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I can’t watch YouTube without an adblocker. On a surface level, I hate the ads. But, the main reason is the fact that I can’t stand how YouTube is fixated on tr

I can’t watch YouTube without an adblocker. On a surface level, I hate the ads. But, the main reason is the fact that I can’t stand how YouTube is fixated on trying to make you watch something else at all times. I need something to hide all the little cards and interstitials that pop up when pausing the video, the badges, all the obnoxious thumbnails, etc.. I also hide all of the videos on the sidebar except for the one that would be recommended next, just so I can know what might play if I leave autoplay on. It is insane to me that the product got to this place. I get Google is all about advertising, but my goodness, YouTube is just designed to make you not pay attention for more than a few seconds.

nxor 1y ago
For meaningful focus our brains need uninterrupted periods. I use Brave, though I know its reputation could be better.
noir_lord 1y ago
Ublock Origin and Unhook[1] Lets you remove as much or as little of the "UI/UX" as you want - don't want to see shorts, recommended vids, end cards etc - live comments (who even asked for that) you don't have to. It collapses YT back to been an intentional thing - I'm looking for a video to watch, I watch it, it suggests nothing and I go on with my day instead of getting distracted by the skinner box. [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-recommended-videos/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-recom...
- Forgeties79 1y ago
  This is also why I love Freetube. No nonsense, just what I want in front of me the rare instances I’m on YT these days. Only annoying thing is having to update it every few weeks
- ryandrake 1y ago
  At this point this functionality should just be built into browsers. It's 2025. We shouldn't still need extensions to provide table stakes functionality like content blocking.
  - do_not_redeem 1y ago
    I disagree. All the major browser vendors have invested into the ads space to some degree. I'd rather have my content blocker built by someone without a conflict of interest.
  - pjc50 1y ago
    You mean the browser with 90% share owned by the same company responsible for the advertising?
    - noir_lord 1y ago
      and removed functionality that made it more difficult for the best adblocker as an extension to function. I know - it's weird right.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
qntmfred 1y ago
Ad-free YouTube Premium is a Luxury Good
- carlosjobim 1y ago
  Aren't luxuries supposed to be expensive?
  - derektank 1y ago
    This question reminds me of the time Larry King interviewed Danny Pudi[1] and asked him, "What's a luxury you can't live without?" [1] https://youtu.be/76HijAoXi6k https://youtu.be/76HijAoXi6k
    - J_Shelby_J 1y ago
      “Larry, I do ducktails” What an icon
    - pcdoodle 1y ago
      Lol, don't know who this guy is but that is an awesome response. Good socks, my man.
  - brookst 1y ago
    No, or at least not in money. An afternoon on the couch reading a good book is a luxury.
- nemomarx 1y ago
  Even with premium you still can't hide suggested videos, shorts, the front page is still messy...
  - SilverElfin 1y ago
    I wish there was a way to block those floating boxes recommending additional videos, that always cover up the end of a video
BoredPositron 1y ago
The only way to get a sane YouTube experience is to deactivate the history and only use the subscription page but that has other downsides.
fainpul 1y ago
As somebody already mentioned, uBlock Origin helps. I have these in my filters to make YouTube bearable: www.youtube.com###comments www.youtube.com###related www.youtube.com###sponsor-button www.youtube.com###donation-shelf www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content www.youtube.com###chat:remove() www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com###chat-container On top of that you probably want SponsorBlock, because sponsor segments are also ads. https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/
- echelon 1y ago
  I hate ads and use adblock on websites too, but I also wonder how this stuff gets paid for. We're counting on "normies" footing the bill for our technical sophistication. I don't care about blogspam, but a lot of YouTube content clearly costs money to make.
  - anukin 1y ago
    A lot of YouTubers and streamers makes a lot of money as well. The sponsorship alone is worth a lot. There was a recent video by an influenza where they made close to 45000 dollars a day.
    - genghisjahn 1y ago
      Who? What video? Is there a link to this?
    - Anthony-G 1y ago
      A viral video? (I'll see myself out).
  - andy99 1y ago
    YMMV, to me there’s nothing I would watch an ad in order to use, given the choice. As in there are things I value enough to pay for, and things I don’t care if they go away. No ad-supported middle ground. Unfortunately “normies footing the bill” means in many cases we’re stuck with engagement optimized drivel instead of actual thoughtful content, which is largely the point of the original post. I’d love a world where this was driven out of existence because people stopped watching ads.
surcap526 1y ago
[dead]
jimmydddd 1y ago
Youtube as we know it will probably be dead in a few years anyway. Tiktok has shortened everyone's attention span. I shockingly found myself clicking away from one of my favorite classic rock songs from my youth because I didn't want to stay the entire 3 minutes.
- righthand 1y ago
  No, just a portion of the population that’s into having no focus will continue to do so. You can change your habits and not be cattle without agency.
- pcdoodle 1y ago
  There's some of us who look for long form video time stamps in our subscriptions list. I specifically like throwing on a good 20 minute video from a beloved channel while I do other things. Maybe the cure is a bandwidth limit on our "pipes".
pipes 1y ago
Or pay for a YouTube subscription? There is a lot of complaining on hacker news about adverts, yet when Google offer the only other viable solution (subscription fees) everyone still complains.
- namibj 1y ago
  Doesn't fix the app from booting into a short that thus defaults to playing with sound.
- j1elo 1y ago
  Problem with that solution is that Youtube is not an independent company that one could be happy to pay for their services. You're paying Google, and there are more than enough reasons to not wanting to give Google any money at all. That's the problem with corporations: they cover too much. I cannot pay Youtube while at the same time not giving an ounce of support to the company that wants to remove all remaining freedoms of the Android ecosystem.
  - SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
    Vimeo and Rumble both offer large, independent video sharing platforms with a no-ads option. (For Vimeo it's free!) There's a number of smaller platforms like Nebula offering the same thing in more targeted niches. But most viewers don't care, and most creators prefer to follow the audience.
  - kiba 1y ago
    They are monopolies. This is not a new problem. The remedy is that we should tax non-reproducible privilege and/or regulate them if we cannot get rid of their existence. Georgism is a good framework for analyzing monopolies and other non-reproducible privilege. While the internet wasn't around in the 19th century, it seems the closest to diagnosing the ill of "late-stage capitalism", problems that Henry George had experienced in his lifetime.
- Krasnol 1y ago
  > Or pay for a YouTube subscription? At this point, if I had no choice like ublock: I'd still not pay them. Why should I? To enforce this behaviour so everybody suffers more? What about those people who can't afford a subscription? Why is their mind and attention free to be abused? The advertisement industry has became disgustingly evil. I hate everything about it.

