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DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube.

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/19421887

DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. The goal is to make titles accurate and reduce sensationalism. No more arrows, ridiculous faces, and no more clickbait.

“Clickbait” isn’t the exception anymore, it’s becoming the norm. Many have even started going through their entire backlog, changing old titles and thumbnails to be more attention grabbing and vague.

It’s no one’s fault. It’s a system that creates a race to the bottom.

DeArrow hopes to stop this cycle. It’s time to return to a more peaceful experience.

deathmetal27 ,

One of the best addons you can get. Period.

It’s like a paradigm shift when you browse YouTube after enabling it.

This plus using ublock to remove useless UI elements makes for a prime disenshittified YouTube experience.

GoOnASteamTrain , (edited )

You convinced me, I’m totally adding this today! :)

I also would throw in sponsorblock to that too - it skips all the “but first, Raid Shadow Legends…” “don’t forget to like share and subscribe” nonsense :)

edit: thank you, I just poked into YouTube Revanced, and found DeArrow was on! This explains why I didn’t like youtube’s content when on my PC, so I’ll 100% be adding this to Firefox! :)

30p87 ,
@30p87@feddit.org avatar
  • uBlock Origin
  • DeArrow
  • Sponsorblock
  • Return YouTube Dislike

Or for everything built-in: Piped

blackluster117 ,
@blackluster117@possumpat.io avatar

Don’t forget Enhancer for Youtube. A metric ton of Youtube customizations and quality of life features, also includes disabling shorts or converting them into the standard Youtube video format.

30p87 ,
@30p87@feddit.org avatar

Sounds like piped also has most of that. As a bonus, piped requires no account, no addons and no direct connection to google.

deathmetal27 ,

I use all of these XD

JayDee , (edited )

Also Freetube has these features.

spookedintownsville ,

Freetube includes Dearrow?

ArtVandelay ,
@ArtVandelay@lemmy.world avatar

Yep

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f01a37f5-dafd-4572-a61c-b07e11bfc8bd.jpeg

spookedintownsville ,

Nice. Definitely will be using that

zkfcfbzr ,

Using uBlock Origin to get rid of the Youtube Shorts section of the sub feed was amazing for me. Are there other things you block too?

deathmetal27 , (edited )

Here’s a non exhaustive list of things I’ve blocked:

  • The pill strip on top with a list of video topics (don’t know what the official term is.)
  • YouTube shorts suggestions.
  • Ads that are injected into the suggestions.
  • “Shorts remixing this video” section in the video descriptions.

I’ll perhaps share my ublock filter list for YouTube later.

Edit: My uBlock Origin filters:


<span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##.ytd-rich-item-renderer.style-scope > .ytd-feed-nudge-renderer.style-scope
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com###voice-search-button
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##ytd-rich-section-renderer.ytd-rich-grid-renderer.style-scope > .ytd-rich-section-renderer.style-scope
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##yt-related-chip-cloud-renderer.ytd-watch-next-secondary-results-renderer.style-scope
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##.ytd-ad-slot-renderer.style-scope
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(1)
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope:nth-of-type(2)
</span><span style="color:#323232;">www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-structured-description-content-renderer.style-scope
</span>
Raploc ,
@Raploc@lemmy.world avatar

Thanks! I’m going to try these.

Kushan ,
@Kushan@lemmy.world avatar

I used this within smart tube for a while, but honestly I kind of missed some of the clockbait titles. There problem I faced was that it wasn’t clear when a title had been replaced or not, so when you did find a video with a relatively clockbait titles, it gave you a bit of a false sense of security. I also found that sometimes the crowd sourced titles were just boring, albeit accurate.

Maybe I’m just weird or maybe I’ve just been browsing YouTube for so long that I’m used to it, but for now it’s an addon I’ll skip, though I’m very glad it exists.

Frog ,

I turn it off and on to see which changed. An indicator would be nice. Maybe an icon that I can hover over to reveal the original thumbnail and title.

I get where you are coming from. If I follow a channel then I already get a feel of what the content will be even if the title or/thumbnail is clickbait. Also you lose part of the channel’s charm. Exaggerations can be really funny.

It works a lot better for the trending section for unknown channels.

rowdyrockets ,

The icon and hover to reveal previous title has been available in the extension for a long while.

Frog ,

Sorry. I was using it with Freetube, not the extension.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Lemminary ,

I like the concept and I have it installed, but I don’t contribute to it because I find it challenging to think of better titles. It’s not easy like with Sponsorblock that I regularly submit to. For example, sometimes I need to watch most of the video first to be accurate, and by then I’ve already moved on to the next video. Other times it’s simply hard for me to condense the content of the video accurately into so many characters when the original title is way off.

I do like the way it makes all the titles lowercase, though. I find that changes the tone of the video feed quite a bit.

jonne , (edited )

This might actually be one of the few things AI could be used for. ChatGPT could download the transcript and just build a short summary.

Although chances are you’re just replacing one shitty thing with a different shitty thing.

Lemminary ,

Yeah, I think there was something like that floating around. I imagine it’s costly, though, but it’d be nice to have.

wildn0x ,

YouTube has already been helpful to a degree. Sometimes I’ll open their AI summarize and it will give all the details along with timestamps. There are videos where I saw the summary and passed on watching because the video was mostly filler material.

VitabytesDev ,

Sad it does not support Invidious. Else I would be using it.

Gullible ,

It will eventually find issues with malicious users but for now, it’s an incredible concept.

tourist ,
@tourist@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve been using this extension for over a year now. The only malicious use I’ve seen has been petty.

Occasionally see a video from a controversial creator titled something like “Asshole talks about stupid bullshit for 25 minutes” on fresh uploads.

The titles do change quite a bit. A lot of my title suggestions were changed/improved by others.

There’s a voting system, so you’d need a big group of bad actors fighting uphill for something that isn’t really all that worth it.

lefixxx ,

I wished this morning existed way before it was out. I have been using it from day 1. I love it.

Ilandar ,

The way some of the titles are changed is quite funny to me. It’s like if you saw a big scary looking ghost on Halloween and then you rip the sheet off and it’s just Huey, Dewey and Louie stacked on top of each other.

I Bought Ten of the WEIRDEST Phones EVER

to

Reviewing Old Phones with Alternative Form Factors

Lettuceeatlettuce ,
@Lettuceeatlettuce@lemmy.ml avatar

Pretty solid extension. It’s wild how nasty click bait algorithms have made the modern web experience.

lurch ,

People are going at great length to work around the cancer that is youtube. It’s a nice idea, but in the end, only a boycott will work.

darkevilmac ,
@darkevilmac@lemmy.zip avatar

I like the concept and generally it works well, unfortunately I’ve had to disable it because of how sluggish it can make a lot of pages feel. The playlist view in particular becomes hard to use when the extension is enabled.

Hopefully they fix stuff like that longer term so I can turn it back on.

troed ,
@troed@fedia.io avatar

Love it. While not all titles get replaced (crowd sourced) just the fact that the thumbnails get normalized is enough for it to be worth it.

guy_threepwood ,

I’ve been using this for a while now and the only thing I’ll say is that a lot of videos don’t have alternative titles, so since it’s all crowd sourced I feel that the best solution is to have more people using it.

Brilliant idea regardless.

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