11 ms·

YouTube Begins Blocking Users Who Use Adblock

51 points by haxiomic 3y ago

brucethemoose2 3y ago
I saw the popup in FF, but interestingly YouTube doesn't seem to recognize Cromite's adblocker
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  From their perspective, they don't care if they are blocking all the adblockers, blocking the major ones on the major platforms is still a big win.
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    But I thought Cromite just used ABP filters? Maybe some other patch is interacting with it, as the other day I noticed YouTube ads trying to load, and just failing with a long pause before playing the actual video. I find this interesting because there will undoubtedly be a cat-and-mouse game between YT and adblockers now.
aestetix 3y ago
https://github.com/0x48piraj/fadblock https://github.com/0x48piraj/fadblock
- kazinator 3y ago
  Fadblock doesn't go far enough; it should simulate clicking on the ad, loading and discarding the landing page in the background.
  - simondotau 3y ago
    That's the worst possible thing they could do. Any hint of a system triggering fake clicks will get YouTube's attention far more quickly.
Hamuko 3y ago
I feel like I need a hotkey for "Purge all caches && Update now" for uBlock Origin to keep up with this game of cat and mouse. YouTube has definitely already given me the "Use will be blocked after 3/2/1 videos" warning but it still keeps working time to time with ad-blocking.
lofaszvanitt 3y ago
Extensions crippling 3...2...1
nuancebydefault 3y ago
I don't understand how adblock on a service like youtube work, without cooperation of youtube itself. I get it that you could easily blank the output when there is an add, and/or auto-close an add after the countdown, but how do you convince the service to continue streaming before the minimal advertisement time has past ?
- izzydata 3y ago
  I don't know how it is done for certain, but with absolute control of the client you could send any information back to Youtube that you wanted. So if all Youtube was requesting was that the minimal amount of time of ads be watched before playing the video you just tell them that you have. I'm sure it is getting far more complicated than this, but I suspect this is the basic idea of this back and forth arms race of ad blocking and adblock blocking and so forth.
  - 10000truths 3y ago
    If YouTube wants full control over the ads experience, they will have to splice the ad into the video stream itself, and block seeking requests until: 1. The entirety of the ad portion of the video stream has been successfully sent to the client 2. A length of time equivalent to the ad duration has passed A sufficiently advanced ad blocker would be able to block the ad, but you would still be forced to sit through several seconds of nothing before continuing with the video.
    - Terr_ 3y ago
      They could also have some sort of "skip ahead by giving information about the ad you just partially watched" feature, although seems vulnerable to a sufficiently good bot. (Unless they make it so complicated that it only works for very engaged native speakers of a particular language.)
    - gpm 3y ago
      If youtube did that then they would no longer be able to accurately measure the number of ad views... which probably would make both the advertisers and the video-creators mad sooner or later.
Aken 3y ago
I feel like I'm in the minority that has zero problem paying for an ad-free experience. I get tremendous value out of YouTube in both professional and personal ways. I have a daughter who watches it often. Suppressing ads while supporting the service my family enjoys regularly seems like a no-brainer to me. And I never have to worry about them circumventing my ad blocker.
- sva_ 3y ago
  Yeah but I have a problem with being bullied into paying them. It will just make me want to make their engineers life a pain by working on work-arounds.
  - nickthegreek 3y ago
    We got some different definitions of being bullied. I run pi-hole, ublock, sponsorblock but also pay for yt premium.
  - pkroll 3y ago
    I'm with nickthegreek: I hate ads, but YouTube saying you can't make use of our service without paying or seeing ads isn't bullying.
- simondotau 3y ago
  I agree with all of that, and I sincerely was planning to become a paid subscriber. But I have some irrational resentment around being a statistic validating their increased pressure campaign. I don’t like feeling forced to spend the money! Which is weird because I get significantly more value from it than any streaming service.
  - Aken 3y ago
