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submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Really interesting read about the history of YouTube adblocking, how the new detection works, how uBO is responding, and how not to block the new popups.

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[-] [email protected] 180 points 10 months ago

uBO team (2 people) should not be responding to questions on reddit or elsewhere. They should just update the filters and post a "extension updated, should work again now".

In the end, Youtube will win if they want to win. Google can throw unconscionable amounts of money at their techs to fight the adblockers while the volunteers spend their attention and patience.

[-] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago

The question is 'Do they want to keep throwing money at techs in the hope of forcing people to watch their ads?'

At best, people will keep finding ways to get around the ads and YT will have wasted a ton of money on nothing.

At worst, a bunch of people will abandon YT all together. And YT will have wasted a ton of money getting rid of them.

Both options seem self-defeating and wasteful.

[-] [email protected] 37 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The point is to make adblocking so tedious that only fairly tech literate people would do it. That cousin whose pc you set up and installed uBO on? They won’t figure out how to update the filters, they will just whitelist (or realistically just turn off uBO) or premium.

Basically nobody will actually abandon YT over this and those who do will be so low in numbers it is ~0 to YT.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

I don't think we should underestimate the savvy programmers out there, who are just as fed up with ads as the rest of us.

And at this point, most of the cousins who don't know how to update their adblocker are already there. It's a matter of time. YT won't keep pouring money into this. Just long enough to the "balance the books." When the 'number of viewed ads' start slowing down again and they've hit their max viewership, they'll call off the hounds.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I don’t think we should underestimate the savvy programmers out there

you can't imagine how many programmers out there are living their life without adblocks. Even before this last month's shitshow

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

i'd get premium if they didnt make it artificially more expensive by bundling other stuff with it, so adblock it is

[-] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Plus, it's likely to evolve into a "less ads" deal eventually.

The one constant is that there's never enough money to satisfy corporate needs.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

There's a great video on this that was made when YouTube first started rolling this out called The Cobra Effect: Why Anti-Adblock Policies Could Hurt Revenue Instead, and one of the points mentioned in the video is the rising number of people who use an adblocker, and not specifically mentioned but shown in the video is a graphic from an article from 2015 which shows that just under 43% of people use an adblocker. That number will have obviously changed in the past 7 years, but if we just use 25% of viewers as an estimate, that's 25% of all viewers on YouTube who may turn to more "malicious" forms of adblocking such as things like AdNaseum and ReVanced or sites that host YouTube videos without the ads, and tell others to do the same if they're sick of ads. And even if they do give up and watch the ads, the science says that people who use adblockers are much less likely to click on an ad and make a purchase, which is bad for advertisers since they pay for the number of views an ad gets and their clickthrough rate would go down, making it more expensive and less profitable to do business with YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIHi9yH6UB0

[-] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

That is our win condition. To make it so costly for them that they bail on the idea. Because if we don’t, then it’s one step closer to their internet: locked down, hidden charges everywhere and content under their terms.

This isn’t just about ads, it’s about keeping information free.

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[-] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago

Realistically there is an equation money lost by ad blockers vs money gained by making ad blocking harder (money in - dev cost) unless its about sending a message.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Only so far, false positives scare potential customers away.

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[-] [email protected] 114 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Some solutions:

[-] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago

This is the answer. I use Newpipe on mobile and Invidious on desktop. I dont even know what youtube ads look like. I run it all behind a pihole just to be sure. Works like a dream.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Personally, I prefer LibreTube on my phone and Piped on desktop. I also use NextDNS when I'm on the go and Pi-Hole when I'm at home. I haven't used an official YouTube app or website for the last 2 years.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Also want to submit for Android: just using YouTube in Firefox with uBO extension

[-] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I want to avoid solutions that involve using the YouTube app/website (including modded YouTube apps like Revanced or browser addons to use on the website)

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[-] [email protected] 76 points 10 months ago

if theres one thing im determined to do, its to never voluntarily see a youtube ad ever. praise ublock and revanced.

