonable. They’ll stop when the normies start to walk away, and from what I can see that sits at about the Idiocracy TV scene level.
I’m just closing the window when that happens. Same as I did when ads first came to the web. There was a long gap in between where I somewhat tolerated them but mostly annhialated them with ad-blockers. The few that got through were allowed because pick your battles.
But if you’re gonna get in my face and block content, I’m just gonna walk away. Get fucked. Find another way to make money. If that means no more free content, I’ll pay. But I won’t suffer abuse.
And injected in the most halfassed points of the video. Surely they have the technology to figure out a better way to time the ads.
They definitely do and they did do that for a while, but apparently it changed.
Oh really how does it work now?
Lol look at me change to piped
Cough invidious cough
Took me all of 30mins to spin up a local invidious instance. Worth every second
I installed a userscript today that plays ads in muted embeds hidden behind the actual player so that it effectively and quite literally blocks them while still leaving actual ublock disabled on the site. works pretty well.
EDIT: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/477464-beta-youtube-no-preroll-ads-undetectable
If I wanted to learn how to do that what should I search for?
not on my computer at the moment so I don’t have a copy of mine to send you but this one looks like a similar premise.
Do you mind updating with what you use when you get the chance? I think this solution is great, currently im using firefox with ad blocker but I do feel a bit quilty as some creators I enjoy dont get the ad revenue they deserve but it seems this way they still would get paid.
Sure thing. I’ll update my comment at around 2:30pm pacific time.
Revanced still going strong on mobile, which is where I watch YouTube 99% of the time.
Firefox and UBO still block all ads for me on YT and I’m not being blocked.
Same. YouTube started detecting UBO for me, but a quick UBO cache refresh and it was good as new.
I suspect it’ll be as it usually is, where they only really go after the lowest hanging fruit.
…what? This headline makes no sense.
They could have fixed it with 1 word: “YouTube intensifies fight against ad-blockers BY showing pop-ups and users are frustrated.”
For some reason headlines don’t like to use prepositions.
anti-lgbtq headlines smh
Hahaha, had to reread the headline to understand what you said.
Yah, I still don’t get it.
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I was annoyed by this. Check out FREETUBE which is a private youtube client for pc, mac and linux. No ads and 100% private - take that google
Really hoping some IPFS alternative takes off. Youtube has already been tanking in quality but no one changes because its a monopoly on online videos.
And if Twitter has shown us anything, it’s that people legitimately won’t leave a crappy platform unless there’s a significant popular and better alternative that can scale immediately to demand.
peertube is already pretty good. The commenting liking and sharing all work with activity pub. there is also owncast for live streaming. I understand peertube maybe implementing live streaming too.
It appears YT is the new cable television. Let’s see if it follows it to the grave.
I’ll watch from the sidelines, enjoying my subscription to nebula.