    Why does your mindset go to being "bullied", though? Aren't you the bully for circumventing their revenue model with the expectation that you should get it for free?
    - 3y ago
blibble 3y ago
step 1: enable ublock origin in incognito mode in options step 2: right click video, open in incognito
- sva_ 3y ago
  For me, it also works to stop using Chrome and use Firefox instead (so far.)
  - CM30 3y ago
    I've had no issues with either Chrome or Firefox in Incognito with uBlock Origin. But I do kinda wonder if the fact I have YouTube Premium on one of my accounts in Chrome means Google isn't trying too hard to block my IP/detect adblockers on it.
    - belltaco 3y ago
      Same, I am logged into the YT Premium on Edge and don't have any issues with Chrome logged into another account without Premium.
  - jonnycomputer 3y ago
    Oh it does it to me in Firefox too. Or at least, it puts up an annoying flag warning me that it'll stop working.
- blast 3y ago
  > enable ublock origin in incognito mode in options I can't find that option. Where's it at?
  - josephcsible 3y ago
    Assuming you're using Firefox, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-private-browsing https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-private-brow...
  - O1111OOO 3y ago
louison11 3y ago
This marks the moment Google officially decided it didn’t know how to innovate any longer, and that it’s time to grab all they can to increase the bottom line. Most technology companies follow this same cycle. When they’re in the innovation/disruption phase, there are less rules, they just focus on giving people the best experience. When they start stagnating, suddenly every cent matters. The irony is that the profile type most likely to have an AdBlocker is the Silicon Valley engineer. They spend so much time online, that it would be really annoying to have ads. I already found a fix: I use another YouTube client that displays the stream directly without showing the ads. My guess is more people will do that - unless the adblockers get better. If YouTube goes as far as protecting the streaming servers themselves with greater authentication, people will likely go elsewhere… TikTok… Insta… or the many other video platforms that have been popping up as a result of censorship. But I am skeptical everyday people are willing to wait for ads - or pay for social media.
- konschubert 3y ago
  I’ve been blocking ads for a long time but I’m not going to cry about mistreatment when somebody shuts the back door that I’ve been using to get free lunch. The ads are annoying, I might just use nebula more.
  - ToucanLoucan 3y ago
    I find myself using Nebula more and more because most of the creators I watch are there and their app, while imperfect, is miles better than YouTube on the Apple TV. I'm currently subbed to YouTube Premium so I don't get ads either way, but if Google ever changes that, you can bet I'm unsubbing immediately. I only tolerate how expensive it is because of the sheer amount of content I watch from there, and because I watch the majority through Apple TV's where adblocking is a lot more complicated than I'm willing to deal with.
- bravoetch 3y ago
  Put simply, the end user is not the customer. The shareholders are. As in "we need a product that harvests money from people" instead of "let's solve a problem for people while adding value".
gnicholas 3y ago
I was using Brave on my iPad the other day and got a notice about this. It didn't seem to affect functionality though. Perhaps they will clamp down in the future, and this is just a warning.
- tromp 3y ago
  On my Desktop, Brave is counting down the last 3 videos I'm allowed to watch with ads blocked. I hope Brave can give me the option to make Google think I'm watching the ad by downloading the ad but somehow not showing it to me. Or, failing that, show it but auto-mute the audio during the ad (I spent lots of time on Youtube listening to my playlist).
  - rand_flip_bit 3y ago
    I just tried Brave on the desktop with a few videos and didn't see any pop-ups, seems business as normal to me. Are you running an up to date version?
nine_zeros 3y ago
Would they be able to enforce this on Firefox or other browsers?
- theduder99 3y ago
  yes I got the notice 2 weeks ago on FF with ublock origin, then last week the 3 video countdown, and now the full ban
- dvngnt_ 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity
- kdwikzncba 3y ago
  And not just browsers. I'm sure other clients exist. I'd be surprised if VLC doesn't already have an extension that allows you to play YouTube. They'll have to interpolate the ads into the stream. Then people will code clients that detects the ads and black them and mute them. Then YouTube will learn how that works and will change their ads not to trigger detection. Etc. This is called an arms race.
