this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
119 points (99.2% liked)

Privacy

2772 readers
289 users here now

Icon base by Lorc under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 48 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

It's bullshit. They suddenly changed their metrics and views dropped sharply. The amount of people not using adblockers is staggering. Most people I know had to be made aware they existed and there are many more who watch YouTube through their smartphone app where there are no adblockers.

If you wanted me specifically to watch your videos, you'd stop putting ads in every 2 minutes. It makes the videos unwatchable. But also, I'd only watch directly if the video weren't on YouTube. Fuck them and their monopoly. They can only sustain it because of Google Search (or what's left of that service).

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] IceFoxX@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

I use yt by default without ads, shorts, etc. on the home page only suitable recommendation ( or on the desktop none at all ). I recently had to reflash my phone and then went to yt. So wow I saw the garbage hslde and immediately closed it again and then configured my phone first for Ad & trash free yt

[–] ericjmorey@discuss.online -1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The video creators decide how many ads are on their video. YouTube is a heavy influence on that decision, but the number and timing of ads is up to the creators.

[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 8 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Really? I have trouble believing they'd insert ads at the worst moments possible.

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] entwine@programming.dev 3 points 4 weeks ago

They do. The youtube studio thing automatically inserts a shitload of ad breaks by default, but channels have the option to customize it. When you see a video with annoying ad breaks, it's because the creator didn't choose to remove them.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 32 points 4 weeks ago

This is literal abusive language. "Look what you made me do"

[–] Maxxie@piefed.blahaj.zone 28 points 4 weeks ago

If you don't make your metrics reliant on spyware, they won't be affected by me blocking your spyware. But thats not a trick they teach at google university.

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 19 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I can see this. I will only try refreshing a video a couple of times before giving up and moving on, if I can't watch it without ads. And lately, YouTube has been fighting with my adblocker so much, that I end up just turning it off altogether. Fuck ads.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you able to use yt-dlp or PipePipe?

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I will be honest...I don't know what those are. Lol!

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

The first one is a popular video downloader, typically used for YouTube. The second is an Android app that is very well made.

[–] taldennz@lemmy.nz 18 points 4 weeks ago

And all I can think of is...

I'm doing my Part!

[Would you like to know more?]

Thought that does make it seem like we're part of some kind of movement, rather than just people sick of too many privacy invading ads.

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 16 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I, and many others left using YouTube from the site once they banned adblockers. I used to watch an hour a day I'd guess.

I'm technical, so I bothered seeking out alternative clients that can bypass the ads (Freetube, Grayjay, etc), but i still watch less overall. And after speaking to less technical friends and family, they said that the unskippable ads just got too much. So they stopped using it except for essential vids like tutorials.

Too many ads = consumer go byebye now.

Ya fuckin' milked the cow dry, idiots.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Youtube is still 100% usable with uBlock Origin... Even the "lite" version of uBO.

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Its always a cat and mouse game. They say they blocked adblockers... but then that gets circumvented. But then they patch it, but that gets circumvented. If they spent a fraction of what they spend trying to stop adblockers and just show less ads... people wouldnt need to resort to adblockers!

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago

Right, but through the entire debacle where Youtube supposedly stopped working with adblockers at all, I had absolutely zero interruptions. Firefox w/uBO (mobile and desktop), Chrome w/uBOL, and even YT Revanced.

[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 weeks ago

Youtube works for me with UBlock Origin on Firefox.

[–] amgdvx@programming.dev 15 points 4 weeks ago

Maybe dont put an ad every 5 minutes, that could lead people not to use adblocker. I wasn't an adblock user but seeing how the web is today its impossible to surf it without one

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago

Google whines about problems it caused -_-

[–] Binturong@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 weeks ago

Adblockers are the only reason people can still tolerate watching content on the ad-riddled shitscape.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 10 points 4 weeks ago

I can see where this is going. Next, ad blocking will be made even harder than it already is.

[–] morphballganon@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 4 weeks ago

"Our product sucks because you're not giving us enough money" ok fam

[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 weeks ago

The internet is unusable without Adblockers. Youtube especially is a dumpster fire.

[–] somegeek@programming.dev 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Wtf. It's obviously crashed because of how absolutely unusable and disgusting youtube has become. I used to use youtube for 3 4 hours a day, but in the last year it may have gotten to an average of 20mins. Because you have to sign in to your google account to watch a video, many of videos cant be viewed with a vpn (which is how very large population of the world use youtube) and the overall quality of content has dropped massively, specially with 3/10 videos and shorts being AI slops.

[–] IceFoxX@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Revanced extended. ( remove ads, shorts etc. ) ( Be careful with other sources regarding malware. (although ultimately you should not blindly trust this source either))

[–] xep@discuss.online 6 points 4 weeks ago
[–] bigFab@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago