There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

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

forensic_potato ,
@forensic_potato@lemmy.world avatar

I’d like to add to the sentiment of this post by saying that if you ever used any of those amazing websites, I’m sure the developers will highly appreciate it if those with the means could consider contributing to their projects.

We all know how greedy and shameless YouTube can be, and yet those developers give us incredible products for free. And if you ever saw the entitled requests of some users on their projects’ pages whenever YouTube implements some changes, and they have to rush to fix their code, I’m sure you would appreciate them even more. I’ve personally seen quite a few projects being abandoned because of the sometimes thankless job of being a developer, and I would hate it for any of these to suffer a similar fate.

So if you can and are willing, feel free to join me in contributing to:

porksoda ,

I was about to say add uBlock Origin to that list but apparently they don’t accept donations per the bottom of their homepage.

I will not accept donations or sponsorships of any kind.

That’s some fuck you energy right there.

ryannathans ,

Not uncommon, the project I am maintainer of doesn’t accept donations either

vlad76 ,
@vlad76@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

What a King.

forensic_potato ,
@forensic_potato@lemmy.world avatar

Lmao serious ‘fuck you’ energy.

Out of curiosity I went to the project’s page and saw more info on why they don’t take donations:

Free. Open-source. For users by users. No donations sought. If you ever want to contribute something, think about the people working hard to maintain the filter lists you are using, which are available to use by all for free.

deweydecibel ,

The irony of these smalltime maintainers asking for donations when their own software is purpose made to hurt the income of smalltime creators. Particularly if they include Sponsorblock.

Hominine ,
@Hominine@lemmy.world avatar

lemmy.ca/comment/3988439

WeLoveCastingSpellz ,

Its crazy all my piped server stopped working which sucks, if anyone is willing to share a server that works or a self hosted one they could let me in. Hit me up

rush OP ,

Late reply, but piped.adminforge.de is my server of choice, with piped.smnz.de and piped.lunar.icu as alternatives

WeLoveCastingSpellz ,

lunar.cu was one of those that went down at the time. I am now using freetube since it keeps my subscriptions locally I can switch instances without having to worry about transfering anything when my instance goes down

shish_mish ,
@shish_mish@lemmy.world avatar

I am using Ublock and sponsor block,so far no adverts but it is always good to have more tools,just in case.Thank you for the links :)

QuinceDaPence , (edited )

My HTPC has accounts in chrome on there for each member of the family. All are configured the same with ublock origin but only one is getting the popups.

deweydecibel , (edited )

I will gladly accept my usual downvotes to remind people Sponsorblock is only hurting the content creators, not Google, and given there’s absolutely no threat of malware or tracking from a sponsored in-video ad, you have no need for it besides entitlement and a disrespect for the people that are already getting fucked over by Google in the first place.

librecat ,
@librecat@lemmy.basedcount.com avatar

I don’t know about you, but when I watch a video I’m not there to watch an ad.

Also don’t forget about the bad companies and scams (example: Established Titles).

xtremeownage ,

Sorry… watching a sponsored video for world of tanks for the 10th time, or simply safe, or whatever other garbage is there isn’t going to make me want to purchase it.

I value my time… If I didn’t use sponsor block, I’m still going to skip right past it… This, just does it for me.

macaroni1556 ,

Not being a youtuber I don’t know, but do sponsors even know that you’re using sponsorblock? How could they tell?

Morgikan ,
@Morgikan@lemm.ee avatar

I don’t think they can really. I don’t work in that stuff, but skipping isn’t included in YT analytics from what I’ve read. I would bet they rely on something like average view percentage to just make assumptions. For example, if a content creator places the sponsor bit in the first 10% of the video, and average view percentage for that video is 80%, then it is assumed the sponsor bit was watched. I wouldn’t be surprised if sponsors require some form of transparency in analytic reporting for content creators to get paid.

I also would figure that YouTube, as it has no bearing on their revenue, is probably not going to add in analytic features for Skip just for the sake of some third party.

SnipingNinja ,

Pretty sure you can see the parts people see more on average (otherwise I assume the viewer interest graph on the track bar wouldn’t be a thing)

DrVerlocher ,

And I still don’t give a damn! There are two scenarios in case of sponsors.

  1. The creator already got paid for the ad before the video. or
  2. The creator is payed by percentage of their affiliate link.

It doesn’t matter if I skip for number one, obviously. Number two could be an argument. But 99% of those sponsors are borderline scams anyway, so I really don’t care, because I will never buy something off a sponsorship like that. Not NordVPN (which still tracks you btw…), nor Raid, nor any other crap.