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    > If VLC doesn't already have an extension that allows you to play YouTube. There are apps for this, and dozens of similar ones for all sorts of video players. I personally use SVP's because I already own it. I think they mostly use youtube-dl under the hood to fetch the video URL, so that is a significant point of failure.
karmasimida 3y ago
You can always choose not to use Youtube if you hate Ads so much.
- poorlyknit 3y ago
  I can and I will. Just don't make me run software I don't want to on hardware I own.
- Daviey 3y ago
  Such a silly comment when you know full well that YouTube has a monopoly on user supplied video content.
  - karmasimida 3y ago
    It is not like you can’t get rid of ads, you can just pay subscription fee. It is a monopoly doesn’t mean it is a public utility. PG&G has a monopoly in electricity in my region, does it mean I can steal the electricity because I don’t like PG&E and I don’t have other options? All tv channels have either ads or you need to pay, how is this different than what YouTube is trying to do?
- linker3000 3y ago
  Well, if that's their rules, it's a choice. If you pick up a free newspaper on a commmute, or, say, a community "What's on" sponsored by ads, does someone look over your shoulder and insist you read every ad before they let you turn the page?
  - pkroll 3y ago
    No: but the ads ARE THERE. They're actually in front of you. Not so with an ad blocker.
    - thiht 3y ago
      What if I censor the ads with a Sharpie, is that illegal or unethical too?
squarefoot 3y ago
"Hey, AI, connect to YT using my browser and account with adblockers turned off, then check the usual channels grabbing new videos, then strip out all advertising content and make them available to me and my friends over this p2p encrypted connection."
- beepbooptheory 3y ago
  Isn't it a little optimistic though to think that the AI itself will be free from advertising/grubby-monetization in the scheme of things? Sure, it feels great now, and maybe even you can pay for the GPU and run it on your own, but not everyone will, and either way the future is long! It just feels inevitable that somebody or something will come to collect one day, in one form or the other.
  - beej71 3y ago
    "Here's your pirated ad-free YouTube stream, brought to you by Carl's Jr!"
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    I'm hoping AI-horde type structures proliferate, where a few people with idle accelerators can support a much larger population without much effort.
- prometheus76 3y ago
  yt-dl with a batch file running in task scheduler every night is a great way to make sure you keep up with all your favorite channels. Or at least so I've heard. It might take a person an hour or two to get it running, with spot checks to make sure it's still running, but it could be a great solution. Further, if one were so inclined, one could download the subtitle files as well, and throw them into a database by episode. Then, one could easily find a video they remember watching a while back by searching the database for a phrase.
LanzVonL 3y ago
[dead]
Lio 3y ago
It's not the ads it's the tracking. Paying for Youtube premium doesn't stop them spying on you.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  Yep. That's why I only watch YouTube on a tablet that is dedicated solely for watching YouTube on.
- keeganjw 3y ago
  If you have YouTube Premium, you can watch videos with an ad blocker on. I found this out last night after getting Premium because they blocked me...
  - pests 3y ago
    Why is this surprising?
- beej71 3y ago
  For me, it was the ads more than the tracking. But after a while, I couldn't in good conscience pay Google any longer. They're not a good netizen, and if they luckily go bankrupt, I won't shed a tear.
- lamontcg 3y ago
  And why would I pay them for the privilege of them spying on me?
kazinator 3y ago
> When you block YouTube ads, you violate YouTube’s Terms of Service. I wish these corporate goons would drop their moronic drivel about a Terms of Service that means nothing and nobody reads and just write in the following style: "When you block YouTube ads, we don't like it and will take technological steps to retaliate, which are within our right."
windowshopping 3y ago
