• Queue
      link
      fedilink
      English
      522 months ago

      I think YouTubers make fractional pennies from Ads, and mostly only if its fully watched and sometimes clicked to go to the website. So if you get a 15 second ad, and skip to the content, you didn’t give the creators any money.

      Also, shout out to those ads being horrible. My first time ever installing an adblocker was during a rapid anti-smoking campaign, that had body horror. 15 year old me didn’t want to smoke, nor wanted to after, but it was so disturbing that I learned how to avoid them.

      Not even going into the disturbing or weird ads. One time I got an ad for a “Ching Chong Fing Fong shirt company” as a way of mocking Chinese people because their government sucks. Another time, I got a full 12 hour video by a Vietnamese couple just grilling in their backyard. No subtitles, not even sure if they were aware they enabled their videos to do that, or didn’t fully understand the process of uploading videos.

      Anytime I see actual ads on the internet, not just YouTube, it just makes me go “I am perfectly justified in not seeing these weird ads.” I don’t give them any money no matter what I do, so why not have my eyes saved from bright flashing colors and scam artists?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        19
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        If I recall correctly, ever since videos could be called up as ads you can just pay for any video to be an ad, as long as it’s on YouTube, and it doesn’t have to be yours. I don’t know if this has changed, but an essays channel figured out that that’s the fastests way someone could target a competitor’s channel. Paying to have someone else’s video as an ad tanks that video ad revenue and discoverability instantly. Ad views count as views to the video and skipping an ad counts as a skip on the video which signals the algorithm to think that nobody wants or likes to see that video. Do it to enough new videos and you can entirely kill a previously profitable channel in a couple of months.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        92 months ago

        My first time ever installing an adblocker was during a rapid anti-smoking campaign

        Those ads made me want to take up smoking out of spite.

        • Maeve
          link
          fedilink
          122 months ago

          Ouch. Cutting off the nose to spite the face.

        • AutistoMephisto
          link
          fedilink
          English
          92 months ago

          That was the purpose. You see, Big Tobacco actually sponsors the anti-smoking campaigns, which does give them some creative input. They tell the writers to make them as annoying as possible.

          • Maeve
            link
            fedilink
            12 months ago

            They started messing with me on YT. When Piped began giving me errors last week, YT suddenly started behaving, but nagging me to try YT again. Google is truly evil, and dasterdly to boot .

      • Maeve
        link
        fedilink
        52 months ago

        If it hadn’t been for ublock origin, I’d not be on YT this long

    • Maeve
      link
      fedilink
      212 months ago

      They could probably retain users simply by running ads every 10 minutes, rather than every 3 minutes.

      • Dojan
        link
        fedilink
        English
        232 months ago

        Oh but they don’t care about anything but short form content. If they could ditch supporting long form content today they would.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          152 months ago

          Nah they want lots of short form and also like 10 hour long videos that can play 200 ads in it that you forget is on in the background. They want tiktok and broadcast TV.

          They really just want to show you ads.

        • Maeve
          link
          fedilink
          42 months ago

          The cold, hard steel of the sword of truth.

          • BubbleMonkey
            link
            fedilink
            English
            22 months ago

            Such a fantastic series :) (the books, not any of the garbage adaptations)

            • Maeve
              link
              fedilink
              32 months ago

              This reply makes me so happy. The books are always better.

      • [email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        62 months ago

        Money/s is the more used metric. Retention is secondary or even tertiary to money/s. Behold the algorithm, great and terrible, sheathed in robes of black and grasping sickle white.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          22 months ago

          Ah, but you’re one layer off. Projected/potential money/s (in the next 1-2 quarters mainly) is what is truly king.

          It doesn’t have to be a good idea, it can be a terrible one - but good sounding words in the board room are what matter

          “Hey, so we’ve decided to see if we can run 10 unskippable ads back to back. Simultaneously, we’ve launched a war on ad blockers. This time it will surely work because we found out you can ignore your customers - Elon Musk has shown us the way, he only lost bots with all his innovation. We expect people to get over it in 3 months and estimate we’ll lose 4 users. Between 10x more ads and half our users off ad blockers, we project 20x ad revenue next quarter!”

          -Words of a future CEO, probably

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      502 months ago

      I was watching a long video on chromecast today and I had ads every three minutes or so. That’s a two hours video. The amount of ads is disgusting.

