this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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  • YouTube is intensifying efforts to combat adblockers, including blocking video playback and warning users of potential account suspension.
  • Increased ads on YouTube have driven many users to adblockers, hurting both YouTube’s ad revenue and content creators reliant on ad-based income.
  • Despite these measures, many users are leaving YouTube or finding workarounds, leading creators to seek alternative revenue streams off-platform.
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[–] archomrade@midwest.social 0 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I mean this genuinely: I would rather YouTube die than be subject to their overlong and hyper targeted ads.

If the ads were untargeted I'd feel less adamant, but as it is now I would sooner give up YouTube entirely.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

That's how I feel too. If it were to die, it gives more room for things like peertube to grow from its ashes.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't mind if they used either data I entered or general trends of my watch history to serve me Degree For Men rather than Secret ads. "Data indicates this viewer is a male in his mid-30's, serving this viewer a tampon ad is unlikely to generate sales." I get that.

It's when I got the same exact ad for a Mission Impossible movie that had that annoying "Ready or not, here I come" song thing in front of every single video for three weeks straight that I downloaded uBlock Origin, stopped using the official app in favor of the website in the browser.

It's gotten to the point that I associate advertisements with bad products. I've had good functional search engines for most of my life, I've been able to find the products I want and need. The more you feel the need to pay to have your brand shouted at me the shittier I think your product is. Case in point: I've never seen a commercial for Sennheiser headphones but holy SHIT I've seen ads for Raycons.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

It’s gotten to the point that I associate advertisements with bad products.

I wish more marketers understood this. In fact, keeping on topic with Youtube in general, any product I see Youtubers doing sponsored ad reads for is for me is an instant and automatic hard pass for whatever it is. I just automatically assume that product is either crap or a scam. Or both. When I was shopping for headphones, the #1 brand I refused to consider for any price was Raycon. If I'm looking for a new game to pick up, I can guarantee you it will never be Raid: Shadow Legends or War Thunder, no matter how bored I am. If I need a new razor, it absolutely will not be from Manscaped. Etc., etc.

If I am bombarded incessantly with really insipid ads for a particular product, the only thing it makes automatically come to my mind when shopping for a product in that category is that the one I definitely don't want is that one with the fucking annoying ads. This is obviously completely counterproductive from the advertiser's standpoint, and I have to imagine I'm not the only person in the world who rolls this way.

The only possibilities I can think of are that advertisers really are dumb enough to oversaturate people's attention to the point that they get turned off from the product entirely but keep soldiering on anyway because it earns a paycheck. Or worse, that it doesn't matter because for every one viewer who gets pissed off and vows to never buy your product, they are outnumbered and offset by a horde of other viewers who are stupid enough to conflate repetition with truth and actually will be enticed to buy whatever it is, insipidity be damned. And the marketers probably know it.

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[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ads overall take up a good amount of time now. I would rather not use Youtube at all if I have to watch long ads.

[–] BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The day adblockers don't work anymore, is the day i will never use youtube again. I have no idea how people do it. I have a friend who uses youtube to listen to music at home. Every time there is a commercial she drops everything and runs to her laptop. It's insane. Sometimes i accidentally click a link and the youtube app opens and i'm reminded that there have to be people who wait to click away these ads, every single time. It would drive me mad.

[–] kava@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I just pay for premium. I'd rather pay the $25 a month to never have to see an ad.

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[–] NutWrench@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

YouTube is also aggravating customers who use their official apps by increasing the frequency and length of the ads. In just 4-5 months, I've seen YouTube ad lengths on Roku go from 10-15 seconds to 30 seconds, to a minute.

They're trying to recoup lost ad revenue by pissing off the one demographc most likely to sit in front of the TV the longest.

[–] Evilcoleslaw@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

On rare occasions YouTube will play exceptionally long videos as ads. When YouTube Red came out I got multiple entire hours long shows as ads (as a "free preview!") I'm pretty sure Ive gotten one of the movies they put up for free viewing as an ad before.

Obviously you can skip after 5 seconds or whatever but they hope to catch someone playing stuff in the background. Probably to increase their crappy view count for those features to sell actual ads later.

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[–] doodledup@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

I'd be willing to pay for their service if it didn't entail creating an account and letting me get tracked even further.

I don't know what the solution is, but ads isn't, a Google account isn't, but piracy isn't either.

[–] doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 5 months ago

I'll stop using YouTube altogether before I disable my ad blocker. My time is simply more valuable than whatever video I'm watching.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 0 points 5 months ago

There's no winning a perpetual game of whack-a-mole, especially when having no moles (=viewers) left also means that you lose.

[–] Static_Rocket@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I want the statistic on how many Google employees use ad blockers now. It's basically a necessity.

[–] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I'm sure Google employees get Premium for free

[–] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

They still probably use ad blockers for other sites though. It's essential on the Internet these days.

The number of malware or otherwise malicious ads is too damn high. There are articles that are so filler they literally have less content than ads, it's an embarrassment.

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[–] Frozyre@kbin.melroy.org 0 points 5 months ago (6 children)

The reason I left Twitch was because the fucking ads were unbearable. I've even taken a screenshot to show people that I wasn't lying when I said I saw that Twitch expected me to sit there and listen to and watch 8 fucking ads. Ads to shit I don't care about other than think of violent thoughts in what I'd love to do to marketers and find a way to advertise that so they get a god damn clue.

In a perfect world, maybe A ad wouldn't be so bad. But this has gotten out of hand and out of control. We shouldn't ever have to sit and watch a string of ads, all varying from 20 seconds to an entire minute and even longer.

And good, I hope YouTube is stupid as fuck enough to be aggressive. Drive more creators out, even hit the successes of the YouTube whores who've long lived on the platform. Because all that they're going to do is affect everyone at the end of the day, all for the sake of profiting for marketers.

[–] Live_Let_Live@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There is a twitch ad blocker it works really well

[–] mrvictory1@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago
[–] Wolfram@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I'd have left Twitch if I didn't find it more entertaining than current YouTube. No one should be surprised they're at pre-covid profit levels again because they tried to shovel way too many ads down people's throats.

Imagine tuning into a random stream and getting greeted by 3 ads before you can understand if you want to stay or check a different one. I've been frustrated enough that I just turn to something else altogether for entertainment.

There are some decent adblockers like TTV.LOL, which is a simple proxy to a country that doesn't allow ads. But sometimes those solutions don't work either. Ironically I just use Turbo while not paying for YouTube premium, but just as people don't pay for YouTube Premium, I understand not wanting to support Twitch for a variety of reasons.

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[–] mobsenpai@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago

ha ha!! take that!

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 0 points 5 months ago (9 children)

i consider unblockable ads to be direct attack on my psyche, trying to worm in and make me think in a way they want. I will never tolerate them and would rather see anything relying on them burn. My mind is my own and no one else has any business influencing me without my permission.

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[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

I'm starting to think our entire economy is built upon ads.

Edit: Word missing

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