I have such mixed feelings about this. I can't stand to waste the time on ads so I started using an alternative client that doesn't have any ads. However, I do recognize that I've been using youtube for 15+ years without paying a cent or watching any ads - which is pretty unreasonable. No streaming service or television channel has ever been free with no ads. I can't really justify it. And yet, I'm not willing to pay for youtube. It having been free all these years makes that a hard pill to swallow, somehow it just feels wrong now.
- dvngnt_ 3y ago
  i would buy for 5 a month for ad-free, but newpipe + revanced is better on mobile and on desktop kodi, or SmartTubeNext i don't want to pay for a worst experience.
- kazinator 3y ago
  > without paying a cent You mean, YouTube has not paid you a cent for your attention.
- blacksmith_tb 3y ago
  I'm even willing to pay but with sponsor messages being baked in even paying for Premium means having to take extra steps to avoid ads. I'm also not sure if I pay for Premium if YT will still shut me down for running uBlock origin? I guess I could allowlist it at that point...
lawlessone 3y ago
If Ads supported creators I don't think they'd all be doing sponsored bits in their videos.
- ojagodzinski 3y ago
  it is called greed.
- kazinator 3y ago
  Support creators outside of Youtube, even if you find them via Youtube. Youtube needs to die and get replaced by something more democratic anyway.
SirMaster 3y ago
I mean, if YouTube blocks me, then I just wont use YouTube...
- lofaszvanitt 3y ago
  Best course of action. More free time reading books.
  - Smoosh 3y ago
    And the web. Remember when we used to read things on the web?
- machdiamonds 3y ago
  Seems like a win for YouTube, they don't have to waste bandwidth on users that don't bring in any revenue.
  - mikewarot 3y ago
    and they don't have as many users rating videos and feeding the algorithm for the ones to do watch ads... YouTube still loses
    - machdiamonds 3y ago
      I'm almost certain that the bandwidth cost is much higher than what they gain for recommendation algorithms. It's like saying "Yeah, that guy steals from your store, but at least now you know what's in demand!" (Not equating ad-block to stealing, just trying to show the value difference)
    - karmasimida 3y ago
      I really doubt this data is worthwhile considering their bandwidth and hosting cost. Video hosting is at this day, almost a universal money losing scheme. YouTube is barely profitable, they need to make money, it is not even an option
jlhawn 3y ago
Just let me pay for youtube premium without bundling a music streaming subscription please. $14 per month for no ads is not worth it when I already pay $11 per month for my preferred music streaming service.
Semaphor 3y ago
FF, Win, uBo. I got "3 more videos till you'll be blocked" and that was it. "Watched" several more videos, but no more popups, no more nagging.
WirelessGigabit 3y ago
This morning while trying to understand laser eye surgery I got an ad for some supplement that's supposed to make my eyesight perfect. It's not even that they try to sell you a product. They're straight up scamming you. I'll use an Adblocker.
goodboyjojo 3y ago
i use ublock and i got a popup on youtube telling me turn off adblock. i refuse to do so because i hate seeing ads and popups everywhere on the page of the youtube video. i use adblock software because it makes youtube easier to navigate and it looks cleaner
jsnell 3y ago
I wonder which topic has had the most HN front-page dupes. This one is probably in the competition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37989682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37989682
- haxiomic 3y ago
  I don't think the link makes it clear but this is a new development in the Saga: some users are now getting a new message: "You have 2 videos remaining, if you continue to use ad block the video player will be blocked" Previously users simply had a timer to wait through, this is a much stronger action
machdiamonds 3y ago
TLDR: Thread where people earning software engineering salaries express frustration that they aren't entitled to services for free and must pay a reasonable fee for an ad-free experience.
stefanos82 3y ago
I honestly want to see how this whole thing is going to end eventually...I'm so curious!
mikewarot 3y ago
I've been eager for the YouTube effective monopoly to end... this self-immolation on their part is very similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union.... a tactical mistake that cascaded and surprised everyone.
renegat0x0 3y ago
It is interesting that I have not yet seen any ad. Maybe becuse of extensions. Maybe because of no script, maybe becuse they have not roll out changes to my country. Huh.