Additionally, SponsorBlock also gets rid of those annoying reminders to “like and subscribe” barely a second into the video, and other such annoyances like fillers or those dumb spoilers that show the best parts of the video right at the start.

SponsorBlock isn’t the issue. It is a symptom of Googles unfathomable greed and the creators/consumers collective Stockholm Syndrome. I value my time more, than hearing the same five sentences about World of Tanks, Raid or any other braindead “game” repeated 500 times.

The only sponsors I don’t skip are the ones from InternetHistorian. He at least puts effort in and makes it fun to watch.

seyrine ,

Agreed. If any content creator makes an effort in their ad spots (Jay Foreman, How to Drink, and the aforementioned Internet Historian) then that automatically gets whitelisted on sponsorblock.

And often the ads for stuff like Raid or similar stuff can be jarring, with the audio louder than the actual video or beginning with some random sound that “captures your attention”. Thank goodness for sponsorblock.

mayo ,
@mayo@lemmy.world avatar

Before I found sponsor block I would just lazily skip large sections of videos. The app is just more convenient.

CileTheSane ,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

YouTube: makes ads more and more intrusive.

People: block annoying intrusive ads.

This guy: “YoU’rE jUsT hUrTiNg ThE cReAtOr!”

Companies will keep making ads worse and worse until people stop putting up with it. I’m not going to put up with their bullshit so that the content creator can get 0.0001 cents from my view. If you want to support the creator that’s what Patreon is for.

Auli ,

I mean people don’t have to watch Youtube. Also all this shit about ads and then blocking them but still watching Youtube does nothing. People actually not using the platform might make a difference.

Psythik ,

SponsorBlock is useful for more than just skipping sponsored segments, you know.

I use it mostly to remove the “hey guys” and “like and subscribe” bullshit that is in literally every. single. video. It’s irritating and I’m tired of hearing it.

Also, the “skip to highlight” is useful for those of us with ADHD. It keeps the less interesting videos interesting. Not everything needs a 20 minute intro before they get to the subject of the video.

HonorIsDead ,

Sponsor block says it’s skipped about 18hrs since I started using it. No way I’m going to stop using it when I have a choice.

hottari ,

You are entitled to your own opinion but it’s because of Google’s content monetization strategies that user-generated videos now include native content ads. Content creators are following the money. I don’t have to agree with them, Google or your nonsense opinion.

Rukmer ,

It’s good to keep in mind, but I mean do you sit there through 1-3 minute ads not skipping forward? I don’t watch much television, I mostly watch YouTube. So I watch a lot of it. What good is watching an ad going to do if I’m never going to buy anything from them? Once or twice, I’ve needed or wanted a product or service I thought might be promoted on YouTube, I went and looked for a creator to get a link/code from. But I think I did that two times in the past 9 years of being an avid YouTube watcher, and those times I was not buying the product due to ads, just thought I’d support a creator since I was going to make a purchase. I don’t have sponsor block (I use NewPipe and I don’t feel like learning a new app), but I just skip all the ads by tapping the skip button a bunch. They’re often 2 full minutes.

rbits ,

I’m going to skip the sponsor anyway, SponsorBlock just makes it way easier. I don’t have it on auto skip though, because 1: Sometimes they mark segments as sponsored that still have interesting stuff, and sometimes they do good sponsor segments, and 2: Maybe sometimes I’ll be willing to watch it. For example, I always watch the end segment of Jet Lag.

So it ends up being not very different from skipping the sponsor. And besides, I never bought/used anything from a sponsor segment before SponsorBlock.

randint ,
@randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz avatar

Hello there fellow Jet Lag enjoyer.

Thorny_Insight ,

When the sponsor is baked into the video itself, there’s no way for the advertiser to know how many of the people who watched the video, skipped past the sponsor. The only way they know wether their ads are working or not, is by seeing how many people used the discount code from said channel. If you’re the kind of person going thru the effort to install additional software on top of adblocker to get rid of this sponsored content aswell, I think it’s quite safe to assume you weren’t going to buy their product anyways.

Also if you’re still feeling bad about it, just donate few bucks directly to the content creator. That’s way more than they’re ever going to profit from you watching ads anyways.

rush OP ,

I use sponsorblock not for sponsors, but for things like non-music parts of MVs or interaction reminders tbh

BrioxorMorbide ,

Unless people mass-migrate away from Chrome-based browsers (basically everything expect Firefox) Google will at one point enable their Web Environment Integrity thing, force all other browsers to enable it too because otherwise a lot of websites will stop working in them, and no alternative frontend will have access to the video streams anymore.

