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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) by TotallynotJessica to c/onehundredninetysix

edit: you to your

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[-] Cevilia 15 points 15 hours ago

I've trained the algorithm that I don't tolerate ads.

I rarely see ads on YouTube. I use FreeTube and yt-dlp pretty much exclusively for my YouTube viewing. I only see ads when I watch YouTube on my TV, and even then, only rarely. As soon as it shows me an ad, I close out of YouTube. Not skip ad, not go back, I close YouTube. I switch to audiobooks instead.

The algorithm wants to increase watch time, the only way it can do that is to not show me ads, so that's what it does. It's surprising how well it works.

[-] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

does pihole work for the TV?

[-] Cevilia 1 points 4 hours ago

Not as far as I know, there's no way to set custom DNS that I've found.

[-] DanVctr@sh.itjust.works 7 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

**It's learning... **

But for real, after you explained what's going on it makes perfect sense, I'm just suprised that "amount of ads delivered" is a watch time metric that the algo "optimizes" for.

[-] YgestWefsid@lemmy.today 56 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

"ads are based on your activity" they say. I like biology and I am frequently engaging in biology related topics on the internet, yet they keep spamming me with gambling ads, israel army recruitment ads (yes these are a thing!), and occasionally the hot girl mobile games, all ads I literally did not ask for. Everything is thrown at me, most being harmful and completely unrelated to my interests, except biology.

[-] regdog@lemmy.world 12 points 16 hours ago

Why are you not using adblock?

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 17 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Use adnauseam, sponsorblock on Firefox.

[-] titanicx@lemmy.zip 6 points 19 hours ago

I only watch YouTube on my TV and rarely on my phone and never on my computer.

[-] UltraMagnus0001@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

Use Smartube if possible, but that's only on android TV. Maybe someone knows alternatives for TV apps. I remember webos had some kind of hack, but I'm not sure if it works anymore. Smartube is better than paid YouTube TV which is sad.

[-] titanicx@lemmy.zip 2 points 18 hours ago

Yea, I don't think fire TV has much for that.

[-] paris 11 points 19 hours ago

Sanity check: are you sure you didn't turn off ad personalization at some point and these are just the standard issue ads that get shown to most people?

[-] mika_mika@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

I know this sounds crazy but I'm pretty sure those that go through the effort of blocking personalized ads are statistically higher to be consumers of anime thirst traps and gambling if ever interacting with them.

My accounts that have tracking enabled I get "normal" ads but if I have any kind of privacy on the device it defaults to enticing the lowest common denominator. Which makes sense from an engagement standpoint.

[-] YgestWefsid@lemmy.today 3 points 15 hours ago

Personalized ads are turned on.

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 18 points 18 hours ago

My favorite but of specific criticism was how they demonetized firearm-related channels because advertisers didn't want to be associated with guns, but they didn't stop running ads on those channels.

[-] TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 136 points 1 day ago

I have gotten actual unabashed, uncensored, pornography as ads on youtube, meanwhile content creators have to juggle not saying "fuck" too much cause otherwise it's adult content and they can't get paid, but they also have to say it enough times for it not to be kids content which also means they can't get paid

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 96 points 1 day ago

On TikTok I've seen an ad showing literal penis in vagina. But people have to say "unalive."

[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 72 points 1 day ago

Tumblr won't allow "female presenting breasts" but will serve me an ad showing naked pussy lips.

I'm not kidding. I got ad with exposed labia. And when I posted it as a screenshot they community violated me.

[-] bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone 15 points 19 hours ago

Were the pussy lips also female-presenting?

[-] gegil@sopuli.xyz 28 points 1 day ago

Its not only ads on social media sites, but on the web in general. I recently used some old unused phone that i had in my house to test something, and i went browsing some websites in chrome, without adblock set up. And there was a lot of in every way bad ads, including pornographic ads, and they were shown on normal, unrelated to all of that websites.

[-] TheRealKuni@piefed.social 13 points 20 hours ago

That’s doubleplus ungood.

[-] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago

It is evolving in the direction that eventually ONLY companies will be people. ONLY companies will have rights.

We must dissolve every single one of them and burn their boards as an offering to the gods of nature. I am begging all of you. Look inside yourselves and help me.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 17 hours ago

I'm pretty sure that those ads are also against the rules and that any advertiser they catch doing that gets their account suspended or terminated.

The thing is, advertisers like this don't care about their accounts. It's not like they have followers they'll lose if they lose access to their account. Lose an account? Just make a new one and try to sneak another ad through the system. Meanwhile for a content creator, if they lose an account they lose all their followers, all their videos, etc.

[-] hOrni@lemmy.world 31 points 22 hours ago

An ad about what? Is this real? Creators of true crime documentaries can't say "rape" or "murder" for fear of being demonetized but they show ads like this?

[-] CoolCat@lemmy.world 23 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

I have had rapey-AI ads in youtube before. I even took a screenshot.

-

Rapey AI ad

[-] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 19 hours ago

Took this screenshot of an ad directly from the YouTube app:

Tap for spoiler

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 3 points 17 hours ago

That doesn't seem like a photo that would break any rules. It's suggestive, but nothing worse than that.

[-] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

That isn't the point, though. The absurdity here is that content creators have to censor their language to such an absurd degree so as not to offend advertisers, but then the platform itself can just turn around and post borderline soft-core porn. It's just more hypocrisy from those "Think of the Children!" pearl-clutchers.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 15 hours ago

You seem to believe that the platform is intentionally posting soft-core porn.

[-] Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 14 hours ago

You seem to be trying to stir up some sort of argument. It’s an obvious example of double standards. I don’t know what else to tell you.

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago

How so? Do advertisers not get suspended or banned if they post soft-core porn?

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 10 points 20 hours ago

some ads are borderline hentai games

[-] TotallynotJessica 16 points 22 hours ago
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[-] hOrni@lemmy.world 36 points 22 hours ago

Once in a while, You use someone else's device, go on YouTube and see 2 minutes of ads before a video and wonder "how can somebody live like this?"

[-] CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Technically my device does that, but I found out that if I open videos in a defunct old browser (probably not a necessary component, just the one I use) that randomizes fingerprint information, if you long-press the video name and open in a new private tab (so new randomized fingerprint) it treats you for that one video as a new user.

So just have to open each video I want to watch in a new private tab, and good to go, no ads ever. Yes this is a lot of work, but I’m not aware of other options on iOS. On my desktop I use freetube.

I’m sure they will change this soon, but I’ll just stop using YouTube then. I’ve been full-on blocking sites through pihole that have started self-hosting their ad content, or where blocking the ad content breaks the page like IMDb. idgaf. I won’t use your site.

[-] LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 16 points 20 hours ago

I am always amazed how people know that adblock exists, is literally one click away, even have it installed in another browser and the like, but still choose to use the shitty app or chrome with all the ads. And then get annoyed when there are more ads than content.

I just don't understand it. Really. Why? That is like punching yourself in the dick and then complaining that it hurts.

[-] minimum@mander.xyz 8 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Inertia mostly, people are lazy. If they're family or friends, install uBlock origin for them and they'll probably thank you. You can, as an alternative, ask them to use brave browser instead (after disabling the annoyances), it's chromium-based so the functionality is identical plus it blocks ads.

If it's android, they'll mostly use the app. If you want to get them to use NewPipe or Grayjay, tell them it can play audio when you close the app without having to pay for YouTube premium (yes that's a thing)

If they're not friends or family, forget about it. You can give a light suggestion I guess.

[-] LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 4 points 19 hours ago

They literally have firefox with ublock origin installed (which I installed) and still choose to use chrome - and then complain about the fucking ads

I've been gently saying hey, if you hate so it so much, you know there is another browser with adblock right next to it? But so far, no results.

[-] stray@pawb.social 24 points 23 hours ago

I watched a YouTube ad once that was almost a full-length reading of a porn comic wherein a teenage boy is helping his stepmother move into his home, and he's like "Why does she have so many vegetables??" (Boxes of phallic produce.) It only ended right before they actually fucked.

[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 7 points 18 hours ago

Did they remove channel blocking recently? Something very undesirable appeared on my recommendations this week, and when I went to the channel to block it it the button wasn’t there, and worse still me going to the channel auto played more of its shit. So now YouTube think I want more.

[-] Zorsith 4 points 14 hours ago

I think so. They're also starting to shift the "my subscriptions" button.

[-] TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip 20 points 23 hours ago

Since SmartTube was compromised I uninstalled it and factory reset my tv, then I tried the official YouTube app. I didn't even finish one video before installing ST again. I rather have hackers than ads.

[-] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 hours ago

There's also TizenTube Cobalt, but since it's based on the official YouTube app it ends up being sloooooooow compared to SmartTube...

[-] Dave2 7 points 22 hours ago

Is smarttube like revanced ext?

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 19 hours ago

Revanced extended folded back into revanced last I heard. But yeah, Smarttube is kind of like that for Android TV boxes/dongles.

[-] Dave2 1 points 19 hours ago

um what do you mean by "folded back"?

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Revanced Extended was created by someone who was contributing to the main Revanced project. It was made as a test bed for new patches and a place for some patches they didn't think would get accepted into the main Revanced project. That's where it branched off.

After a while they stopped maintaining their own Revanced Extended patch manager separate from Revanced and just had users point Revanced Manager at their Revanced Extended patches in order to use Extended.

Then a little while later they after that they got most of their patches into the main Revanced project (folded back into the main thing).

They then stopped maintaining Revanced Extended as a separate thing, but they still contribute to the main revanced project.

Granted, this is all info that's a few years old. Might be out of date or misremembering things.

[-] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 20 hours ago

Also the ads might include malware code! Who knows!

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago

tell you who that product is for.

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this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2025
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