      YouTube is unwatchable without an ad blocker.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        222 months ago

        My kid would watch his videos with ads and I offered to set him up with an alternative with no ads. He said no, I like the ads. I said ok then. That was two years ago. Last week he was losing his shit because of all the ads that made it unwatchable. I set him up with the ad free alternative and I get thanked every day for it.

        Youtube is tanking their own platform.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      82 months ago

      This is why I pay for YT Premium. No way in hell am I watching ads, but I do want to be able to use the platform, and the money has to come from somewhere. So far it’s been pretty good value, although SponsorBlock is of course still required.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        I would like to pay for YT Premium, but I think the service is bad. The product is good, and the service is bad.

        If I say I don’t want to see this video, I don’t want to see this fucking video again, youtube. I said don’t recommend this channel, and you said I won’t see it again, but I just refreshed, and there it is. I am not dutch, I don’t speak dutch, I’ve never even been to the Netherlands. I shouldn’t be seeing videos in dutch.

        Routinely, I have to go through my home page and try to train the algorithm but I’ve just given up. I got an extension now that just permanently removes channels and videos I don’t want to see.

        The thing is… the product is the videos, and youtube doesn’t do the videos. Youtube does the service, and the service is bad. I understand that the ads pay the youtubers but the truth is I don’t care. That pay is trash, and if they want my premium money, youtubers should unionize and force youtube to improve the service.

        Edit: I watch the youtuber’s sponsor spot and I buy merch.

        • Cyrus Draegur
          link
          fedilink
          English
          32 months ago

          Hell YEAH they should unionize!!! YouTube has m effectively NO system in place for recourse when their shitty system fucks up and decides to nuke someone’s channel - Such as, when “supporting subject a” is against YouTube policy, a channel may make a video criticizing others who support “subject a”, YouTube’s stupid algorithm will punish them FOR AGREEING WITH YOUTUBE and never actually manually review their shit when it fucks up. A union can grab YouTube by the nuts and FORCE THEM TO LISTEN and that is painfully needed. Unions force power structures to listen to democracy and I like democracy. MORE UNIONS! the people DOING the fucking work need to be heard!

      • Cyrus Draegur
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 months ago

        Yes - AND I like that being a premium subscriber compensates creators I watch EVEN WHEN they are otherwise “demonetized” - like, if they cover news and the news contains upsetting information, YouTube will reduce their ad exposure. But my views still award them as much credit as ever, and count for, like, dozens of ad-supported views under normal circumstances.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1102 months ago

    I haven’t seen an anti adblocker popup on youtube for a couple months now, I though they gave up. It looks like the uBlock developers and block list maintainers are just doing an excellent job staying ahead of whatever youtube is doing.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        182 months ago

        Bless the Revanced guys. They made my mobile youtube binge watches as smooth as my desktop firefox + ublock setup.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    902 months ago

    Personally, I don’t think a service is in the wrong for trying to protect against ad block, especially when their revenue comes from ads. However I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with adblockers continuing to innovate to circumvent that. I’m rooting for Ublock Origin lol

    • KillingTimeItself
      link
      fedilink
      English
      312 months ago

      they also fucked themselves over with the ad skill issues they’ve had over the years. Advertisers now find it to be more worthwhile to advertise directly with creators, though that also means they make a lot more money, so.

      They kinda dug their own grave, to be honest.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        38
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        What made me and I imagine a large chunk of other people convert to revanced/similar apps is the super aggressive advertising, it’s impossible to use youtube when you get a double ad before and after every 5 second video and get 30 second midrolls every like 3 minutes. You can’t skip through a video to find the part you want to see because you’ll just get an ad. It’s extremely infuriating and time-consuming, it used to be where I was willing to deal with it but they fucked it up. Now I can never go back to ad-riddled YouTube, even if it has a “reasonable” amount of advertising (I am now in the belief that no amount of advertising is reasonable anymore though).

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          162 months ago

          Yup. I was willing to watch one or two short ads before I watch a video, but the mid rolls and unskippable 30+second ads just made me say “well that’s enough of that”. Now I haven’t seen a YouTube ad in a long time.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          12 months ago

          Yes. Same. I was OK with banner ads. I was OK with intro ads. Started to get pissed off and annoyed at mid way ads, double ads, and unskippable ads. This is my nightmare. I hate this world and ads are a part of my pyramid of hell.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        22 months ago

        Not only monetization but also the whole sorting/ranking algorithms. Youtube is a bit better than Facebook reels and instagram due to the thumbs down button, but some people go out of their way to make nonsensical garbage because viewers will then comment, and there’s no way to tell if a video is good or bad based solely on engagement. Those videos where people have some DIY hack to clean a toilet bowl and they just pour random condiments in the toilet for 3 minutes and cut the video before any conclusion, those types of videos

    • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️
      link
      fedilink
      English
      52 months ago

      This is what Louis Rossman said. Youtube is completely in their right to kick people off for blocking ads. At the same time, it’s also not a pissing match that’s worth getting heavily invested in, because ultimately Youtube is going to lose unless they can start coercing people into installing proprietary apps which they already have for mobile devices.

    • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️
      link
      fedilink
      English
      12 months ago

      This is what Louis Rossman said. Youtube is completely in their right to kick people off for blocking ads. At the same time, it’s also not a pissing match that’s worth getting heavily invested in, because ultimately Youtube is going to lose unless they can start coercing people into installing proprietary apps which they already have for mobile devices.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    882 months ago

    One 10-15 sec ad for an 5-10 mins video would be fair. Because if you calculate the ad shown in Cable TV it was similar I would watch them no problem. But NOOO these greedy fckrs want 3-5 ads of >15secs unskipable ads shoved down our throats. They have record profits. In a business if you are in profit then it’s a good thing. But these fcks want to increase profit year by year, not stable profit for the number of users. That want infinite growth and profit from a finite source and they crazy or what? So if anyone says blocking ads on YouTube is piracy, then fck you and those greedy fckrs. They crossed the limit long time ago and they are reaping what they had sowed.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      362 months ago

      No amount of ads are “fair”

      I’m done wasting my life for other people.

      Go ahead tho, you do you boo

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        242 months ago

        I’m done wasting my life for other people.

        I do enough of that at work as it is. I’ll be fucked if I do it during my downtime, too.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        122 months ago

        How do you propose YouTube should pay for infrastructure costs (servers, Internet etc), staff costs (engineers, designers, moderators) and the content creators?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          82 months ago

          Google Ads on the webpages of all the webpages on the Internet, similar to their status quo.

          I don’t think any of us should be concerned about Google’s cash flow. It’s their job.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            62 months ago

            Are you saying that the ads shouldn’t be video ads but webpage ads, instead?

            It’s their job.

            Yeah, exactly why they are enforcing anti-adblock rules…

            • r3df0x ✡️✝☪️
              link
              fedilink
              English
              22 months ago

              If this is how Youtube advertised, I wouldn’t block the ads. I refuse to sit through ads when I’m searching through videos and I don’t even know if the video is the one I want to watch. It’s going to take a three minute search into a 10 minute search.

        • Iceblade
          link
          fedilink
          English
          32 months ago

          I would’ve been fine paying if the price reflected what I was actually paying for (not being advertised to) which would be <$0.005 per viewed video (let’s be generous and call it 1 or 2$/mo) but noo they have to ask for 25$/month like greedy little shits.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            62 months ago

            That price wouldn’t even begin to cover it. Infrastructure is expensive at that quality. Engineers to maintain such infrastructure are also expensive. Content creators make a ton of money too. Their profits are much lower compared to peers - https://mannhowie.com/youtube-valuation

            Also, 22$/month gets you a family plan for 5 people so wtf are you talking about?

            I don’t give 2 shits about YouTube, I use ad block where I can too. I’m just saying that people who complain about YouTube’s anti-adblock stuff are being unrealistic, you can’t fault them for trying to block people from stealing from them.

    • Encrypt-Keeper
      link
      fedilink
      English
      212 months ago

      They’re publicly traded, they have to. Thats not an excuse mind you, but if you ever like a service and they go public, just understand the end users are no longer the focus.

        • Encrypt-Keeper
          link
          fedilink
          English
          20
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          It doesn’t force them legally, but it does effectively guide their behavior. There are a lot of things in this world we aren’t legally forced to do, but still have to do to participate in society. It’s not misinformation, it’s just the reality. It’s true that you don’t have to be an asshole to succeed, but it’s also true that you don’t have to go public to succeed either.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            52 months ago

            Not even… If the entire point was to maximize profit for shareholders, we would see you he obscene compensation packages for C-suite execs or ridiculously luxurious perks for board members, etc

            This has just been the excuse to do away with ethics and morals… And repeating this is “the way it has to be” just makes it easier for them

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      82 months ago

      Television shows are 22-24 minutes, because cable TV should show 6-8 minutes of ads every half hour. 30 second ads in blocks of 3 or 4, multiple times per show.

      15 seonds ads are almost too short for a trip to the kitchen. I’m not saying they’re good, but if you want to compare to cable TV, you need to remember the dark times.

