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My gf’s YouTube account for some reason does not show ads on any device it is logged in, including the Apple TV. It is not premium, nor ever was premium. Wonde

My gf’s YouTube account for some reason does not show ads on any device it is logged in, including the Apple TV. It is not premium, nor ever was premium. Wonder what flag is set internally that disabled ads.

choo-t 2y ago
Afaik Youtube cannot legally display ads to some countries' residents, it could explain this behavior.
- fastball 2y ago
  Presumably he lives in the same place as his girlfriend.
  - choo-t 2y ago
    She may have created the account abroad.
    - zeroadsever 2y ago
      Which begs the question: if you used a proxy server/VPN and created an account "overseas", would you get ads?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- zeroadsever 2y ago
  The above is true. Some countries don't get ads. Lucky them. Albania, Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Laos, Myanmar, Macau, Madagascar, Maldives, and Russia. Use a proxy server/VPN and go ad free.
- anticensor 2y ago
  Why don't they serve placeholder unpaid noncommercial ads (YouTube features, government services) to such users instead?
a12k 2y ago
Interesting. If you can DM me the username and email associated with the account, I can look into this and get it fixed for her.
- pawelduda 2y ago
  "We're sorry for any inconvenience this error may have caused"
  - chuckadams 2y ago
    More like Mitch Hedberg would have said: "Sorry for the convenience."
- doublerabbit 2y ago
  Why would anyone want this fixed?
  - saaspirant 2y ago
    It's a joke
  - Alifatisk 2y ago
    Woooosh
  - madmulita 2y ago
    How would you know what to buy without ads?!
- pinoy420 2y ago
  [dead]
- transcriptase 2y ago
  Perhaps set the account to only show ads until she’s caught up!
  - 2y ago
duxup 2y ago
Long ago a Google music subscription would disable ads on YouTube. When they discontinued it / I cancelled, it took a good 6+ months before YouTube ads started up for me. But of a “oh I see what people are complaining about” moment for me ;)
- pfooti 2y ago
  I am still paying for mine. My Google music all access I'm feeling lucky subscription turned into a YouTube music one, which includes YouTube premium, and I'm still only paying 8 bucks a month, which seems like a pretty good deal even if I also pay for Spotify.
  - manwe150 2y ago
    How did you manage to avoid the last price increase? I thought they’d ended that sweet deal for everyone (myself included)
    - pfooti 2y ago
      I have no idea. I signed up for the music service under the $8/mo plan basically the day they announced it, and i've never canceled or missed a payment, but they've never increased my price. I just hope I haven't jinxed myself here.
TN1ck 2y ago
Maybe she is in a holdback experiment. To understand how a feature affects the metrics (such as running ads), they often have some people in a holdback. I worked there and we did have such experiments for our features.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  Isn't that pretty unethical without an IRB and informed consent?
  - MBCook 2y ago
    I mean, it’s Google.
  - ta1243 2y ago
    The is the advertising industry, unethical is their middle name
  - recursive 2y ago
    How does ethics even come into this? They didn't require consent to show ads in the first place. Why require consent to not show ads?
  - immibis 2y ago
    That's academic ethics. Academia holds itself to a high standard - voluntarily. Used car salesmen do not.
  - RockRobotRock 2y ago
    this comment is hilarious no matter how you look at it
timmg 2y ago
Your GF is essentially in the "control group" for ads. Her behavior can be compared to the behavior of people who see ads to better understand how ads affect those other users.
- anticensor 2y ago
  In which case she should've been shown noncommercial ads (government services and promotions of YouTube features) instead of no ads so that she would be less likely to notice.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
xnorswap 2y ago
I don't like to advertise this just in case it gets fixed, but I have that same experience for Twitch. I don't run an adblocker and yet as long as I'm logged in, I get no ads. Not in the website nor in the mobile app. I don't have "turbo" and I don't even have amazon prime any more (which itself only very briefly suppressed adverts across twitch globally before they replaced it with a "Free sub" perk ). I don't have any of the other Turbo benefits, so it's not like I've been fully flagged as Turbo either. I don't know if I accidentally bugged my account profile messing around back when they ran a bug bounty, but I'd happily provide more details in return for keeping this perk. What's weird is that I vaguely remember once having a near-meltdown over the level of adverts on twitch when all I wanted to do was watch TV while I was heavily medicated and in pain in the hospital. Then some time a year or two later I was reflecting then suddenly realised I hadn't seen an advert for years. I guess most likely there's some long forgotten ad-free A/B test that it's not worth cleaning up. I've definitely benefitted over the years, I easily watch more twitch than any other platform. At £12/mo (roughly $15.50), twitch turbo is among the more expensive in the world. In the US and Europe it's $12 or €12, so we're getting straight ripped off in comparison.
- chasd00 2y ago
  > some long forgotten ad-free A/B test that it's not worth cleaning up. That sounds about right. Different context but I once got on the good boy list at work by accident and it wasn’t fixed for about 6 month. On the first of every month I got a little corporate swag box in the mail thanking me for going “above and beyond”. Lots of cookies, blankets, coffee mugs and other trinkets.

