Mmmm, gotta love that enshittification strategy every big tech company is working on right now.
this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023
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Technology
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Free money ended, they are trying to squeeze
What's with every big tech company trying to destroy their userbase this year?
Interest rates hikes stopped the free money, so companies need profit.
I’d argue they don’t need $500 million when they already make $400 million, but I’m just a lowly peasant.
tl;dr: capitalism
they think they have us sufficiently cornered on centralized sites, they may be right.
Especially with video. Reddit was easy-ish to leave -- I haven't left entirely -- since it's just a link aggregator and glorified forums. That's nothing new to the Internet. And Twitter was easy to replace with Mastodon.
But hosting video? That's a tough one to replicate. I know there are some other platforms out there, but I can't imagine any could really take on YouTube, due to space and bandwidth considerations.
So yeah, I think YouTube has us all by the balls. And they know it.
Another executive-driven decision by people who clearly don't use their own product (kinda impressive really when it's YT).
I can't help wonder if they saw an uptick in adblocking as a result of their absurd increases in ad-time recently and somehow thought this was a reasonable solution.
8-10 unskippable ads before a video? Holy shit. That's ludicrous.
It really is hard to fathom how that got through any internal discussion.
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Did all these tech companies just get together and decide to fuck us over around the same time? Seriously, what is going on with all these companies rolling out hugely unpopular new rules/changes all on one another's heels?
The end of 0% interest means “business” no longer have access to free money. So now they want benefits, and growth but without the spending.
Also we skipped a tech bubble crash around 2008, so these corpos deaths are more than overdue.
The cicle as Doctorow says in his enshification tesis is:
1.- be good to your users, spending tons of that VC and 0% interest loan free money.
2.- be shit to your users, be good to your clients (add buyers, business that use your platform to do business)
3.- be shit to everyone. Squeeze the platform and get every last dime of value as profit.
Once you are in 3 there is no coming back. But these corporations have pulling the ladder behind them using an extra decade of dominant position to try to stop the cicle.
Personally, I'd rather pay for Nebula than YouTube premium. Most of the creators I actively follow are on there anyways, and the few that aren't (usually the ones with very long videos) I should probably just watch with ads anyways to support them.
I had a similar thought. How fair is nebula to their creators? I heard it was somehow creator owned, but other than that I have no idea how it works.
Recently found this gem: https://adnauseam.io/
It's an ad blocker that only hides ads and clicks them for you in the background, which means you waste advertiser's money, support creators, can't get flagged for ad blocking as easily, and they can't build a proper profile against your ad activity since it's all noise. Haven't installed it yet, but this might be the push I needed.
This might be an acceptable sollution, but what happens on the other side of the ad? If something maliciously is being spreaded, the click might have to happen in an isolated form from the rest of the system or the browser.
And what are the consequences of "strikes"? Will you delete my Google account, including my email, and also screw up my Android phone and my kids Chromebook?
It's scary to realize that Google has me by the balls here. They can screw me in so many ways, and screw my family members as well. I'd rather have my bank credentials stolen than my email credentials, at least I can get real customer service from the bank, I can even go to a physical location and speak face-to-face with someone who can help me. Google wont give me customer support, and my email account is the closest thing to an identity I have for most businesses I interact with.
It takes a lot of work to avoid Google. Yes, there are alternatives, but in D&D terms, avoiding Google is like a -2 to all stats for your entire life, and not something we can expect the general population to do.
All this shows the need for anti-trust enforcement. The same company is controlling too much. Bust 'em up!
Moral of the story: create separate account for YouTube that has no high value services or data on it.
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Someone in the Fediverse (I don't know where and who) posted that you have to add the following filters into U-Block Origin. When done you shouldn't see any anti-adblock-warnings :
youtube.com##+js(set,yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel,false)
youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.adBlocksFound,O)
youtube.com##+js(set,ytplayer.config.aras.raw_player_response.adPlacements,[])
youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.hasAllowedlnstreamAd,true)
I might add that I haven't experienced any anti-adblock-warnings yet, but I added these filters in advance. I might be worth a shot!
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So if you are on android: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/org.polymorphicshade.newpipe (Newpipe with sponsorblock baked in)
If you are on PC: https://freetubeapp.io/ (Piped with sponsorblock baked in)
You're welcome.
I'll stop blocked ads when I stop using their service. Not a minute sooner.