Martembrte2 ,

They need to have majority of browsers and smart devices share. Otherwise both apple and Samsung can do something similar.

spark947 ,

Perhaps, but eventually there will probably ba a certificate authority alternative to Google. But I agree, we need regulation to determine to ensure that programs calling themselves web browsers will have to adhere to standards, and not be based on features that make certain websites work only on their browser. I think the backlash reaction to implementing “integrity” as a standard was really healthy. But there is still a lot of action to take on the regulatory front.

BrioxorMorbide ,

eventually there will probably ba a certificate authority alternative to Google

Which won’t matter (for access from third-party apps), because to be accepted by websites they need to prove their trustworthiness, so you can’t just use a different one to circumvent it.

spark947 ,

It can be very similar to the TLS scheme we use today, where certificates are signed by regulated CA’s. The only difference is that currently there is no regulation to ensure that Google will build chrimium to trust other authorities for browser integrity other than itself. That is definitely a major concern. Fortunately, I don’t think that it is long term viable. First, Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple would be extremely unhappy with this scheme. That’s right off the bat. So there will definitely be resistance on that front because eventually it would do something like break youtube compatibility with Firefox.

Now, I do think that it is plausible that these organizations could come to a agreement that is still ultimately bad for web browsers. There fore, this should be considered by government regulators as something to pay attention to. I’m not too pessimistic about them doing this. There us political will to preserve the open internet, especially in the EU. It looks like the US is also set to re-adopt net neutrality rules. So, im just not as pessimistic about it.

The only issue is that in the short-term, alot of these services that are free are going to degrade. This is what we are seeing with youtube. That is too bad, but I am hopeful and optimistic that it will lead to a more open internet. The fact that we are having this conversation on a decentralized social network is a positive sign.

BrioxorMorbide ,

It still doesn’t matter. A website can choose which attestors to trust (if they had to trust all of them the whole thing would be useless), so Youtube can just deny access to the video streams to anything that isn’t a trusted browser environment, and anything third party like Invidious, Piped, Newpipe, Freetube… won’t be able to work anymore.

spark947 ,

Well yeah. But those clients could ultimately just say they are firefox if Mozilla is open enough, which they tend to be. It ends when Google decides that stuff like YouTube should only work on chrome. That would be bad, and I think regulators would treat it as bad, especially the EU.

BrioxorMorbide ,

IIRC the proposal includes some crypto-handshake verification to make sure the attestor is who it claims to be, so no, apps can’t just fake it. Or, if some of those secret keys leak and apps use it, sites won’t accept it anymore.

spark947 ,

It’s a question of trust. Google will select the certificates they trust for the services they provide, and the entities that own those certificates will decide what do to with them. If they trust a certificate from Mozilla, and Mozilla agrees to make that certificate open to everyone for instance, than Google’s only choice is to stop trusting it. But if Mozilla decides that is the certificate Firefox will use, than Google has to choose kicking off Firefox as well as other third party apps. Same with Microsoft and Apple, but I think Mozilla is more likely to oppose this kind of standard rather than try to reach some kind of agreement with Google.

The other way that this could play out every browser dev makes some kind of arrangement. Very unstable when we are talking about competitors.

At the end of the day, it requires a level of co-operation with the browser developers and internet service providers that I don’t think a lot of people will go for, for various reasons. Especially not regulators. I guess I am just more optimistic about the open internet.

sphere_au ,

Web environment integrity is a non-starter because it offers avenues for bad actors to enforce “integrity” that forces malware to be loaded as well as legitimate page elements. However, that doesn’t mean Google won’t keep trying to stop ad blockers, alternative interfaces etc in the future.

Player2 ,

Revanced also works with no problems

EnderofGames ,

I stopped using Revanced for NewPipe when it was giving me trouble. But I have a friend that swears by Revanced.

They are Android only, iirc. Practically the mobile app version of the projects someone listed in another comment.

janbug ,

I’ve found for me, freetube works better than invidious and piped. Much better response time and freetube has subscriptions nd a good UI.

lemann ,

Freetube on desktop + newpipe/libretube on mobile is pretty much my combo. I very, very rarely visit youtube’s site directly anymore lol

moreeni ,

I haven’t visited the site intentionally from my devices in years

Sir_Kevin ,
@Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

FreeTube actually has Invidious support as well so you can use both if you like.