51 points by haxiomic 3y ago

brucethemoose2 3y ago

I saw the popup in FF, but interestingly YouTube doesn't seem to recognize Cromite's adblocker

SoftTalker 3y ago
From their perspective, they don't care if they are blocking all the adblockers, blocking the major ones on the major platforms is still a big win.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  But I thought Cromite just used ABP filters? Maybe some other patch is interacting with it, as the other day I noticed YouTube ads trying to load, and just failing with a long pause before playing the actual video. I find this interesting because there will undoubtedly be a cat-and-mouse game between YT and adblockers now.

aestetix 3y ago

https://github.com/0x48piraj/fadblock https://github.com/0x48piraj/fadblock

kazinator 3y ago
Fadblock doesn't go far enough; it should simulate clicking on the ad, loading and discarding the landing page in the background.
- simondotau 3y ago
  That's the worst possible thing they could do. Any hint of a system triggering fake clicks will get YouTube's attention far more quickly.

Hamuko 3y ago

I feel like I need a hotkey for "Purge all caches && Update now" for uBlock Origin to keep up with this game of cat and mouse. YouTube has definitely already given me the "Use will be blocked after 3/2/1 videos" warning but it still keeps working time to time with ad-blocking.

lofaszvanitt 3y ago

Extensions crippling 3...2...1

nuancebydefault 3y ago

I don't understand how adblock on a service like youtube work, without cooperation of youtube itself. I get it that you could easily blank the output when there is an add, and/or auto-close an add after the countdown, but how do you convince the service to continue streaming before the minimal advertisement time has past ?

izzydata 3y ago
I don't know how it is done for certain, but with absolute control of the client you could send any information back to Youtube that you wanted. So if all Youtube was requesting was that the minimal amount of time of ads be watched before playing the video you just tell them that you have. I'm sure it is getting far more complicated than this, but I suspect this is the basic idea of this back and forth arms race of ad blocking and adblock blocking and so forth.
- 10000truths 3y ago
  If YouTube wants full control over the ads experience, they will have to splice the ad into the video stream itself, and block seeking requests until: 1. The entirety of the ad portion of the video stream has been successfully sent to the client 2. A length of time equivalent to the ad duration has passed A sufficiently advanced ad blocker would be able to block the ad, but you would still be forced to sit through several seconds of nothing before continuing with the video.
  - Terr_ 3y ago
    They could also have some sort of "skip ahead by giving information about the ad you just partially watched" feature, although seems vulnerable to a sufficiently good bot. (Unless they make it so complicated that it only works for very engaged native speakers of a particular language.)
  - gpm 3y ago
    If youtube did that then they would no longer be able to accurately measure the number of ad views... which probably would make both the advertisers and the video-creators mad sooner or later.

Aken 3y ago

I feel like I'm in the minority that has zero problem paying for an ad-free experience. I get tremendous value out of YouTube in both professional and personal ways. I have a daughter who watches it often. Suppressing ads while supporting the service my family enjoys regularly seems like a no-brainer to me. And I never have to worry about them circumventing my ad blocker.

sva_ 3y ago
Yeah but I have a problem with being bullied into paying them. It will just make me want to make their engineers life a pain by working on work-arounds.
- nickthegreek 3y ago
  We got some different definitions of being bullied. I run pi-hole, ublock, sponsorblock but also pay for yt premium.
- pkroll 3y ago
  I'm with nickthegreek: I hate ads, but YouTube saying you can't make use of our service without paying or seeing ads isn't bullying.
simondotau 3y ago
I agree with all of that, and I sincerely was planning to become a paid subscriber. But I have some irrational resentment around being a statistic validating their increased pressure campaign. I don’t like feeling forced to spend the money! Which is weird because I get significantly more value from it than any streaming service.
- Aken 3y ago
  Why does your mindset go to being "bullied", though? Aren't you the bully for circumventing their revenue model with the expectation that you should get it for free?
  - 3y ago