nxor 1y ago

For meaningful focus our brains need uninterrupted periods. I use Brave, though I know its reputation could be better.

noir_lord 1y ago

Ublock Origin and Unhook[1] Lets you remove as much or as little of the "UI/UX" as you want - don't want to see shorts, recommended vids, end cards etc - live comments (who even asked for that) you don't have to. It collapses YT back to been an intentional thing - I'm looking for a video to watch, I watch it, it suggests nothing and I go on with my day instead of getting distracted by the skinner box. [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-recommended-videos/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-recom...

Forgeties79 1y ago
This is also why I love Freetube. No nonsense, just what I want in front of me the rare instances I’m on YT these days. Only annoying thing is having to update it every few weeks
ryandrake 1y ago
At this point this functionality should just be built into browsers. It's 2025. We shouldn't still need extensions to provide table stakes functionality like content blocking.
- do_not_redeem 1y ago
  I disagree. All the major browser vendors have invested into the ads space to some degree. I'd rather have my content blocker built by someone without a conflict of interest.
- pjc50 1y ago
  You mean the browser with 90% share owned by the same company responsible for the advertising?
  - noir_lord 1y ago
    and removed functionality that made it more difficult for the best adblocker as an extension to function. I know - it's weird right.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

qntmfred 1y ago

Ad-free YouTube Premium is a Luxury Good

carlosjobim 1y ago
Aren't luxuries supposed to be expensive?
- derektank 1y ago
  This question reminds me of the time Larry King interviewed Danny Pudi[1] and asked him, "What's a luxury you can't live without?" [1] https://youtu.be/76HijAoXi6k https://youtu.be/76HijAoXi6k
  - J_Shelby_J 1y ago
    “Larry, I do ducktails” What an icon
  - pcdoodle 1y ago
    Lol, don't know who this guy is but that is an awesome response. Good socks, my man.
- brookst 1y ago
  No, or at least not in money. An afternoon on the couch reading a good book is a luxury.
nemomarx 1y ago
Even with premium you still can't hide suggested videos, shorts, the front page is still messy...
- SilverElfin 1y ago
  I wish there was a way to block those floating boxes recommending additional videos, that always cover up the end of a video

