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Really interesting read about the history of YouTube adblocking, how the new detection works, how uBO is responding, and how not to block the new popups.

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[-] Neato@kbin.social 186 points 1 year ago

uBO team (2 people) should not be responding to questions on reddit or elsewhere. They should just update the filters and post a "extension updated, should work again now".

In the end, Youtube will win if they want to win. Google can throw unconscionable amounts of money at their techs to fight the adblockers while the volunteers spend their attention and patience.

[-] Faydaikin@beehaw.org 49 points 1 year ago

The question is 'Do they want to keep throwing money at techs in the hope of forcing people to watch their ads?'

At best, people will keep finding ways to get around the ads and YT will have wasted a ton of money on nothing.

At worst, a bunch of people will abandon YT all together. And YT will have wasted a ton of money getting rid of them.

Both options seem self-defeating and wasteful.

[-] DrRatso@lemmy.ml 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The point is to make adblocking so tedious that only fairly tech literate people would do it. That cousin whose pc you set up and installed uBO on? They won’t figure out how to update the filters, they will just whitelist (or realistically just turn off uBO) or premium.

Basically nobody will actually abandon YT over this and those who do will be so low in numbers it is ~0 to YT.

[-] Faydaikin@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago

I don't think we should underestimate the savvy programmers out there, who are just as fed up with ads as the rest of us.

And at this point, most of the cousins who don't know how to update their adblocker are already there. It's a matter of time. YT won't keep pouring money into this. Just long enough to the "balance the books." When the 'number of viewed ads' start slowing down again and they've hit their max viewership, they'll call off the hounds.

[-] gohixo9650@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 year ago

I don’t think we should underestimate the savvy programmers out there

you can't imagine how many programmers out there are living their life without adblocks. Even before this last month's shitshow

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[-] 50gp@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

i'd get premium if they didnt make it artificially more expensive by bundling other stuff with it, so adblock it is

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[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

That is our win condition. To make it so costly for them that they bail on the idea. Because if we don’t, then it’s one step closer to their internet: locked down, hidden charges everywhere and content under their terms.

This isn’t just about ads, it’s about keeping information free.

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[-] slacktoid@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago

Realistically there is an equation money lost by ad blockers vs money gained by making ad blocking harder (money in - dev cost) unless its about sending a message.

[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 10 points 1 year ago

Only so far, false positives scare potential customers away.

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[-] netchami@sh.itjust.works 115 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Some solutions:

[-] Haphazard9479@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago

This is the answer. I use Newpipe on mobile and Invidious on desktop. I dont even know what youtube ads look like. I run it all behind a pihole just to be sure. Works like a dream.

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[-] mandelbrotvurst@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Also want to submit for Android: just using YouTube in Firefox with uBO extension

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[-] japaneseschoolgirl@lemmy.cafe 74 points 1 year ago

if theres one thing im determined to do, its to never voluntarily see a youtube ad ever. praise ublock and revanced.

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[-] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 70 points 1 year ago

Then there are non-tech-savvy users looking at the post and saying, “This is too complex. I give up.”

This is YouTube's ultimate goal. They don't need to make it impossible to block ads, just more trouble than it's worth for most people.

[-] shasta@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

Fine with me, as long as I personally don't have to look at ads.

[-] Thorned_Rose@kbin.social 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But the hurtful comments leave a bigger mark than the good ones

As a volunteer for a charity, I feel this so much. I work incredibly hard to help people, I get paid nothing for my time. The entitlement and rude demands burns me out way faster. Especially when people seem to put far more effort into complaining and being rude than they do thanking me or showing appreciation for what we do.

[-] OneShotLido@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Thank you for the charity work you do. I appreciate it.

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[-] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago

This was really interesting. I’ve been looking for a slightly more technical explanation for how this arms race works under the hood.

[-] kworpy@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nothing like watching everyone freak out while I'm just using invidious

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[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 year ago

I wasn't able to get it consistently working so I started using FreeTube instead of a browser, which seems to work without hassle

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[-] uriel238 21 points 1 year ago

So today, YouTube's pop-ups rolled down to Views will be limited to one unless you remove your adblocker at which point the pop-ups ceased. (I was intentionally rolling them down). Have: Firefox, DDG Privacy Essentials, NoScript, uBlock Origin

Techs working to give me access: I love you guys! I really appreciate what you're doing.

Fuck the hurtful comments, and do it to fight capitalism and enshittification.

That said, when I can no longer YouTube without ads, I will no longer YouTube, which also means no engagement on video forums. Useful, interesting rants is what I have to offer.

[-] millie@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've moved on from trying to block the ads to using a front-end and a macro to do the annoying part for me. It's been nice. I hadn't realized how bad youtube's UI was until seeing a clean one. I definitely recommend using one of the less notable ones, they seem to be faster.

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[-] joel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago

Has anybody else not seen an ad yet? I'm wondering if it's because I'm using Enhancer for youtube which also has an adblocking function 🤔

[-] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 1 year ago

Did you not read the article?

YouTube isn’t rolling out the anti-adblock to everyone. It seems to depend on things like your account, browser, and IP address. And if you’re not logged in or you’re in a private window, you’re safe. As a result, there are a bunch of people saying, “I use XYZ and I haven’t seen an anti-adblock popup yet,” unknowingly spreading misinformation.

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[-] barrbaric@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

Mine are super inconsistent now. Obviously I have uBO, but I can typically watch like 10-ish videos a day before the popups start, at which point I just turn on libredirect.

[-] scaglio@feddit.it 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

uBlock Origin Lite works just fine.

EDIT: as I wrote here, I am quite confident that my YT account has already been “rolled out” because of the many ads in the last 5–7 days. Before, I had 1 or 2 before some videos; now there are also pop-ups. I have made some experiments with VPNs (Mullvad) and browsers in several fresh VMs. uBOL works differently than the standard uBO and, from what I’ve seen, it seems to work fine. I’ll just stop repeating that.

[-] DrQuint@lemm.ee 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Comments like these is literally the first thing the article warns against.

YouTube is doing this in a staggered and flaky rollout. Seeing the videos fine as an anecdote is no indication of anything. The only people who can claim a method works are those who have gained access to affected accounts, know how they're affected, and have issued a fix.

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This is wrong. If it's working, it may be just because YT hasn't rolled their adblock defeating code to you just yet. And other extensions may interfere with uBOL and cause it to stop working. Even there aren't other extensions running, the built-in tracking protection in the browser can sometimes trip YT's code. The uBO reddit post (written by the author of uBOL) points out that YT changes the relevant scripts twice a day, so even if you have a perfect setup, there are going to be windows of time where it doesn't work.

IOW, you can't just install another extension and make the problem go away. Your whole setup matters.

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[-] helenslunch@feddit.nl 7 points 1 year ago

It's 8 o'clock and this website has no dark mode. No thanks.

[-] Zeroxxx@lemmy.my.id 13 points 1 year ago

lol I didn't realize it because my Dark Reader works flawlessly (Firefox, dunno Chrome)

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this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
631 points (100.0% liked)

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