blibble 3y ago

step 1: enable ublock origin in incognito mode in options step 2: right click video, open in incognito

sva_ 3y ago
For me, it also works to stop using Chrome and use Firefox instead (so far.)
- CM30 3y ago
  I've had no issues with either Chrome or Firefox in Incognito with uBlock Origin. But I do kinda wonder if the fact I have YouTube Premium on one of my accounts in Chrome means Google isn't trying too hard to block my IP/detect adblockers on it.
  - belltaco 3y ago
    Same, I am logged into the YT Premium on Edge and don't have any issues with Chrome logged into another account without Premium.
- jonnycomputer 3y ago
  Oh it does it to me in Firefox too. Or at least, it puts up an annoying flag warning me that it'll stop working.
blast 3y ago
> enable ublock origin in incognito mode in options I can't find that option. Where's it at?
- josephcsible 3y ago
  Assuming you're using Firefox, https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-private-browsing https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/extensions-private-brow...
- O1111OOO 3y ago

louison11 3y ago

This marks the moment Google officially decided it didn’t know how to innovate any longer, and that it’s time to grab all they can to increase the bottom line. Most technology companies follow this same cycle. When they’re in the innovation/disruption phase, there are less rules, they just focus on giving people the best experience. When they start stagnating, suddenly every cent matters. The irony is that the profile type most likely to have an AdBlocker is the Silicon Valley engineer. They spend so much time online, that it would be really annoying to have ads. I already found a fix: I use another YouTube client that displays the stream directly without showing the ads. My guess is more people will do that - unless the adblockers get better. If YouTube goes as far as protecting the streaming servers themselves with greater authentication, people will likely go elsewhere… TikTok… Insta… or the many other video platforms that have been popping up as a result of censorship. But I am skeptical everyday people are willing to wait for ads - or pay for social media.

konschubert 3y ago
I’ve been blocking ads for a long time but I’m not going to cry about mistreatment when somebody shuts the back door that I’ve been using to get free lunch. The ads are annoying, I might just use nebula more.
- ToucanLoucan 3y ago
  I find myself using Nebula more and more because most of the creators I watch are there and their app, while imperfect, is miles better than YouTube on the Apple TV. I'm currently subbed to YouTube Premium so I don't get ads either way, but if Google ever changes that, you can bet I'm unsubbing immediately. I only tolerate how expensive it is because of the sheer amount of content I watch from there, and because I watch the majority through Apple TV's where adblocking is a lot more complicated than I'm willing to deal with.
bravoetch 3y ago
Put simply, the end user is not the customer. The shareholders are. As in "we need a product that harvests money from people" instead of "let's solve a problem for people while adding value".

gnicholas 3y ago

I was using Brave on my iPad the other day and got a notice about this. It didn't seem to affect functionality though. Perhaps they will clamp down in the future, and this is just a warning.

tromp 3y ago
On my Desktop, Brave is counting down the last 3 videos I'm allowed to watch with ads blocked. I hope Brave can give me the option to make Google think I'm watching the ad by downloading the ad but somehow not showing it to me. Or, failing that, show it but auto-mute the audio during the ad (I spent lots of time on Youtube listening to my playlist).
- rand_flip_bit 3y ago
  I just tried Brave on the desktop with a few videos and didn't see any pop-ups, seems business as normal to me. Are you running an up to date version?

nine_zeros 3y ago

Would they be able to enforce this on Firefox or other browsers?

theduder99 3y ago
yes I got the notice 2 weeks ago on FF with ublock origin, then last week the 3 video countdown, and now the full ban
dvngnt_ 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Environment_Integrity
kdwikzncba 3y ago
And not just browsers. I'm sure other clients exist. I'd be surprised if VLC doesn't already have an extension that allows you to play YouTube. They'll have to interpolate the ads into the stream. Then people will code clients that detects the ads and black them and mute them. Then YouTube will learn how that works and will change their ads not to trigger detection. Etc. This is called an arms race.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  > If VLC doesn't already have an extension that allows you to play YouTube. There are apps for this, and dozens of similar ones for all sorts of video players. I personally use SVP's because I already own it. I think they mostly use youtube-dl under the hood to fetch the video URL, so that is a significant point of failure.

