Technology

Ad blocker still works. They really want people to stop using YouTube though, don't they.

Queue all the people in the comments talking about ad blockers or alternative apps.

Those might be great (and ad blocking is important in general), but I've found I ultimately just watch YouTube less.

A good chunk of my favorite creators had been pushing Nebula for the past couple years, so I finally tried it out and it's pretty decent. I've even found new channels there that would have been buried on YouTube. Still tons of room for improvement for the platform, but it's functional now.

Other creators have their own websites with text content, or podcasts hosted elsewhere.

It's only a small handful of channels I check for on YouTube anymore. It kind of sucks that it's mostly small channels where video is a key component and they don't fit with the edu-tainment vibe of Nebula, and I don't know of another platform for them. Lots of DIY home improvement, self-sufficiency (not religious or conspiratorial lol), music videos, and channels dedicated to specific videogame franchises.

I know LTT has Floatplane too. I wonder if all of these other videos streaming options getting worse will start driving more people to smaller platforms.

Ironically the linked site doesn’t show content if you’re using an ad blocker.

They're completely lost at this point I think. The 'skip ad' button is brilliant from a marketing perspective, if you ask me. One can get pretty used to tuning out ads but having that skip button keeps you actively interacting. So even if you didn't see the whole ad, if the advertiser is smart you heard their name before you skipped. Plus the user gets to feel like the ad isn't shoved down their throat, they have control.

If I were running things I'd quit this dumb battle with the users they've declared and make ads extremely easy to skip - I feel like you'd have a lot fewer refugess from the site and a lot more people less motivated to install an ad blocker in the first place.

good thing i use revanced 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍📌

edit: not the pin

easy fix: don't use the app on your phone.

instead use youtube via your browser with adblock (for instance safari + adblock pro) and create a shortcut on your homescreen. you can use youtube just like in the app, you won't have any ads and you also can play videos with your screen turned off

If that's annoying have the people writing this article looked at their own website, ads on ads (and ads placeholders with adblock) with cookie and email subscription popups and SEO bullshit.

They've also gone hard on those 10 minute ads that go on and on unless you press skip, which I often can't cause I'm doing dishes or have my hands busy while watching videos.

Also recently I've been getting the prompt to skip an ad, and when I press the skip button, it gives me two more unskipable ads

I wonder if they know the dollar figure in sales that ads, for all their expense, have gained out of me. I’d say it’s near zero. You may say I am subconsciously influenced and even if I don’t click the ad, I may buy the product at some other date due to recognition. Maybe. But that individual ad impression that someone paid for that I did not click (or blocked) does not know that. And it’s quite likely they don’t care, because ever missed click is still getting the word out so to speak.

But what they should care about is the absolute dislike I have towards aggressive advertising. And I am not alone. When I face an unskippable or full page or pop up ad, I don’t subconsciously want that product then or later. I consciously hate the product just a little more and more with each impression.

And now that it’s an arms race, the lines are being drawn, the hatred being cultivated, and the whole effort has lost its entire point: To make me friendly toward the product and to buy it. And I feel like sites like YouTube essentially don’t give a shit. They have the advertisers convinced through some great effort that ads are effective and worth it. All while doing everything that they can to keep us corralled and our eyes pried open to view them.

If you want people to disable content blockers on your website, it's best not to treat the people who don't have one on like shit YouTube.

I would pay for YouTube Premium, like I had been when I was a student ($7.99/month), but I'm not a student anymore and they want $19 a month. Fuck no.

knocking on wood so far with firefox and ublock/noscript and disabled hardware acceleration, i will get audio but no video when these ads autoplay-- instead of pressing the skip button, i just hit f5 and poof, gone. still more work than i prefer but i hate advertising as much as anything

Oh, the irony.

ADs? What ADs?

SponsorBlock still works via Firefox.

On mobile? Use Firefox.

On pc? Free tube.

more like fuckyoutube amirite yes i am

This is just petty

Download an add blocker, it's not just a better experience but can protect you from some malware exploits.

What this—a tiny, ad-skip button for antz?