YouTube, the popular video-sharing platform, has once again launched an experiment targeting users who employ ad blockers. This time, YouTube warns users that their video playback will be limited to just three views unless they disable their ad-blocking software or whitelist the site.
Firefox users are reporting an ‘artificial’ load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it’s part of a plan to make people who use adblockers “experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using.”
I knew I wasn’t just imagining things. I like to listen to music on YouTube when driving to work. And sure, the internet reception there is spotty (danke, Merkel), but for a couple weeks now I’ve consistently had a very long “buffering” period every time the next video/song loaded up.
Well, joke’s on them. I found out about NewPipe and its built-in video/audio downloader, because I complained to an acquaintance about it.
I only seem to barely notice the difference… At first i couldnt understand what everyone was talking about…but yeah its a small delay over what it used to be. Also it seems any bookmarked vids will no longer autoplay… you have to click play… is that a thing anyone else has to do ?
I tried Edge and it seemed only a small bit faster to me, but it did autoplay. Are there any other anomalous strange effects google has done to youtube that i might have missed ?
I never had issues with adds on FF and ublock … still don’t.
Needing to click to play a video is a Firefox feature, and it’s been there for ages already. It doesn’t allow any audio to play until you interact with the page.
Peertube is also gaining traction and I personally enjoy that, just needs more content creators to stop worrying about chicken and egg and start protecting their content.
Yeah, I actually haven’t seen the nag screen in a couple days, whereas I was seeing it often last week. Whatever updated circumvention uBlock has figured out, it’s working just about perfectly.
Nope. This has been going on for months already. Nothing new here. There’s atleast three different kinds of pop-ups for adblock users and the same solution works for all of them.
Disable all other adblockers, disable enhanced tracking protection for youtube.com in Firefox (shield icon in addres bar), remove your custom adblocking rules and update uBlock Origin manually atleast twice a day; settings > filter list > quick fixes > click the clock icon > click update. Alternatively you can also just purge catches and update all filters but that takes longer is is not necessary
I’ve been sitting pretty with both uBlock Origin and uMatrix stopping both the ads and the delay from YouTube. Not sure what exactly is doing which, but it’s been working for me
It’s a strange post in general. Someone’s substack, written in some generic faux-journalist style, with one source for the main claim (“a Redditor”), who isn’t linked to. Don’t know why it’s being shared here.
I’m okay with just not using YouTube. The Internet sucks compared to how it was back in the day. Now it’s built around selling you something. Fuck that.
It’s not even about selling you something, it’s about selling you, period. They sell the user’s attention to advertisers, and don’t much care about anything else because anything else is too hard to quantify in a spreadsheet.
These days I mostly go for paid content like Nebula, alternative platforms like Odysee or PeerTube, or even Newgrounds - remember them? It’s not always possible to avoid YouTube entirely since some creators I follow only have a presence there, but transitions like this take time.
Same. Since… forever I maybe use youtube once or twice per year. There’s nothing interesting for me there that I can’t find somewhere else, and often in written (not video form), which is less time consuming and less prone to useless “padding” for “monetization”.
Didn’t this happen a couple months ago? I’ve been using UBO after the update and NewPipe (Android)/FreeTube (desktop) before that without issues. The new thing they’re doing is the 5 second delay for Firefox users.
rather than uninstalling adblockers entirely, can’t they just whitelist YouTube? Ad Trackers only have value when they track people across multiple sites: if the tracker only functions on YT then users get the video views they want and YT gets near-worthless tracking data.
There is a reason I only watch YouTube on my phone or laptop and not my smart TV. Because we went from one ad every few videos to multiple unskippable ads per video. It has become worse than old cable TV.
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Where do I sign up? I’d take 720p with no ads easy
AdNauseam is great.
YouTube Says New 5-Second Video Load Delay Is Supposed to Punish Ad Blockers, Not Firefox Users
I knew I wasn’t just imagining things. I like to listen to music on YouTube when driving to work. And sure, the internet reception there is spotty (danke, Merkel), but for a couple weeks now I’ve consistently had a very long “buffering” period every time the next video/song loaded up.
Well, joke’s on them. I found out about NewPipe and its built-in video/audio downloader, because I complained to an acquaintance about it.
Honestly, staring at a blank page for 30 seconds would be preferable to 30 seconds of ads.
As someone that watches Twitch through MPV, I can confirm watching “Ad Playing” is preferable to actually watching an annoying ad.
I only seem to barely notice the difference… At first i couldnt understand what everyone was talking about…but yeah its a small delay over what it used to be. Also it seems any bookmarked vids will no longer autoplay… you have to click play… is that a thing anyone else has to do ?
I tried Edge and it seemed only a small bit faster to me, but it did autoplay. Are there any other anomalous strange effects google has done to youtube that i might have missed ?
I never had issues with adds on FF and ublock … still don’t.
Needing to click to play a video is a Firefox feature, and it’s been there for ages already. It doesn’t allow any audio to play until you interact with the page.
Invidious still wotks great for me.
There’s also Piped.
Peertube is also gaining traction and I personally enjoy that, just needs more content creators to stop worrying about chicken and egg and start protecting their content.
Ublock origin is still working fine for me with the occasional manual filter list update.
Yeah, I actually haven’t seen the nag screen in a couple days, whereas I was seeing it often last week. Whatever updated circumvention uBlock has figured out, it’s working just about perfectly.
same here. u block works fine for me.
They’re counting on people being complacent and just whitelisting.
The problem is, they’re probably right to try the tactic too. People need those dopamine hits.
Fuck YouTube
Too bad the alternatives suck so much. Vimeo used to be nice. I don’t know where they went wrong.
Vimeo was never intended as a YouTube competitor. It’s like saying Flickr is a competitor to Instagram.
Is there anything new in this post that I’m missing?
Nope. This has been going on for months already. Nothing new here. There’s atleast three different kinds of pop-ups for adblock users and the same solution works for all of them.
which is? besides not using YouTube?
Disable all other adblockers, disable enhanced tracking protection for youtube.com in Firefox (shield icon in addres bar), remove your custom adblocking rules and update uBlock Origin manually atleast twice a day; settings > filter list > quick fixes > click the clock icon > click update. Alternatively you can also just purge catches and update all filters but that takes longer is is not necessary
I’ve been sitting pretty with both uBlock Origin and uMatrix stopping both the ads and the delay from YouTube. Not sure what exactly is doing which, but it’s been working for me
Yeah it might not matter but for people having issues with these pop-ups, that’s the most likely culpript
right, thank you but I think I will stick with invidious for a while, that’s easier
I don’t think so.
It’s a strange post in general. Someone’s substack, written in some generic faux-journalist style, with one source for the main claim (“a Redditor”), who isn’t linked to. Don’t know why it’s being shared here.
It’s a substack post. At this point, my quality expectation is
My understanding of the three platforms, too. Interesting how similar people congregate in platforms.
I’m okay with just not using YouTube. The Internet sucks compared to how it was back in the day. Now it’s built around selling you something. Fuck that.
It’s not even about selling you something, it’s about selling you, period. They sell the user’s attention to advertisers, and don’t much care about anything else because anything else is too hard to quantify in a spreadsheet.
These days I mostly go for paid content like Nebula, alternative platforms like Odysee or PeerTube, or even Newgrounds - remember them? It’s not always possible to avoid YouTube entirely since some creators I follow only have a presence there, but transitions like this take time.
Same. Since… forever I maybe use youtube once or twice per year. There’s nothing interesting for me there that I can’t find somewhere else, and often in written (not video form), which is less time consuming and less prone to useless “padding” for “monetization”.
FYI: This has been going on for about a month. If you still see warnings, update your ad blocker, switch to UBlock Origin, and/or check their FAQs.
Didn’t this happen a couple months ago? I’ve been using UBO after the update and NewPipe (Android)/FreeTube (desktop) before that without issues. The new thing they’re doing is the 5 second delay for Firefox users.
rather than uninstalling adblockers entirely, can’t they just whitelist YouTube? Ad Trackers only have value when they track people across multiple sites: if the tracker only functions on YT then users get the video views they want and YT gets near-worthless tracking data.
There is a reason I only watch YouTube on my phone or laptop and not my smart TV. Because we went from one ad every few videos to multiple unskippable ads per video. It has become worse than old cable TV.