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[-] [email protected] 71 points 10 months ago

Then there are non-tech-savvy users looking at the post and saying, “This is too complex. I give up.”

This is YouTube's ultimate goal. They don't need to make it impossible to block ads, just more trouble than it's worth for most people.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Fine with me, as long as I personally don't have to look at ads.

[-] [email protected] 64 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

But the hurtful comments leave a bigger mark than the good ones

As a volunteer for a charity, I feel this so much. I work incredibly hard to help people, I get paid nothing for my time. The entitlement and rude demands burns me out way faster. Especially when people seem to put far more effort into complaining and being rude than they do thanking me or showing appreciation for what we do.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Thank you for the charity work you do. I appreciate it.

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[-] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago

Here is my experience with it.

Up until last week I've had friends (who also use uBlock Origin, same country) kind of sequentially complaining for about a month about having the videos blocked. For me personally it has been working fine until then, but Friday I got the popup. Today the popup is gone however I get ads but they don't play video, only sound.

YouTube isn’t rolling out the anti-adblock to everyone. It seems to depend on things like your account, browser, and IP address. And if you’re not logged in or you’re in a private window, you’re safe. As a result, there are a bunch of people saying, “I use XYZ and I haven’t seen an anti-adblock popup yet,” unknowingly spreading misinformation.

What I see with this is that Google might eventually lose more with this new policies than just leaving things as they were. Lets be real, if this shit show continues and they don't drop it as it becomes increasingly difficult to watch without ads people will start looking for alternative frontends such as Piped or Invidious and that will hinder their ability to harvest data and force ads. What's the next step Google? DRM protected media?

[-] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago

Only about 20% or so of users on YouTube use AdBlock. A frighteningly large percentage of the population is absolutely fine with being bombarded with ads - after all, 80% of the stuff we consume daily is ad financed and that money has to come from somewhere.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

I have a friend that just refuses to use anything but chrome, refuses to use any kind of adblock and will only use an iPhone.

I don't get it. I've asked him to explain but he just keeps saying "it's personal preference" which is such a massive copout.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

Maybe I'm looking into this too far, but I think if someone's happy to have things the way they like them (ads, Chrome, etc.) and clearly doesn't want to elaborate on it, they have every right to not elaborate further.

Let them find it their own way. Or maybe they won't, but it's their choice to make.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Just in case you weren’t aware, updating your block lists in uBlock Origin should fix this problem. It’s worked for me, at any rate.

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

they could just block the alternative frontends. Then we'd need an alternative platform.

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[-] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

People will not leave Youtube. They got too many videos. I believe they will just find some proxy solutions or similar. Using anything else will for the author just result in they get paid less.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

that's exactly what he just said.

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[-] [email protected] 32 points 10 months ago

This was really interesting. I’ve been looking for a slightly more technical explanation for how this arms race works under the hood.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Nothing like watching everyone freak out while I'm just using invidious

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 10 months ago

I wasn't able to get it consistently working so I started using FreeTube instead of a browser, which seems to work without hassle

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago

So today, YouTube's pop-ups rolled down to Views will be limited to one unless you remove your adblocker at which point the pop-ups ceased. (I was intentionally rolling them down). Have: Firefox, DDG Privacy Essentials, NoScript, uBlock Origin

Techs working to give me access: I love you guys! I really appreciate what you're doing.

Fuck the hurtful comments, and do it to fight capitalism and enshittification.

That said, when I can no longer YouTube without ads, I will no longer YouTube, which also means no engagement on video forums. Useful, interesting rants is what I have to offer.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I've moved on from trying to block the ads to using a front-end and a macro to do the annoying part for me. It's been nice. I hadn't realized how bad youtube's UI was until seeing a clean one. I definitely recommend using one of the less notable ones, they seem to be faster.

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[-] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Mine are super inconsistent now. Obviously I have uBO, but I can typically watch like 10-ish videos a day before the popups start, at which point I just turn on libredirect.

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this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
634 points (99.4% liked)

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