      • NutWrench
        link
        fedilink
        English
        152 months ago

        Star Trek TOS episodes (1 hour show) were about 52 minutes long, with 8 minutes for commercials. By the time of TNG, episodes were down to 42 minutes. I regularly see ads every 5-6 minutes on YouTube.

        Businesses never understand that it’s THEIR obnoxious, sh*tty advertising that kills something profitable, and when it finally dies, it’s surprised Pikachu faces all around.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    802 months ago

    I refuse to use the official youtube app. Its so trash… I use newpipe and its amazing to just have all my favorite videos bookmarked locally in different lists.

    If they take that away from me i will just stop using youtube.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    642 months ago

    The web should have had a Terms of Usage from start. Something like

    “If you broadcast content on the internet, expect people to download it.”

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      102 months ago

      This. I always say this exact thing.

      If you provide content for free, expect people to take it for free.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        42 months ago

        Even if you don’t intend to provide it for free, if it’s possible to, expect it. No different from Walmart complaining about increased theft after replacing cashiers with self checkout - tiny violins.

    • Altima NEO
      link
      fedilink
      English
      192 months ago

      Wish I could say the same.

      I’m also using firefox + ublock, but Ive noticed when I’m watching shorts, I’ll occasionally get an ad that’s disguised as a short. There’s no like/dislike buttons or anything.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      62 months ago

      Sometimes I have to reload the page when using these 2. the page will load but just have a youtube icon in the centre of the player or the spinny circle until i hit f5

      • metaStatic
        link
        fedilink
        22 months ago

        exactly, it would be trivial to have a whitelist server side and now only ad friendly apps can access the videos. they only still work because it’s worth keeping those viewers in the system for the time being.

        • m-p{3}
          link
          fedilink
          English
          282 months ago

          Technically NewPipe simply parses the website and is seen as a web browser from YouTube’s point of view.

          That how they bypass the API’s TOS, they don’t use it.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          122 months ago

          Trivial? What information does this whitelist hold that can’t be spoofed? It’s not like apps have to tell the truth about what they are.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            82 months ago

            People do that? Just have their code go on the internet and tell lies?! This is a Christian internet!

            (yes it’s /s)

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            32 months ago

            This is what current implementations like Revanced do. The endgame will be fullblown DRM. Until then, it will be a cat and mouse game.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          4
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          exactly, it would be trivial to have a whitelist server side and now only ad friendly apps can access the videos. they only still work because it’s worth keeping those viewers in the system for the time being.

          It’s not trivial to make sure over the network on a device you don’t control that you’re talking with an app you think you are talking with. Just look how multiplayer games fail to combat cheaters and resort to kernel anticheats, and then still fail to assure the players are actually using the legit application. It’s actually pretty much impossible in any open ecosystem, maybe possible on something like chromecast where you get to control almost anything (as long as someone doesn’t hack it to run custom firmware, like they do with every console ever).

          Not only is this impossible, it always makes the experience for your legit users worse (but hey, if they are fine with the level of ads on yt today they probably don’t care if google were to mine bitcoins on their phones).

  • HexesofVexes
    link
    fedilink
    English
    48
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Somewhere out there a CEO thought this was a good idea. All it seems to be doing is pushing people to other platforms (the younger gen moving over to tiktok and the older gens moving 3rd party or just offline).

    • dinckel
      link
      fedilink
      English
      312 months ago

      While I agree, the amount of people who’d do this is negligibly small, compared to their total userbase. Obviously a bunch of people use ad blockers, but only a tiny amount of them have modified apps, followed by an even tinier amount of those people with fully custom frontends. For YT it might work out as a net positive, because the annoying blocks and reminders will just pressure people into paying for Premium.

      At the end of the day, I could just stop watching youtube entirely, if this trend continues. I have nothing to gain there

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        142 months ago

        I guess what there really winning is all those non tech-savvy people who currently have an adblocker installed because their friend helped.

      • Maeve
        link
        fedilink
        1
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Yes, been thinking I’ve just been substituting YT for * TV, and while the consumption can still be customized, it’s still a habit that can be kicked. I bet I’ll get more sleep and productivity.

