this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2025
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Privacy

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[–] onlinepersona@programming.dev 47 points 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month 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 2 months 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 2 months 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 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month 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 2 months 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 30 points 2 months ago

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

[–] Maxxie@piefed.blahaj.zone 27 points 2 months 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 18 points 2 months 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 2 months ago (1 children)

Are you able to use yt-dlp or PipePipe?

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months 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 2 months 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 15 points 2 months ago (1 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 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] piccolo@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months 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 2 months 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.

[–] amgdvx@programming.dev 14 points 2 months 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 12 points 2 months ago

Google whines about problems it caused -_-

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 months ago

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

[–] Binturong@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 months ago

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

[–] morphballganon@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 2 months ago

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

[–] xep@discuss.online 6 points 2 months ago
[–] somegeek@programming.dev 6 points 2 months 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 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

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

[–] bigFab@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago