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PSA To people watching YouTube with AdBlockers

You might have noticed that even on Firefox (depending on your lists) YouTube may detect uBlock Origin on Firefox now

There’s already a workaround (found, again, here), but I figured I would use this opportunity to tell people that projects like Piped and Invidious exist, which both allow you to watch YouTube without loading their ads, with improved Privacy and (in the case of Piped) even Geoblocking-Circumvention and SponsorBlock out of the box.

They’re both great tools, and using something like LibRedirect you can even automatically go to Piped or Invidious when clicking/opening a YouTube link (and more).

Both don’t load ads, but unless changed in the settings Individous may still make connections to Google/YouTube to load the video(s) themselves.

Bit of a shameless plug for these projects, but I figured this is a really good time to show these projects as I often see people asking what they are in threads on here

Lemmling ,

Thank you! I am making a comment so I can find this thread later.

glibg10b ,

Why not just save the post?

Lemmling ,

I see the option now, Thanks 😄

brax ,

Your link to “Piped” doesn’t work for me on mobile. I think you accidentally put some asterisks at the start of it.

rush OP ,

weird, my formatting might be messed up

Try again in a bit, I’ve tried to fix it :)

brax ,

Yeah, it’s good now 👍

Iam ,

Libredirect is really nice. Question: Can it bypass the front page without being turned off, then back on for links opened in tabs etc? Can’t work out if it can.

rush OP ,

The extension menu has “redirect” and “back to original” buttons (or something similar, can’t check cuz I’m on mobile rn)

You could use this to visit the homepage and then let new tabs/videos redirect

dangblingus ,

Using FF with UBO, absolutely no problems. “May detect”? I’m pretty sure they either can or can’t. They’re not going to detect some FF with UBO and not others. The only thing that may affect whether or not you’re detected is if you’re using a VPN or other encryption.

filefly ,

Congrats, you’ve managed to make a post in which nothing makes sense

turbowafflz ,

Well it detects it for me and I am neither using a VPN nor any additional encryption. I’m guessing it’s just their normal thing of slowly rolling out changes instead of to every user at once.

rush OP ,

uBlock Origin’s default lists with both Firefox and uBO being on their latest is currently undetected. By that I mean they’ve already released fixes.

rush OP ,

They will actually, as they’re looking for specific things to be blocked/altered using JavaScript that is easily affected by enabling certain custom lists. In case you don’t believe me, you can look on uBO’s official statement regarding this.

flop_leash_973 ,

In my opinion anything that is just a frontend for Youtube is just a bandaid, and if they get to much attention Google will make using them increasingly untenable.

The real answer is moving to competing platforms outside of Googles control.

newIdentity ,

That’s not possible though. There simply is no content on other platforms and they generally aren’t as good as YouTube and probably never will be.

The only platform I could see to rival YouTube in the future is Twitch

AProfessional ,

YouTube is insanely large in size and scope but…

The key is just a platform that actually pays creators.

Nebula is one I expect to succeed for its niche.

Something like Floatplane with direct subscriptions is an option too.

newIdentity ,

Yeah haven’t thought of that, but they aren’t really YouTube alternatives. You don’t use them instead of YouTube, but as an addition.

AProfessional ,

Absolutely but I think it’s a good start. Alternatives have to start growing somehow.

euphoric_cat ,
@euphoric_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

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    newIdentity ,

    They aren’t as good as YouTube though and that’s the problem. YouTube isn’t great. It’s just the best platform like this that we have.

    euphoric_cat ,
    @euphoric_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    newIdentity ,

    You’ve never uploaded a video to YouTube have you? Their creator tools are actually incredible and their stats are a good way to tune their videos. Of course you shouldn’t completely rely on them.

    Also it isn’t just the content. I rather use YouTube over Odysse, even if it’s the same content. It’s such a better experience, especially on mobile. Odysee is on the level YouTube was 10 years ago.

    Also making a free video streaming site isn’t really profitable. I don’t know if YouTube still isn’t profitable, but I’ve read reports from 2015 that it still wasn’t profitable.

    It makes sense that they now try to push things that make them money. They wouldn’t push ads so hard if they weren’t desperate.

    euphoric_cat ,
    @euphoric_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    newIdentity ,

    But most people aren’t you.

    euphoric_cat ,
    @euphoric_cat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    newIdentity ,

    Most people want a great discovering and viewing experience and a good looking and smooth UI.

    Odysee is buggy as hell.

    spader312 ,

    Nebula at least for educational content

    clb92 ,

    Nebula has about 10.000 videos, from only select creators. Youtube has around 1 billion videos, and everyone can upload. Nebula is not actually a Youtube alternative unless you’re in one of two specific target audiences:

    1. Already established educational content creator looking for alternative platform
    2. Person watching educational video content and not much else

    I don’t see Nebula opening up their site to everyone and letting anyone upload content any time soon, and for that reason I don’t see them as a Youtube competitor at all. They’ve found their niche with curated quality over quantity.

    Fun fact: The difference between 10.000 and 1 billion is… around 1 billion.