If they want me to stop blocking ads, they will need to get rid of ads like this. I get ads like this all the time and it’s completely inappropriate.
Seems like ad targeting works
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Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers
"everyone else is treating their customers like garbage, so they don'y hold it against us".
Yes, we can.
I didn't block when you had 5 second ads. I didn't block when you had 15 second ads. I started blocking when you'd play 2+ unskippable 15 second ads back-to-back. I didn't mind sitting through an ad when I appreciate the service you offered. Now, you're just being greedy, and I will go to great lengths to damage your bottom line as notably as I can.
So there are YouTube front ends for browser experience, but has anyone tried freetube from this guide?
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/
I've really liked the newpipe x Sponsorblock experience on my Android phone with having a subscription list, saves, playlists all locally with no YouTube account and ability to export and import the data of Playlists etc.
Freetube sounds like newpipe for desktop and has sponsorblock as an option too. Anyone use it or used it and have an thoughts on it?
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YouTube without an adblocker is such a mess. I wish alternatives like https://odysee.com had more of the content I watch and less Nazi bullshit though. YouTube really needs some strong competition since they have an effective monopoly on long-form videos on the internet. :(
Yeah, I'm glad at least a few YouTubers are starting to mirror content on sites like Odysee though (Such as Louis Rossman). I think that, like Lemmy, it just needs to reach a critical mass of users before it's viable
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Twitch couldn't beat my adblocking, it just taught me how to find and use custom scripts. Shoot your shot YT, I haven't installed a script for your website yet but now Im gonna have too. Congrats the number of ads im gonna see from you is about to go down.
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I´m sure the will be no false strikes at all. And even if, I´m sure they have a quick and easy appeal process in place, just like they have with copyright.
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Anyone hoping there will be a mass exodus from YouTube to other--maybe fediverse YouTube alternatives, reminiscent of the Reddit exodus?
Video hosting is way too expensive and complex to be decentralised.
Well, PeerTube exists, but IDK how good it actually is since basically no one uses it. I also think professional content creators aren't going to like the Fediverse very much since there is significantly less money in it, but for hobbyists it could work. Of all the big social media platforms, video hosting/streaming is the hardest case to replace. It'll be interesting though. I hear PeerTube works like torrents.
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Damn, what am I going to do with my life when I stop wasting time on youtube?
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lmao fuck right off Google. there are a million open source alternatives out there that still let me watch videos, nor do I (nor will I) have an account with you clowns.
Hot take: this sucks, but YouTube premium is legit. I wish more platforms offered a paid, ad-free way to interact. I don't feel like figuring out a way around ads but I'm not about to start watching them. So I pay a few bucks a month.
Screw YouTube and Google. They aren’t getting a dime from me.
I don't have any philosophical objection for paying to use a platform I enjoy, but in the case of youtube, they have been so deliberately detrimental to society in terms of platforming fascists that I feel bad about the prospect of paying them, even if much of the money is going to creators I do like who I'm actually watching
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That is pretty much the same policy I have for forcing adds on me.
Copying my comment over from fmhy instance -
If you don't mind paying ~2$ a month, you can get Family Premium using a VPN (I used India)
Current working method from HUKD: (Private/Incognito browser is best)
Create a new Google Account. Enter card details. Enter a fake billing address, any random address generator will do, as long as it’s from the correct region. Then select Try it Free. Navigate to YouTube, press YouTube Premium, and double-check that everything is in the right currency. Enter the same credit card and address information you used for creating the new Google Account. Click Buy 👍
You can then add your main Google account as a family member.👍
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What happens if you use SmartTubeNext on a TV? I'm assuming the interface wouldn't support the 3 strike YouTube popup so I guess you'd just get blocked without knowing why?
I'm guessing ReVanced will support the popup so you'd know.
I canceled my YT premium this year because they raised the price of my grandfathered family plan. I mainly used it for music, but the audio quality really sucks. I switched to a CD quality music service and love it. YT just costs too much for what I get. If they increased the music quality or had a cheaper plan without the music then I'd consider it.
Nah, youtube content (for most part) is not worth the money or watching the ads for me.
If they roll this out for everyone I hope they will finally officially introduce YouTube Premium Lite, so I can get ad-free YouTube without paying for YouTube Music.
that it's testing
That's not quite confirming a policy.
Looks like I'm installing Invidious tonight.
Greedy fuckers. They're not making enough money already? And when you pay them you get shit service anyways.
They will never win. They will only lose.
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