Ad blocker still works. They really want people to stop using YouTube though, don't they.
If you're using an ad-blocker or skipping ads, yes, they absolutely don't give a shit if you stop using it, because you provide zero value to them and are only consuming their resources.
Your metadata is still extremely valuable to them, and it's not limited to just watch history and likes, but rather everything on how you engage in their services, including where your mouse cursor sits.
Parroting the angry me Yorker whose name I forgot. If you use an ad blocker your likely privacy aware and they don't get much/any meta data from you.
Also YouTube is extremely costly to run. They are making it abundantly clear you are not valuable to them if you aren't watching ads. You aren't that important.
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.
You might want to give Grayjay a try. It's a cross platform video app that lets you connect to people's YouTube accounts but also Nebula and other video platforms. Don't download it from the Play Store though, sideload the apk file directly from the website. I've only used it for YouTube so far but it lets you do the things you would have needed Vanced for before and I love it
I was kinda worried with the LTT drama unfolding since DankPods does use Floatplane as a source of income. While Floatplane and LMG are technically separate, because it spun off of LTT people might not see it as such.
And yeah, I notice I watch YouTube a lot less now, ever since they stopped allowing people whose history was turned off to get recommendations on the front page. Maybe that's for the better. I still have a watch later backlog I should export to a text file or something.
Nebula is fantastic but I'm not sure their current price is sustainable. Although I'd easily pay 3-4x as much for the quality content there.
My only hangup is that their privacy policy is your typical "we exploit your data for profit" type thing every other modern company has that I'm not contributing to.
Ironically the linked site doesn’t show content if you’re using an ad blocker.
Recently I’ve had sites block content just for rejecting cookies.
Very rarely do I ever see a site that allows you to "reject all" cookies. Almost always they require you to consent to "strictly necessary" (but also completely unnecessary) cookies. It's so fucked up.
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.
I have the god damn chromecast with the remote thing and it's totally bullshit, and handy! But mostly bullshit. I'm a mute nazi and mute every ad immediately to the point my wife makes fun of me. Although she does admit that it makes it more peaceful to watch. I'm wait to see how they enshittify it. I give it 3 months and then they pause ads if it's muted.
Get tourself smart tube. It's a million times better than the youtube tv app. I got a chromecast tv specifically so I could side load smart tube cause i was sick of the youtube app on my tv
Do yourself a favour and sideload Smarttubenext onto the chromecast. No more YouTube ads.
No one is leaving YouTube because there is no alternative. You can go to a site like Vimeo, but no one uploads there. You can go to Nebula, but very few people want to pay for yet another subscription.
good thing i use revanced 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍📌
edit: not the pin
My revanced has been out of date and non functional for a while, do you happen to recall how to update it? For some reason I'm struggling to remember the install process.
Huh. My solution (for years now) has been to kill the YouTube ap entirely and watch videos on Firefox with uBlock Origin.
I may have to see if Revanced is a better experience.
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
I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future they make it so the only way to watch Youtube on mobile is through their app. It seems like they're getting desperate, and that seems like the logical conclusion.
I really hope not. Otherwise that would be the end for me. Same as reddit I simply would delete my account and uninstall everything related to it :)
Or just use patches or alternative YouTube clients
why installing something when you just can use your browser and get basically the same experience?
Also those apps will be useless when they mess around with the api just like reddit did.
these apps do not use any official API. if they used it, they would be obliged to comply with the terms of services that most likely force them to show ads or track the users or some other bullshit.
of course these unofficial viewers break from time to time, but in my experience they have been super quick releasing patches fixing it and the user experience is way way better than the official web or app. Fast UI without bloat, no ads, no algorithms, etc.
ok. im gonna stick with my browser solution, don't need anything else and it works great.
i'm getting downvoted for this, lol 🤣
They don't realise that it just looks like the app and behaves like YouTube premium with background play if you use Firefox or similar on your phone.
They probably imagine some clunky browsing experience in desktop mode.
Or they're personally invested in all those apps that I wouldn't trust my password to.
why installing something when you just can use your browser and get basically the same experience?
Because it's absolutely not the same experience?
Also those apps will be useless when they mess around with the api just like reddit did.
They break all the time but they always fix them. LibreTube has been broken for the past few days but they'll fix it soon enough.
E: LibreTube is fixed temporarily by switching to HLS.
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.
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.
$19? I don't see that option
Subscribing through the iOS YouTube app is $19 because of Apple's cut. He might mean that?
ADs? What ADs?
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
I tried using sunshine/moonlight to stream hockey from my PC to my tv and the stream was black (until I disabled hardware acceleration). Legit blew my fucking mind. I was 30% impressed and 70% angry. Once again paying customers are the ones with the shitty UX.
I'm sure the average person doesn't give a fuck but I am slowly but surely being driven away from any and all paid content. I can't watch 40 dudes skate around in circles without being fucking bombarded with gambling ads from every fucking possible avenue. Because millions isn't enough they need more millions.
I'm getting so fucking jaded.
Oh, the irony.
more like fuckyoutube amirite yes i am
What this—a tiny, ad-skip button for antz?
This is just petty
Download an add blocker, it's not just a better experience but can protect you from some malware exploits.
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