this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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Technology
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And their tip didn't work to remove the cookie banner on their site
I've used uBlock Origin for years, but the dev doesn't accept donations because he doesn't want an obligation to support the software ongoing. This means I cannot support him even though it would come with no expectations, just thanks.
So thank you for your hard work Raymond Hill/gorhill You're amazing, doing your part to make the world a better place.
Makes such a useful piece of software, and is also wise enough to set boundaries to protect himself from the toxic pressure of open source development.
What a G.
gorhill says in its GitHub page that you can donate to the maintainers of the filter lists.
Thanks for this info, I'll check it out. I use their filters with adguard home so it would be great to contribute to the ongoing cause.
Tired of those annoying cookie banners? They’re not just frustrating—they're a lazy response to GDPR.
They’re not lazy, they’re maliciously compliant. The sites know how to comply with GDPR, but wanted to throw a fit instead. So they came up with the annoying cookie banners, to make users hate GDPR instead of hating the sites that were stealing and selling all of their data. And the worst part is that it worked. Many people wholly equate GDPR with the cookie banners, instead of the massive leap in privacy rights that it represented when it was passed.
They’re not lazy, they’re maliciously compliant.
Often times they're not even compliant.
Excellent points, but the cookie banners were a response to the ePrivacy Directive, not GDPR. In fact the banners predate GDPR by about a decade! I know this because I decided to make my own banner that was slightly less annoying about five years before GDPR was a thing.
Funnily enough most of your points are still correct precisely because, as you say, "most people wholly equate GDPR with the cookie banners".
I don't remember seeing any banners before GDPR?
It's a lot easier to dislike GDPR when you don't live in a country that benefits from it, but it still annoys you.
GDPR doesn't annoy anyone. The incompetent developers who made the banners do. There is absolutely no need for them.
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This is not correct. Since gdpr isn't required in most of the world, they don't want to comply. It's not about making users hate them. It's about collecting data, and simply complying with gdpr where they have to, and only where they have to.
It's not about making users hate them. It's about collecting data,
Making users hate GDPR and revolting against it is a means to that end though, of collecting data.
uBlock Origin can also get rid of Shorts in Youtube, as well as the hover-play functionaliy, and annotations on videos.
Just paste this into your uBlock Origin settings/myFilters:
! Kill YT Shorts
youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer
youtube.com##.html5-endscreen-content
youtube.com##.html5-endscreen
youtube.com##.ytp-ce-element
youtube.com###video-preview-container
annotations_module.js$script,domain=youtube.com
/endscreen.js$script,domain=www.youtube.com****
Oh my GOD thank you
I thought hover play functionality can be turned off in youtube settings?
But as I was typing this, I realised it's useful for non logged in youtube, I assume.
Aso, YT has a tendency to reset settings like that whenever you log in.
Does that kill just shorts or everything you mentioned in your comment?
Everything in the comment. They're all pretty well described if you wanted to pick-and-choose.
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I've used uBlock to get rid of everything: the homepage (leaving only the search bar; so no stupid video suggestions), the upcoming videos and the comment section. I go on Youtube to watch the videos I know I want to watch, not find new videos. I know this sounds a bit radical, but it works well for me.
Huh. I love shorts. I have a curated YouTube account that shows me very interesting shorts about science, music, gaming, comedy, PC building, web development, tech news, etc etc. I wonder why people don't like shorts. Using YouTube without being logged in?
Shorts are deliberately and effectively addictive. Once Google found out they could copy the TikTok paradigm without being sued, they forced it down everyone's throat. Ever wonder why you can't disable shorts? Because they KNOW it's addictive. We are being farmed.
YouTube is a vital tool for news and information. It should be NATIONALIZED, and purposefully exploitative technology like shorts should be BANNED.
YouTube is a vital tool for news and information
YouTube is a "vital" tool for uneducated opinions and mis-information FTFY
I agree with everything you said, to some degree. I'm just saying that shorts on my account are great, because I've honed my algorithm over many years so that it only gives me relevant stuff. I never see anything I don't want to see, basically. My Watch Later list overfloweth. 😅
it's mostly the interface, the layout, the clickbaityness the format encourages, and the fact that no useful information can fit in that short a video.
the fact that no useful information can fit in that short a video.
Have to disagree with the notion that this is a fact. I watch informative and interesting shorts all the time. Plenty out there if you have the right subscriptions and are careful with how you use the service.
E.g. you must never scroll shorts. Watch the ones you want to see, then back out, so you never see anything that pollutes your account history.
If you see something you don't like, put a negative vote on it, maybe even click "don't see this account again" or whatever it's called. And vice versa, upvote and subscribe to stuff you like.
It requires some effort but for me it's worth the interesting content.
Alphabet is known to mess around with the algorithms so you'll always get disgusting Nazi shit in your suggestions sooner or later. Also, a lot of people can't back out of doom-scrolling, because of bad impulse control (people with ADHD for example). And even if there's something informative in there. It will always lack a lot of information. It's like merely reading the headline of an article and then going into the comments, claiming you know everything about the topic (happens on Lemmy a lot).
It's nice that you seem to have a grip on these shorts, but it's even greater that you can use certain tools to eradicate them. On my mobile phone I use YouTube revanced and on Firefox/waterfox I use Tweaks for YouTube. With the latter you can also change the thumbnail size and grid the way you want so you don't have to cope with the ridiculously large thumbnails.
I do not get Nazi content lol. Sometimes I'll see some right wing shit on there but I just go in and press "don't recommend this channel" on all those before even watching it. It's been a long time now since I've seen a recommendation that doesn't suit me.
But yeah, not everyone can control YouTube, or themselves, like I can. All I'm saying is that I like shorts. I do agree that they can be dangerous. 😅
idk with the old shorts this was more true, but now if it's like a quick tips thing or just a preview of a longer video, so long as you're not scrolling shorts and only scarcely engage with the more informative ones, they seem to have a place. Youtube pushes them to be infinitely scrolled clickbait garbage though so that's probably the experience for 95% of people.
This is the key. I never scroll shorts. I only click deliberately on the ones I know I want to see. Then back out. This way there is little to no pollution.
Why does this page have a cookie banner and an annoying modal to sign up to some stupid mailing list?
That's Substack platform fault.
I did not know that I already had the tool in my hands.
uBlock Origin is the best ad blocker imaginable.
But it can do something I always wanted: Get rid of cookie popups (but without acception them automatically).
Visiting a new website and being able to read the content directly feels so weird, although it should be normal.
I hope, EU legislation will force websites to accept a global "Auto-decline"/"Minimum-possible" configurable in the web browser, in which case no banner can be shown. IMO, that's how it should have always been.
I hope, EU legislation will force websites to accept a global “Auto-decline”/“Minimum-possible” configurable in the web browser, in which case no banner can be shown. IMO, that’s how it should have always been.
The banner is a stupid solution. Tracking and ad profiles should be completely banned instead.
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There is also "consent o matic", banner does appear but go away in less than a second and auto decline as possible. Does not work on 100% of website but still does a good job.
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you can use it to bypass facebooks login popup(without logging in)
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An article about annoying pop-ups immediately prompts you with a pop-up. Get the fuck outta here.
On the flip side, it's a good way to test if it works.
It's nice, but sometimes it breaks websites. Some sites don't work if you don't click on the banner first. So if you encounter a website that seems frozen, try disabing uBlock for a second
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