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

tallwookie , (edited )

started using FreeTube (the installed version) - after importing my YT account data it’s basically the same thing as YT just outside the browser - but without ads/etc

GreasyTengu ,
@GreasyTengu@sh.itjust.works avatar

switched to freetube yesterday, pretty good so far, though I cant figure how to import my playlists over.

mihnt , (edited )
@mihnt@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    GreasyTengu ,
    @GreasyTengu@sh.itjust.works avatar

    ah, makes sense why it wouldn’t take the playlists i exported from youtube then.

    tallwookie ,

    no playlists yet but you can export your subscriptions (from youtube) - docs.freetubeapp.io/…/importing-subscriptions/

    iHUNTcriminals ,

    I think the last update made it better. I used to get errors loading pages and feeds… It would still work but it would post an annoying error bubble. Now it doesn’t! This is one of my must haves for a Linus install.

    Sir_Kevin ,
    @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    I did the same yesterday and was pleasantly surprised with how much more responsive it is compared to normal YouTube in a browser. The interface is very snappy. FreeTube also has Sponsor Block built in as an optional feature.

    weeahnn , (edited )
    @weeahnn@lemmy.world avatar

    I would love to use it, instead of YouTube but two things hold me back.

    1. Sometimes I like to just browse the home page and watch some recommended videos, and Freetube does not have that.
    2. Blocking channels with Freetube is kinda bothersome. Having to copy-paste the name of every channel I don’t want to see is tedious, especially since I use the Blocktube extension, and at this point have hundreds of channels blocked. I would be happy if there was a similar option in Freetube, or if I could import my blocklist from BlockTube.
    squid ,

    Do away with YouTube and use software like freetube, no adds, sponsorblock, and google can’t track my habbits

    OpenHammer6677 ,

    I’ve started using Freetube since this adblock issue. The only feature I’m waiting for is the ability to open in new tabs. Other than that, it’s an improved YouTube user experience

    GenderNeutralBro ,

    I’d also like to point out that mpv has youtube-dl built-in (and can also use the cooler fork, yt-dlp). You can open YouTube links directly in mpv and they will play with no bullshit. It can even pull 4K streams.

    There are browser plugins that let you open links directly in external programs like mpv, although they are a bit of a hassle to set up (especially if you are on Ubuntu with their godforsaken Snaps).

    Frellwit ,

    Also for anyone wondering how to set the default quality for videos.

    Edit your mpv.confand add ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720] to play all videos in 720p for example.

    Morgikan ,
    @Morgikan@lemm.ee avatar

    If you really want to kick mpv up a notch you should check out the uosc UI for mpv: github.com/tomasklaen/uosc

    GenderNeutralBro ,

    Ooh, never heard of this before and it looks super cool. Thanks for the tip!

    MapleEngineer ,
    @MapleEngineer@lemmy.ca avatar

    Has Google considered making their advertising engine better? Allow us to skip every ad. Allow us to block all those fucking cryptocurrency scam ads. Forcing me to watch an ad for a company that I’m not interested in guarantees that I will hate that company and never buy their product even if I need it. I will go out of my way to buy something from a company that hasn’t tried to ram their advertisements down my throat. If ads weren’t so fucking terrible I might agree to watch them.

    ours ,

    Or in my country: most ads are in only one of the main official languages but not the one in my region so it’s wasteful for them.

    Krudler ,

    Thank you, this is an exact point I was making earlier today in a different conversation.

    Google has two decades of information about me. Just as one random example, I’m hooked into their mapping app so they know everywhere I go and on what schedule, and can infer what I buy.

    Not once in 20 years has Google advertised something to me that is in line with my interests and needs. Google knows I go to the cigar store every Monday to replenish my supply, and they’ve never suggested to me a product or service that can save me time, money, or make it more convenient.

    Google’s ad system seems to shove garbage products in my face like black label shit from China (raycon, manscaped, etc) and products/companies that do not operate in my region.

    datavoid ,

    While you’re right that Google isn’t very good at targeting ads, I don’t think more accurate ads is what we want.

    Krudler ,

    It’s what I want.

    I worked for years in tech, and adjacent to marketers and sales people.

    I know from direct experience that people want relevant advertisements for things that will solve a problem in their lives.

    Going back to my example, I would very much appreciate an advertisement for a cigar store that will either give me a discount, introduce a new product to me, or deliver my product on my schedule.

    I also make and buy mechanical toys, and I’ve had an interest in them for decades. I would really appreciate an ad that highlights a new collection of mechanical puzzles.

    But instead I get badgered by Google ads for things that are nuisances and of no relevance to my life.

    I steadfastly maintain there is an opportunity to advertise to people in a helpful way, but Google doesn’t do it.

    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.

    MrSilkworm ,
    @MrSilkworm@lemmy.world avatar

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

    zaknenou ,
    @zaknenou@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    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.

    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.

    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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