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YouTube's server-side ads resulted in a black screen for ad blocker users

Mashable reports that users ran into a black screen on YouTube, and that it stayed for about 6 seconds before the video began playing. The reports indicate it affected several browsers including Firefox, Edge, Vivaldi.

Some users joked that they would rather see a black screen than an ad. While that’s certainly a better experience, it does waste precious seconds of our time. A simple workaround for the black screen on YouTube is to just refresh the page, hit F5 as soon as the page starts loading. uBlock Origin’s filters were updated with a patch to resolve the problem, the add-on updates its filters automatically. If you are still experiencing the black screen issue, just open the extension’s dashboard and manually update the filters. This tug-of-war is getting annoying, but it appears to me that Google’s efforts are actively promoting the use of ad blockers, instead of attracting new subscribers.

Smokeydope ,
@Smokeydope@lemmy.world avatar

The day adblocks/yt-dlp finally loose to google forever is the day I kiss youtube bye-bye. No youtube premium, no 2 minute long unskippable commerical breaks. I am strong enough to break the addiction and go back to the before-fore times when we bashed rocks together and stacked CDs in towers.

Peertube, odysee, bittorrenting, IPTV. Ill throw my favorite content creators a buck or two on patreon and watch their stuff their if needed.Weve got options, its a matter of how hot you need to boil the water before the lowest common denominator consumer finally has enough.

skymtf ,

Im honestly waiting for Google to sue for blocking ads in a last ditch effort.

wabafee ,
@wabafee@lemmy.world avatar

Hot take for those who hate YouTube ads while still keep using it. You deserve it. The answer is right in front of us, stop using it there are alternative out there.

Alb087 ,
@Alb087@lemmy.ml avatar

Youtube is becoming too useless. But no change in the addiction. 😐

umbrella ,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

fine on firefox and ubo here

recapitated ,

Hulu used to work this way with ad blockers back in the day

hal_5700X , (edited )

I’m seeing a lot of comments about Youtube frontends. Don’t get me wrong. They’re nice and all, but we need some alternatives. At this point in time. We have two of them Odysee & Rumble. If you’re tried of Youtube’s bullshit. Alternatives are the way to go.

StarlightDust ,

I think its important to highlight that Odysee and Rumble are both “free speech” platforms that neo-nazis love to use to platform their calls for violence.

rami ,

Here’s a few more in a reddit thread.

I thought Odyssey was just gun nuts? When did the shitters get there?

hal_5700X ,

What does neo-nazi mean to you?

The reason I ask. I see that word get thrown around on social media (twitter) all the time. The way I see that used 99% of the time. Some Left Winger sees a Right Winger say something they don’t like. The Left Winger can’t counter it or they just don’t like that Right Winger said. So the Left Winger calls the Right Winger the worst thing they can think of.

Grangle1 ,

While I largely agree with your point, as an Odysee user myself I know there is a visible amount of actual Neo-Nazi content there. That said, such channels are not difficult to block on the user end on the platform so you don’t see them after the first time, there’s not so much that it’s a constant annoyance, and there is still plenty of worthwhile content on Odysee to watch, including various YouTubers who mirror their content to the platform. While the Neo-Nazi content is harder to find on Rumble, it’s more politically focused and feels like it’s more meant to be “right-wing YouTube” whereas you can actually find more of a variety of viewpoints on Odysee.

hal_5700X ,

What does neo-nazi mean to you?

Grangle1 ,

Actual anti-semitic, fascist, racist people and groups who support the ideology of Nazi Germany and use Nazi symbols and iconography to support their cause. Actual white supremacists. Not every conservative or even most conservatives or MAGA Trump supporters. The real right-wing loons.

Senal ,

Do you have an example of this ?

skymtf ,

They always say “says something they don’t like” but in reality what they are saying is trans people are pedos and should die, that’s not an opinion, that’s a call for violence dude. Go fuck yourself and fuck your feelings

KillingTimeItself ,

although to be fair, that is just what’s going to happen.

ArmokGoB ,

Lemmy is also a “free speech” platform. Yet, we’re all still here.

KillingTimeItself ,

yt-dlp is also a great alternative, since you can just stuff it into the backend of something like jellyfin and have it work.

hal_5700X ,

yt-dlp is a frontend.

moe90 ,
@moe90@feddit.nl avatar

lack of content and engagement are the main issue and Youtube reign top because of that

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

I’m actually annoyed that NewPipe stopped working again and Invidious’ download speeds are glacial

Grangle1 ,

Did it stop working again tonight? It was working earlier today on my tablet.

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Been 2 days that it stopped for me. Won’t play or download any videos

tomsh ,
@tomsh@lemmy.world avatar

Install over github, much faster updates

gears ,

I’ve been seeing the black screen on Firefox. Still better than an ad, but it would be nice to be gone lol

dgmib ,

I remember a time when ads weren’t crazy intrusive. They weren’t being shoved into every os and app and website.

There wasn’t 20 of them on every page, and advertisers weren’t trying to harvest my data to the point where they knew every last detail of my personal life.

And I didn’t mind having them in order to have “free” content. But they got greedy and now I’ll block them in every chance I get.

Maybe forcing ads into everything isn’t the answer.

Brutticus ,

I went to my banking account page, where I can make transfers and look at my money. My ad blocker had blocked a GIANT ad in the center of the screen.

TwitchingCheese ,

Not to mention that ads are a prime vector for malware and spyware (well, more spyware on top of the ad vendor itself).

p5yk0t1km1r4ge ,
@p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world avatar

If I’m watching YouTube I’m not too worried about my time. The black screen is worth it as long as it directly spites their greedy asses.

cultsuperstar ,

I wonder how this affects people that setup Pi Hole and VPN and all that.

eager_eagle ,
@eager_eagle@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t think DNS black holing was ever effective against YouTube ads. I use mullvad with a DNS filter for ads + uBO and still got served a few ad placeholders from YouTube in the past 10 days. I believe the actual ad was blocked by uBO, not the DNS filter.

mctoasterson ,

You are correct. Google serves ads from the same domains as the actual legitimate content therefore sending those requests to null via DNS blackhole would simply block YouTube entirely. UBO and other browser extensions strip out or work around the problematic code itself to render a functioning page without the ads.

x00z ,
@x00z@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been enjoying Odysee a lot. It doesn’t have much content but it works great. Hopefully content creators start uploading there as well.

BradleyUffner ,

6 seconds?! GASP

SSJMarx ,

Some users joked that they would rather see a black screen than an ad.

Yeah. The time lost is a shame but the ad is far worse.

A_Random_Idiot ,

if im gonna lose time regardless, i’d rather spend it staring at 6 seconds of black nothingness, than 15 seconds of PragerU talking about how slavery was a boon the black man.

scutiger ,

Out of principle, if I can’t block or skip an ad, I’m closing the window. I’d rather not use the service than be force-fed advertising.

I take public transit on the daily, and that’s just about the only place I can’t avoid advertising.

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