3 ms·

Youtube has been incredibly frustrating for many many reasons and is evidently evil in many axes now. We really need competition in video hosting.

WarmWash 3mo ago
Then start loading ads. Youtube's biggest threat ever died in the cradle because they foolishly thought users would volunteer money to them. No one with capital and capability looks at youtube, looks at youtube's audience, and says "Yeah, 30-40% ad-blocking and 4.5% paying for premium, these are the people I want to build services for!".
- mywittyname 3mo ago
  Those ad-blocked viewers are important, which is why YT doesn't actually crack down on them. Those are the people who will happily go to an alternative product. And while that product might start as a pirate YouTube, the one that nabs 30% of YT's traffic can certainly make a pivot to legit. If you're a content creator whose audience is mostly in that group, you're likely to start posting content directly on the competitor's site. I'm guessing OP had their account banned for using a tool like yt-dl too aggressively. Then again, doing that does give a warning.
  - mvdtnz 3mo ago
    Youtube does crack down on them, all the time. Why do you think they are "important"? What are they contributing, and to whom? How does Google benefit?
    - mywittyname 3mo ago
      They half-ass crack down on them. Not even that, it's dime-assed crackdown at best. You get that little "experiencing issues?" note that the bottom of the screen (which goes away after a few seconds), and an occasional 3-5s delay before video starts. I explained exactly why I think they are important in that entire paragraph. And the evidence I'm right is the fact that YouTube could trivially prevent ad-blockers tomorrow, but they don't. They've tried it and quickly rolled back the changes. Presumably they lost a lot more audience than expected.
      - mvdtnz 3mo ago
        A good way to spot someone you can safely ignore is when they say "X could trivially Y" in regards to a Y you know is extremely non-trivial.
        deleted 3mo ago
        [deleted]
      - zelphirkalt 3mo ago
        Though anytime I do land on actual YouTube, and not an invidious instance to watch a video, and am confronted how utterly crap the YouTube frontend and their video player is, I gotta wonder, whether the crackdown is half-assed, or simply the maximum of what they are capable of developing.
  - Gigachad 3mo ago
    Youtube won the war on ad blocking when most views moved to TV and mobile. While I've seen some people have hacked clients to run on TV platforms, the average person just either watches the ads or pays for youtube premium. The friction for ad blocking has gone up to the point youtube makes enough money to not care about the rest.
    - WarmWash 3mo ago
      In tech/engineering/video game categories, ad-blocking is still around 40% of viewers. Basically things that people who still use desktops/laptops are into.
- sleepybrett 3mo ago
  He was on premium, paid for ad blocker.
xfeeefeee 3mo ago
I am still a bit upset that I got banned without even a warning. I tried to adhere to policies and figured if anything was wrong, I'd get a warning at least, and then I'd know better what the limits are. Unfortunately there is little recourse and even less feedback. Even more annoying is that it terminates your YouTube account entirely, so now I can't even login to use it. And I was a premium subscriber, too! The best thing about YouTube is their agreements with rights holders to allow music and revenue sharing easily, which makes it very simple for creators and remixers etc to not get their stuff removed via DMCA.
pocksuppet 3mo ago
The problem is that YouTube isn't just a video hosting platform. We have many of those. The problem is that YouTube is a business platform that lets you makes money from your business, as long as your business is mainly comprised of publishing videos. No amount of open-source software quality can replicate thousands of dollars of ad money flowing into your pocket. It's like making a 3D-printable plan of an Indian restaurant, it can't ever become an actual Indian restaurant. Small or hobby creators, who aren't making money anyway, could use small platforms - but then they forfeit their chance to ever become big and get that money - at best they could become big and not get that money.
numpad0 3mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms

WarmWash 3mo ago

Then start loading ads. Youtube's biggest threat ever died in the cradle because they foolishly thought users would volunteer money to them. No one with capital and capability looks at youtube, looks at youtube's audience, and says "Yeah, 30-40% ad-blocking and 4.5% paying for premium, these are the people I want to build services for!".

mywittyname 3mo ago
Those ad-blocked viewers are important, which is why YT doesn't actually crack down on them. Those are the people who will happily go to an alternative product. And while that product might start as a pirate YouTube, the one that nabs 30% of YT's traffic can certainly make a pivot to legit. If you're a content creator whose audience is mostly in that group, you're likely to start posting content directly on the competitor's site. I'm guessing OP had their account banned for using a tool like yt-dl too aggressively. Then again, doing that does give a warning.
- mvdtnz 3mo ago
  Youtube does crack down on them, all the time. Why do you think they are "important"? What are they contributing, and to whom? How does Google benefit?
  - mywittyname 3mo ago
    They half-ass crack down on them. Not even that, it's dime-assed crackdown at best. You get that little "experiencing issues?" note that the bottom of the screen (which goes away after a few seconds), and an occasional 3-5s delay before video starts. I explained exactly why I think they are important in that entire paragraph. And the evidence I'm right is the fact that YouTube could trivially prevent ad-blockers tomorrow, but they don't. They've tried it and quickly rolled back the changes. Presumably they lost a lot more audience than expected.
    - mvdtnz 3mo ago
      A good way to spot someone you can safely ignore is when they say "X could trivially Y" in regards to a Y you know is extremely non-trivial.
      - deleted 3mo ago
        [deleted]
    - zelphirkalt 3mo ago
      Though anytime I do land on actual YouTube, and not an invidious instance to watch a video, and am confronted how utterly crap the YouTube frontend and their video player is, I gotta wonder, whether the crackdown is half-assed, or simply the maximum of what they are capable of developing.
- Gigachad 3mo ago
  Youtube won the war on ad blocking when most views moved to TV and mobile. While I've seen some people have hacked clients to run on TV platforms, the average person just either watches the ads or pays for youtube premium. The friction for ad blocking has gone up to the point youtube makes enough money to not care about the rest.
  - WarmWash 3mo ago
    In tech/engineering/video game categories, ad-blocking is still around 40% of viewers. Basically things that people who still use desktops/laptops are into.
sleepybrett 3mo ago
He was on premium, paid for ad blocker.

xfeeefeee 3mo ago

I am still a bit upset that I got banned without even a warning. I tried to adhere to policies and figured if anything was wrong, I'd get a warning at least, and then I'd know better what the limits are. Unfortunately there is little recourse and even less feedback. Even more annoying is that it terminates your YouTube account entirely, so now I can't even login to use it. And I was a premium subscriber, too! The best thing about YouTube is their agreements with rights holders to allow music and revenue sharing easily, which makes it very simple for creators and remixers etc to not get their stuff removed via DMCA.

pocksuppet 3mo ago

The problem is that YouTube isn't just a video hosting platform. We have many of those. The problem is that YouTube is a business platform that lets you makes money from your business, as long as your business is mainly comprised of publishing videos. No amount of open-source software quality can replicate thousands of dollars of ad money flowing into your pocket. It's like making a 3D-printable plan of an Indian restaurant, it can't ever become an actual Indian restaurant. Small or hobby creators, who aren't making money anyway, could use small platforms - but then they forfeit their chance to ever become big and get that money - at best they could become big and not get that money.

numpad0 3mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_video_platforms