BoredPositron 1y ago

The only way to get a sane YouTube experience is to deactivate the history and only use the subscription page but that has other downsides.

fainpul 1y ago

As somebody already mentioned, uBlock Origin helps. I have these in my filters to make YouTube bearable: www.youtube.com###comments www.youtube.com###related www.youtube.com###sponsor-button www.youtube.com###donation-shelf www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content www.youtube.com###chat:remove() www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope www.youtube.com###chat-container On top of that you probably want SponsorBlock, because sponsor segments are also ads. https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/

echelon 1y ago
I hate ads and use adblock on websites too, but I also wonder how this stuff gets paid for. We're counting on "normies" footing the bill for our technical sophistication. I don't care about blogspam, but a lot of YouTube content clearly costs money to make.
- anukin 1y ago
  A lot of YouTubers and streamers makes a lot of money as well. The sponsorship alone is worth a lot. There was a recent video by an influenza where they made close to 45000 dollars a day.
  - genghisjahn 1y ago
    Who? What video? Is there a link to this?
  - Anthony-G 1y ago
    A viral video? (I'll see myself out).
- andy99 1y ago
  YMMV, to me there’s nothing I would watch an ad in order to use, given the choice. As in there are things I value enough to pay for, and things I don’t care if they go away. No ad-supported middle ground. Unfortunately “normies footing the bill” means in many cases we’re stuck with engagement optimized drivel instead of actual thoughtful content, which is largely the point of the original post. I’d love a world where this was driven out of existence because people stopped watching ads.

surcap526 1y ago

[dead]

jimmydddd 1y ago

Youtube as we know it will probably be dead in a few years anyway. Tiktok has shortened everyone's attention span. I shockingly found myself clicking away from one of my favorite classic rock songs from my youth because I didn't want to stay the entire 3 minutes.

righthand 1y ago
No, just a portion of the population that’s into having no focus will continue to do so. You can change your habits and not be cattle without agency.
pcdoodle 1y ago
There's some of us who look for long form video time stamps in our subscriptions list. I specifically like throwing on a good 20 minute video from a beloved channel while I do other things. Maybe the cure is a bandwidth limit on our "pipes".

pipes 1y ago

Or pay for a YouTube subscription? There is a lot of complaining on hacker news about adverts, yet when Google offer the only other viable solution (subscription fees) everyone still complains.

namibj 1y ago
Doesn't fix the app from booting into a short that thus defaults to playing with sound.
j1elo 1y ago
Problem with that solution is that Youtube is not an independent company that one could be happy to pay for their services. You're paying Google, and there are more than enough reasons to not wanting to give Google any money at all. That's the problem with corporations: they cover too much. I cannot pay Youtube while at the same time not giving an ounce of support to the company that wants to remove all remaining freedoms of the Android ecosystem.
- SpicyLemonZest 1y ago
  Vimeo and Rumble both offer large, independent video sharing platforms with a no-ads option. (For Vimeo it's free!) There's a number of smaller platforms like Nebula offering the same thing in more targeted niches. But most viewers don't care, and most creators prefer to follow the audience.
- kiba 1y ago
  They are monopolies. This is not a new problem. The remedy is that we should tax non-reproducible privilege and/or regulate them if we cannot get rid of their existence. Georgism is a good framework for analyzing monopolies and other non-reproducible privilege. While the internet wasn't around in the 19th century, it seems the closest to diagnosing the ill of "late-stage capitalism", problems that Henry George had experienced in his lifetime.
Krasnol 1y ago
> Or pay for a YouTube subscription? At this point, if I had no choice like ublock: I'd still not pay them. Why should I? To enforce this behaviour so everybody suffers more? What about those people who can't afford a subscription? Why is their mind and attention free to be abused? The advertisement industry has became disgustingly evil. I hate everything about it.