4 ms·

Show HN: BlockTube - YouTube content blocker

17 points by amitbl 8y ago

amitbl 8y ago
An Extension I developed to combat today's YouTube "quality" content. You can easily block videos, channels and comments based on your own rule-set. The block is 100% site wide, an unsuspecting user wouldn't know it's enabled, unless they're actively looking for a specific blocked video. It's still an initial version, but there shouldn't be any issues. Also, the options page is not quite visually impressive, but functional. (A better one will come sometime) This is a must have if you have little children browsing the site with no supervision. It's compatible with Firefox 52+(ESR) & Chrome
- evanito1 8y ago
  Very interesting, i will try it :)
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  I've been complaining a lot about YouTube's "recommendations" lately so this sounds like a good idea. I may try to see how much work it is to convert to an Edge extension.
  - amitbl 8y ago
    That's sound great, it shouldn't be too much work I guess, because the chrome API usage here is pretty minimal
- HHCHunter 8y ago
  Thank you for making the functionality to block channels, that is something that I've found wanting more and more recently due to autoplay.
Rotdhizon 8y ago
Honestly if it can block anything with the words/phrases "Fortnite, PUBG, Must Watch, new, World Record, Never Before Seen, and similar topics then it is a winner in my book.
- roryisok 8y ago
  "destroys trump", "Reaction", "surprise egg"
  - WorldMaker 8y ago
    "Reaction" is a big one. I wonder if the beginning of the wasteland was YouTube trying to make "Reaction" videos a thing by directly encouraging that nonsense. "vlog" is another word that seemed like a good idea at the time but seems to have degenerated into near uselessness as a marker of content.
    - amitbl 8y ago
      In my opinion, a good indicator of pro "content creator" video is usually all capital letters/multiple question&exclamation marks in the title. You can setup this matching quite easily with regex
      - WorldMaker 8y ago
        Similarly, things like: /^Top \d+/, /^Best \d+/, /^Worst \d+/, /\d+ Things You (May|May Have)? Miss(ed)?/
- amitbl 8y ago
  You can do that very easily, and also use raw regex for more flexibility
Rjevski 8y ago
It would be good if you could combine this with some OCR/computer vision to automatically detect and block click bait thumbnails like with a red circle, or proeminent boobs, or similar.
- amitbl 8y ago
  It does sounds like a great idea, but would require setting up a remote service which I'm not ready to maintain at this time
  - roryisok 8y ago
    Not ready to be paid to find boobs
roryisok 8y ago
I'd actually love to see this work at the router level so it can filter stuff from my iPad
- amitbl 8y ago
  Unfortunately, probably won't ever be possible because of TLS encrypted connection to YouTube (unless you can install custom root CA on apple devices??)

17 points by amitbl 8y ago

An Extension I developed to combat today's YouTube "quality" content. You can easily block videos, channels and comments based on your own rule-set. The block is 100% site wide, an unsuspecting user wouldn't know it's enabled, unless they're actively looking for a specific blocked video. It's still an initial version, but there shouldn't be any issues. Also, the options page is not quite visually impressive, but functional. (A better one will come sometime) This is a must have if you have little children browsing the site with no supervision. It's compatible with Firefox 52+(ESR) & Chrome

evanito1 8y ago
Very interesting, i will try it :)
WorldMaker 8y ago
I've been complaining a lot about YouTube's "recommendations" lately so this sounds like a good idea. I may try to see how much work it is to convert to an Edge extension.
- amitbl 8y ago
  That's sound great, it shouldn't be too much work I guess, because the chrome API usage here is pretty minimal
HHCHunter 8y ago
Thank you for making the functionality to block channels, that is something that I've found wanting more and more recently due to autoplay.

Rotdhizon 8y ago

Honestly if it can block anything with the words/phrases "Fortnite, PUBG, Must Watch, new, World Record, Never Before Seen, and similar topics then it is a winner in my book.

roryisok 8y ago
"destroys trump", "Reaction", "surprise egg"
- WorldMaker 8y ago
  "Reaction" is a big one. I wonder if the beginning of the wasteland was YouTube trying to make "Reaction" videos a thing by directly encouraging that nonsense. "vlog" is another word that seemed like a good idea at the time but seems to have degenerated into near uselessness as a marker of content.
  - amitbl 8y ago
    In my opinion, a good indicator of pro "content creator" video is usually all capital letters/multiple question&exclamation marks in the title. You can setup this matching quite easily with regex
    - WorldMaker 8y ago
      Similarly, things like: /^Top \d+/, /^Best \d+/, /^Worst \d+/, /\d+ Things You (May|May Have)? Miss(ed)?/
amitbl 8y ago
You can do that very easily, and also use raw regex for more flexibility

Rjevski 8y ago

It would be good if you could combine this with some OCR/computer vision to automatically detect and block click bait thumbnails like with a red circle, or proeminent boobs, or similar.

amitbl 8y ago
It does sounds like a great idea, but would require setting up a remote service which I'm not ready to maintain at this time
- roryisok 8y ago
  Not ready to be paid to find boobs

roryisok 8y ago

I'd actually love to see this work at the router level so it can filter stuff from my iPad

amitbl 8y ago
Unfortunately, probably won't ever be possible because of TLS encrypted connection to YouTube (unless you can install custom root CA on apple devices??)