karmasimida 3y ago

You can always choose not to use Youtube if you hate Ads so much.

poorlyknit 3y ago
I can and I will. Just don't make me run software I don't want to on hardware I own.
Daviey 3y ago
Such a silly comment when you know full well that YouTube has a monopoly on user supplied video content.
- karmasimida 3y ago
  It is not like you can’t get rid of ads, you can just pay subscription fee. It is a monopoly doesn’t mean it is a public utility. PG&G has a monopoly in electricity in my region, does it mean I can steal the electricity because I don’t like PG&E and I don’t have other options? All tv channels have either ads or you need to pay, how is this different than what YouTube is trying to do?
linker3000 3y ago
Well, if that's their rules, it's a choice. If you pick up a free newspaper on a commmute, or, say, a community "What's on" sponsored by ads, does someone look over your shoulder and insist you read every ad before they let you turn the page?
- pkroll 3y ago
  No: but the ads ARE THERE. They're actually in front of you. Not so with an ad blocker.
  - thiht 3y ago
    What if I censor the ads with a Sharpie, is that illegal or unethical too?

squarefoot 3y ago

"Hey, AI, connect to YT using my browser and account with adblockers turned off, then check the usual channels grabbing new videos, then strip out all advertising content and make them available to me and my friends over this p2p encrypted connection."

beepbooptheory 3y ago
Isn't it a little optimistic though to think that the AI itself will be free from advertising/grubby-monetization in the scheme of things? Sure, it feels great now, and maybe even you can pay for the GPU and run it on your own, but not everyone will, and either way the future is long! It just feels inevitable that somebody or something will come to collect one day, in one form or the other.
- beej71 3y ago
  "Here's your pirated ad-free YouTube stream, brought to you by Carl's Jr!"
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  I'm hoping AI-horde type structures proliferate, where a few people with idle accelerators can support a much larger population without much effort.
prometheus76 3y ago
yt-dl with a batch file running in task scheduler every night is a great way to make sure you keep up with all your favorite channels. Or at least so I've heard. It might take a person an hour or two to get it running, with spot checks to make sure it's still running, but it could be a great solution. Further, if one were so inclined, one could download the subtitle files as well, and throw them into a database by episode. Then, one could easily find a video they remember watching a while back by searching the database for a phrase.

LanzVonL 3y ago

[dead]

Lio 3y ago

It's not the ads it's the tracking. Paying for Youtube premium doesn't stop them spying on you.

JohnFen 3y ago
Yep. That's why I only watch YouTube on a tablet that is dedicated solely for watching YouTube on.
keeganjw 3y ago
If you have YouTube Premium, you can watch videos with an ad blocker on. I found this out last night after getting Premium because they blocked me...
- pests 3y ago
  Why is this surprising?
beej71 3y ago
For me, it was the ads more than the tracking. But after a while, I couldn't in good conscience pay Google any longer. They're not a good netizen, and if they luckily go bankrupt, I won't shed a tear.
lamontcg 3y ago
And why would I pay them for the privilege of them spying on me?

kazinator 3y ago

> When you block YouTube ads, you violate YouTube’s Terms of Service. I wish these corporate goons would drop their moronic drivel about a Terms of Service that means nothing and nobody reads and just write in the following style: "When you block YouTube ads, we don't like it and will take technological steps to retaliate, which are within our right."