    Double_A ,
    @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    I wouldn’t really mind a smaller pool of videos, if it’s guaranteed to have a standard of quality.

    I’d even pay for YouTube if they offered such a service, where they curate their creators. E.g. I sometimes like to watch repair channels where someone tinkers with something. I have a handful of channels that I like for that… but what if there are many more that I just can’t find?

    HerrLewakaas ,

    Lemmy users are just delusional in that regard. You can’t just switch away from Google, its not the tech that makes in great, its the content. It’s the same with messengers, if your friends arent there how useful is that foss messenger really?

    Thankfully the only creator I regularly watch that does non-educational videos uploads them on their own website. For everything else nebula actually is an alternative, although I’m not subscribed to it at the moment

    Kevnyon ,
    @Kevnyon@lemmy.world avatar

    It’s the same with messengers, if your friends arent there how useful is that foss messenger really?

    This is so difficult. How many people would be willing to switch to Signal or Wickr for one friend? And then what if none of their friends don’t want to switch? And then the friends of those people, etc. Trying to switch workgroups, family, friends and all of their friends as well is a lost cause, it would never happen.

    octochamp ,

    that’s why what we really need is guaranteed service interoperability!

    pca.st/…/d79ca535-186c-4ee0-b658-165a148dcca5

    Kase ,

    Maybe it’s unlikely for this to happen, but I wonder if it’d be possible for yt to go down like reddit did. Yt makes a series of bad decisions, so a lot of people move from there to similar platforms. The other services don’t have much content right now, but from what I here, neither did Lemmy before the “exodus.”

    I get that reddit and youtube are very different types of platforms and that the whole reddit thing happened because of pretty specific circumstances, but idk, maybe something vaguely similar could happen.

    SoBoredAtWork ,

    “go down like Reddit did” … But did Reddit “go down”? It definitely lost users and content quality dropped, but still, everyone I talk to (that isn’t a total nerd like us lemmings) still uses Reddit and has no idea what Lemmy is.

    UNWILLING_PARTICIPANT ,

    I was going to try and contradict you, but I guess most of the people I know well IRL are also total nerds

    SoBoredAtWork ,

    Yeah. I introduced my wife to Reddit (she knew of it but didn’t use it until I kinda showed her how great it is (was)). Now her family and friends use it too. They all heard about the drama but didn’t seem to care or understand and they all still use Reddit.

    fosstulate ,
    @fosstulate@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

    You should refer her to Cory Doctorow’s writing, namely his concept of enshittification. He’s one of the most effective political communicators alive today. If anyone can get her to understand the import of the issues surrounding Reddit’s Simple Jack routine, it’s him.

    SoBoredAtWork ,

    I’m going to check it out. Thanks!

    Kase ,

    Y’know, good point. I haven’t actually been on reddit since the blackout, so I probably shouldn’t be confidently basing any theories on just what I’ve heard about now-reddit from other people, lol. Thanks for the correction.

    I guess my idea of how much reddit “fell” and how much Lemmy/Mastodon grew is a bit inflated, probably because I spend all my internet time here now.

    SoBoredAtWork ,

    (copy/pasted my response to another comment)

    Yeah. I introduced my wife to Reddit (she knew of it but didn’t use it until I kinda showed her how great it is (was)). Now her family and friends use it too. They all heard about the drama but didn’t seem to care or understand and they all still use Reddit.

    reinar ,
    @reinar@distress.digital avatar

    Yt makes a series of bad decisions

    It’s not like it’s making any bad decisions right now. Pretty calculated, I’d say - they feel safe market-wise, so they can increase amount of ads/fight ad-blockers/push people to buy subscription.

    Kase ,

    Oh yeah I don’t disagree. The wording was unclear, but I meant that more in the future/hypothetical tense. It just seems like that’s what all the big social media sites have been doing lately, so I was assuming that yt’s quality will take a nosedive sooner or later, but I guess it’s unfair (and hopefully wrong) to assume that. Thx for the correction

    reinar ,
    @reinar@distress.digital avatar

    I get where you are coming from, however it’s important to remember that big players are not equal - they have really, really different people in the leadership. Elmo is just a too-big-to-fall clown with insane ego, spez is a manchild who took VC money like there’s no tomorrow and in the end had no idea how to provide ROI, but youtube is ran by very competent people with solid track record and deep pockets.

    Maybe they are not too innovative business-wise recently… but they are good at catching up (except live streaming - screen layout is dogshit and nobody wants to get hyped in their tiny chatbox from a fucking google account with family photo as an avatar) and at leveraging what they already have, which is quite a lot, tbh.

    Double_A ,
    @Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    First reddit didn’t go down, despite having an user base which had some kind of a brain.