        • Lol autocorrect
        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          12 months ago

          Several months ago, fresh off the high of following through on my resolution to leave Reddit forever, I made the same decision with YouTube. Once ublock stopped working, I’d try out peer tube, or maybe sail the seas

          But ublock never stopped working. I watch more YouTube now than ever before, I got totally addicted as I binged in preparation to leave

          At this point, I don’t know if it’d be good for me, or send me in a desperate arms race to get my fix

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    412 months ago

    YouTube is bringing its ad blocker fight to mobile. In an update on Monday, YouTube writes that users accessing videos through a third-party ad blocking app may encounter buffering issues or see an error message that reads, “The following content is not available on this app.”

    Yea, noticed that last week. Is already fixed again in latest revanced.

    • Rustmilian
      link
      fedilink
      English
      18
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Revanced will never die. Stand against the Goliath.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          202 months ago

          Vanced died because they tried to generate revenue from it and made themselves vulnerable.

          Also, unlike Vanced, Revanced doesn’t distribute modded youtube apks themselves.

          • sincle354
            link
            fedilink
            52 months ago

            Oh this? It’s just a binary of assorted diffs and plugins to a yet unspecified target apk. Why yes, I will use the end product for personal, non-commercial use.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              12 months ago

              Kind of funny if you read it like that, and while it certainly doesn’t make them immortal, it at least may make them last a while longer i hope.

              • sincle354
                link
                fedilink
                12 months ago

                It kinda comes out of the experience. There’s an outstanding Github issue that notes that a specific version of YT Music is broken past a certain version. Most of the patches fail to apply and you just get the minor ones. You can use the version just before with no issues. How can you litigate against lines of code that don’t even work? This is similar to the vulnerability that Yuzu gave up since they offered Patreon-exclusive updates to support a leaked BOTW:TOTK .iso. Easy to prove your intent there.

    • KptnAutismus
      link
      fedilink
      English
      32 months ago

      yup, noticed that revanced wasn’t working a week ago.

      went into revanced manager, patched the recommended version, installed gmscore, done.

      suck it youtube, i’m not paying a subscription to watch low effort vtuber edits.

  • kratoz29
    link
    fedilink
    English
    392 months ago

    Oh, I definitely have experienced “The following content is not available on this app.” Before, but I thought it was just a thing of my Revanced version outdated because I rarely update it… Which I’m gonna do just now 😁

    I hope this doesn’t bring too many issues to Smart Tube, which is where I do 99% of my YT usage (and I have yet to be bothered with any bug).

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      102 months ago

      Never had any outage in SmartTube either, unless they pushed a faulty release (I’m on the beta channel), but even then they have reacted super fast with fixes.

      So far I’m using NewPipe x Sponsorblock on my phone - apparently it has been discontinued & archived, but still works just fine as well. Only the comment view is broken since a couple weeks, but I really don’t care about those to begin with.

      • Bebo
        link
        fedilink
        English
        112 months ago

        Nowadays I’m using tubular which is newpipe with sponsor block and youtube dislike incorporated.

        • JJLinux
          link
          fedilink
          English
          32 months ago

          Smart Tube in TV and Tubular on phone (plus Grayjay, but but I’m not fond of their UX).

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            32 months ago

            Grayjay

            Yeah, it kind of sucks, and the performance on my phone is worse than NewPipe, but I haven’t found anything else that combines feeds from other sources (Odysee, Nebula, etc), so I still use it.

            There are also some missing features, like browsing channel playlists.

            • JJLinux
              link
              fedilink
              English
              12 months ago

              It has a ways to make it go, for sure. That UX reminds me of WinAmp way back in the day 🤣

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                22 months ago

                WinAmp was awesome! I loved having it as a floating bar to control my music.

                But honestly, the UX is mostly okay for me, except the settings, that really needs some cleanup. Also, rotation is completely broken.

                • JJLinux
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  1
                  edit-2
                  2 months ago

                  WinAmp was awesome! I loved having it as a floating bar to control my music.

                  Tell me we’re old without saying that we’re old 🤣

                  And in Grayjay, I the one thing that’s flawless for me is the screen rotation.

                  100% agree that the menus and settings need a serious overhaul.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          22 months ago

          Oh good to know, I wasn’t looking for alternatives as long as it still works, but that’s going to be the future then. Thanks!

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    352 months ago

    In Germany, there is a law that regulates the amount and intervals of advertising for private television broadcasters: 20% or 1/5 per broadcast day may be used for advertising. Programs that are shorter than 30 minutes may have a break, otherwise there must be 20 minutes between commercial breaks - 30 minutes in the evening. Unfortunately, there are still some loopholes.

    Children’s programs are not allowed to have commercial breaks.

    It’s a shame that this law still doesn’t apply to YouTube.