windowshopping 3y ago

I have such mixed feelings about this. I can't stand to waste the time on ads so I started using an alternative client that doesn't have any ads. However, I do recognize that I've been using youtube for 15+ years without paying a cent or watching any ads - which is pretty unreasonable. No streaming service or television channel has ever been free with no ads. I can't really justify it. And yet, I'm not willing to pay for youtube. It having been free all these years makes that a hard pill to swallow, somehow it just feels wrong now.

dvngnt_ 3y ago
i would buy for 5 a month for ad-free, but newpipe + revanced is better on mobile and on desktop kodi, or SmartTubeNext i don't want to pay for a worst experience.
kazinator 3y ago
> without paying a cent You mean, YouTube has not paid you a cent for your attention.
blacksmith_tb 3y ago
I'm even willing to pay but with sponsor messages being baked in even paying for Premium means having to take extra steps to avoid ads. I'm also not sure if I pay for Premium if YT will still shut me down for running uBlock origin? I guess I could allowlist it at that point...

lawlessone 3y ago

If Ads supported creators I don't think they'd all be doing sponsored bits in their videos.

ojagodzinski 3y ago
it is called greed.
kazinator 3y ago
Support creators outside of Youtube, even if you find them via Youtube. Youtube needs to die and get replaced by something more democratic anyway.

SirMaster 3y ago

I mean, if YouTube blocks me, then I just wont use YouTube...

lofaszvanitt 3y ago
Best course of action. More free time reading books.
- Smoosh 3y ago
  And the web. Remember when we used to read things on the web?
machdiamonds 3y ago
Seems like a win for YouTube, they don't have to waste bandwidth on users that don't bring in any revenue.
- mikewarot 3y ago
  and they don't have as many users rating videos and feeding the algorithm for the ones to do watch ads... YouTube still loses
  - machdiamonds 3y ago
    I'm almost certain that the bandwidth cost is much higher than what they gain for recommendation algorithms. It's like saying "Yeah, that guy steals from your store, but at least now you know what's in demand!" (Not equating ad-block to stealing, just trying to show the value difference)
  - karmasimida 3y ago
    I really doubt this data is worthwhile considering their bandwidth and hosting cost. Video hosting is at this day, almost a universal money losing scheme. YouTube is barely profitable, they need to make money, it is not even an option

jlhawn 3y ago

Just let me pay for youtube premium without bundling a music streaming subscription please. $14 per month for no ads is not worth it when I already pay $11 per month for my preferred music streaming service.

Semaphor 3y ago

FF, Win, uBo. I got "3 more videos till you'll be blocked" and that was it. "Watched" several more videos, but no more popups, no more nagging.

WirelessGigabit 3y ago

This morning while trying to understand laser eye surgery I got an ad for some supplement that's supposed to make my eyesight perfect. It's not even that they try to sell you a product. They're straight up scamming you. I'll use an Adblocker.

goodboyjojo 3y ago

i use ublock and i got a popup on youtube telling me turn off adblock. i refuse to do so because i hate seeing ads and popups everywhere on the page of the youtube video. i use adblock software because it makes youtube easier to navigate and it looks cleaner

jsnell 3y ago

I wonder which topic has had the most HN front-page dupes. This one is probably in the competition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37989682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37989682

haxiomic 3y ago
I don't think the link makes it clear but this is a new development in the Saga: some users are now getting a new message: "You have 2 videos remaining, if you continue to use ad block the video player will be blocked" Previously users simply had a timer to wait through, this is a much stronger action

machdiamonds 3y ago

TLDR: Thread where people earning software engineering salaries express frustration that they aren't entitled to services for free and must pay a reasonable fee for an ad-free experience.

stefanos82 3y ago

I honestly want to see how this whole thing is going to end eventually...I'm so curious!

mikewarot 3y ago

I've been eager for the YouTube effective monopoly to end... this self-immolation on their part is very similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union.... a tactical mistake that cascaded and surprised everyone.

renegat0x0 3y ago

It is interesting that I have not yet seen any ad. Maybe becuse of extensions. Maybe because of no script, maybe becuse they have not roll out changes to my country. Huh.