choo-t 2y ago

Afaik Youtube cannot legally display ads to some countries' residents, it could explain this behavior.

fastball 2y ago
Presumably he lives in the same place as his girlfriend.
- choo-t 2y ago
  She may have created the account abroad.
  - zeroadsever 2y ago
    Which begs the question: if you used a proxy server/VPN and created an account "overseas", would you get ads?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
zeroadsever 2y ago
The above is true. Some countries don't get ads. Lucky them. Albania, Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Laos, Myanmar, Macau, Madagascar, Maldives, and Russia. Use a proxy server/VPN and go ad free.
anticensor 2y ago
Why don't they serve placeholder unpaid noncommercial ads (YouTube features, government services) to such users instead?

a12k 2y ago

Interesting. If you can DM me the username and email associated with the account, I can look into this and get it fixed for her.

pawelduda 2y ago
"We're sorry for any inconvenience this error may have caused"
- chuckadams 2y ago
  More like Mitch Hedberg would have said: "Sorry for the convenience."
doublerabbit 2y ago
Why would anyone want this fixed?
- saaspirant 2y ago
  It's a joke
- Alifatisk 2y ago
  Woooosh
- madmulita 2y ago
  How would you know what to buy without ads?!
pinoy420 2y ago
[dead]
transcriptase 2y ago
Perhaps set the account to only show ads until she’s caught up!
- 2y ago

duxup 2y ago

Long ago a Google music subscription would disable ads on YouTube. When they discontinued it / I cancelled, it took a good 6+ months before YouTube ads started up for me. But of a “oh I see what people are complaining about” moment for me ;)

pfooti 2y ago
I am still paying for mine. My Google music all access I'm feeling lucky subscription turned into a YouTube music one, which includes YouTube premium, and I'm still only paying 8 bucks a month, which seems like a pretty good deal even if I also pay for Spotify.
- manwe150 2y ago
  How did you manage to avoid the last price increase? I thought they’d ended that sweet deal for everyone (myself included)
  - pfooti 2y ago
    I have no idea. I signed up for the music service under the $8/mo plan basically the day they announced it, and i've never canceled or missed a payment, but they've never increased my price. I just hope I haven't jinxed myself here.

TN1ck 2y ago

Maybe she is in a holdback experiment. To understand how a feature affects the metrics (such as running ads), they often have some people in a holdback. I worked there and we did have such experiments for our features.

HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
Isn't that pretty unethical without an IRB and informed consent?
- MBCook 2y ago
  I mean, it’s Google.
- ta1243 2y ago
  The is the advertising industry, unethical is their middle name
- recursive 2y ago
  How does ethics even come into this? They didn't require consent to show ads in the first place. Why require consent to not show ads?
- immibis 2y ago
  That's academic ethics. Academia holds itself to a high standard - voluntarily. Used car salesmen do not.
- RockRobotRock 2y ago
  this comment is hilarious no matter how you look at it

timmg 2y ago

Your GF is essentially in the "control group" for ads. Her behavior can be compared to the behavior of people who see ads to better understand how ads affect those other users.

anticensor 2y ago
In which case she should've been shown noncommercial ads (government services and promotions of YouTube features) instead of no ads so that she would be less likely to notice.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

xnorswap 2y ago

I don't like to advertise this just in case it gets fixed, but I have that same experience for Twitch. I don't run an adblocker and yet as long as I'm logged in, I get no ads. Not in the website nor in the mobile app. I don't have "turbo" and I don't even have amazon prime any more (which itself only very briefly suppressed adverts across twitch globally before they replaced it with a "Free sub" perk ). I don't have any of the other Turbo benefits, so it's not like I've been fully flagged as Turbo either. I don't know if I accidentally bugged my account profile messing around back when they ran a bug bounty, but I'd happily provide more details in return for keeping this perk. What's weird is that I vaguely remember once having a near-meltdown over the level of adverts on twitch when all I wanted to do was watch TV while I was heavily medicated and in pain in the hospital. Then some time a year or two later I was reflecting then suddenly realised I hadn't seen an advert for years. I guess most likely there's some long forgotten ad-free A/B test that it's not worth cleaning up. I've definitely benefitted over the years, I easily watch more twitch than any other platform. At £12/mo (roughly $15.50), twitch turbo is among the more expensive in the world. In the US and Europe it's $12 or €12, so we're getting straight ripped off in comparison.

chasd00 2y ago
> some long forgotten ad-free A/B test that it's not worth cleaning up. That sounds about right. Different context but I once got on the good boy list at work by accident and it wasn’t fixed for about 6 month. On the first of every month I got a little corporate swag box in the mail thanking me for going “above and beyond”. Lots of cookies, blankets, coffee mugs and other trinkets.