    While YouTube has everyone as users. Even like the most normie, boomer, zoomer users that think YouTube is the internet. No way they are going to switch for ideological reasons, unless the app just stops working.

    sphere_au ,

    The alternative exists, but it costs money. Most big YouTuber accounts (at least the ones I’m subscribed to) post on either Nebula, Patreon or some platform like that. It would cost quite a lot to subscribe to them all, but still less than YouTube premium in my country. So in the worst case scenario where YouTube really blocks all ad free interfaces except paid use, that’s my answer. I don’t like it as I think a lot of the content is overpriced for what it is, but it’s better than having $$$ swallowed up by some mega corporation that is just interested in screwing authors and viewers over as much as possible.

    rush OP ,

    Currently that is quite hard, because despite YouTube being an utterly insane business model it has prevailed so far.

    I would love for an alternative, I personally really like PeerTube and the Fediverse in general, but mass adoption ain’t there yet :(

    bufalo1973 ,
    @bufalo1973@lemmy.ml avatar

    I wish PeerTube gained enough traction to be the competition of YT. I hate that Google think they know you better than yourself and uses that broken algorithm to send you thing you don’t want to see. If I tell 5 times I don’t want something a correct algorithm would say “I’m not sending you any more of this” instead of trying other 100 times to make you swallow the videos they want.

    Mio ,

    Youtube is just the database with video. Just use a different frontend. The problem is if I actually want recommended videos but without Google knowing about it, then it is hard due to the massive amount of videos. Only Google have the money so scan everything.

    bufalo1973 ,
    @bufalo1973@lemmy.ml avatar

    And Google can pull the plug on the database whenever they want, just like Reddit or Twitter did with third party apps.

    Mio ,

    Yes, they can, like any other company or organization can. But they can’t remove the humans producing. That means the humans will just go anywhere else. Youtube is a standalone product that they probalby want to keep as I think it pays for itself with that amount of ads.

    rush OP ,

    Absolutely agreed, I would love for peertube to take off

    TheWozardOfIz ,

    Do these work for live shows?

    pineapplelover ,

    Yes. I use piped through libretube and it works for live videos.

    Holzkohlen ,

    I just use newpipe on android and freetube on linux.

    NaoPb ,

    Thanks for the info. I’m on Linux and I’ll check that out.

    JokeDeity , (edited )

    No account access, not for me. I’ve curated this account for many years and I really like the feed of videos and creators I get. Until one of them can use my account, I’m going to keep battling the ads.

    Voltage ,

    you can subscribe on piped

    JokeDeity ,

    I can subscribe, or I can transfer over 15 years of subscription, watch history, saved videos, etc? Because those are very different things and I’m only interested in the ladder.

    Voltage ,

    I dont think importing is possible :\

    princessnorah ,
    @princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

    You can definitely transfer subscriptions and saved videos, but I don’t believe there is a way to transfer your watch history. Google allows you to download XML files with details of the former, but not the latter.

    That’s the case with Invidious anyway, I don’t use piped.

    JetpackJackson ,

    Newpipe, Revanced, piped.video and Freetube are my go-to front ends now. Not even cause of the AdBlock thing, just cause.

    jack ,

    Piped.video and LibreTube never work for me, very unreliable.

    smollittlefrog ,

    In LibreTube, you can go to

    
<span style="color:#323232;">Settings > Instance > Disable Piped proxy
</span>

    I only ever had issues with the piped proxy, not with the app itself.

    aradgus ,

    for piped i just use an other host from that list and it works totaly fine github.com/TeamPiped/Piped/wiki/Instances

    rush OP ,

    Piped.video is the official instance, but there’s more

    piped.adminforge.de and piped.smnz.de have relatively high uptime and quick fixes in my experience.

    jack ,

    Thanks for the hint, much better

    AngrilyEatingMuffins ,

    Thanks!

    MrSilkworm ,
    @MrSilkworm@lemmy.world avatar

    Once there was Vanced and now there is Re-Vanced. (if you’re on Android)

    zaknenou ,

    and there is also Newpipe! You can import your subscriptions. Only problem is that scam profiles’ comments with NSFW profile pictures are everywhere there, I still don’t know a workaround

    noodlejetski ,

    the workaround is disabling comments, you’re not going to miss out on anything anyway.

    filister ,

    It is also possible to install libredirect if you are using Firefox Nightly on Android mike.sg/…/how-to-use-libredirect-on-android/. You can disable the YouTube app and this would force your device to open the YouTube links in your default browser.

    clanginator ,

    If you’re on Android why not just use YT Vanced or Newpipe? Both are excellent and I haven’t had issues with YT Vanced since this change.

    filister ,

    I am using Newpipe, but libredirect can redirect more websites, not only YouTube.

    clanginator ,

    Ah I see, ty

    xnileap ,

    Could also use Fennec or Mull on f-droid instead of Firefox Nightly with less telemetry from Google and other vendors

    Thorny_Insight ,

    I was having really bad time with the constant adblocker warning pop-up yesterday so I disabled all other extensions, restored uBlock Origin to the default settings aswell as cleared the catche and updated filter-lists. Then I cleared all Firefox cookies and restarted it. This morning I did not get the warning unlike the few past days, so far so good. I’m sure this isn’t a permanent fix, but for those of you still struggling with it, these are the steps you might want to try.

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