This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Great... Fewer humans and even more bots in the comments... That's a genius idea.
I was wondering why I couldn't see descriptions and comments on seemingly random videos for the past two days. Also, it's weird because I use Ublock Origin on Firefox and it's rare that these changes actually effect Ublock Origin. It seems like it may be fixed now though, but I haven't been actively checking.
YouTube is coming up with another infuriating way to force users to pay for Premium subscription or watch ads.
Or to let us know its time to quit. I have narrowed down my youtube use a lot. If it is ad only I won't bother at all.
Won't miss much frankly.
I realised a lot of my yt usage was for having something playing in the background. I've been listening to more podcasts and audiobooks instead and it's been pretty easy to cut back.
I wish the creators would move. Vlogbrothers, MVG, MrSundayMovies
More options in the videohosting space would good.
they vibe coded it
I'll be sad when I can no longer watch my subs but as they say, live by the corporate whim, die by the corporate whim.
Apparently there is a way around it as I've been watching YouTube all day and haven't encountered a single ad.
YouTube has been shadowbanning ad blocker users, where you comments appear to post but actually haven't, for a while now.
I think the issue is with the EasyPrivacy list blocking the heartbeat signals that tell YouTube you are actually someone interacting with the page and not a bot.
Brave doesn't seem to have this issue as they whitelist those scripts but it has other issues so I recommend keeping it as a YouTube only browser.
Stop using the YouTube app/website, get an alt frontend like FreeTube, Grayjay, Revanced, etc. Not only do they remove ads and make it impossible for Google to track you, they have better UX than the official apps.
What alternative do you recommend for watching YouTube on a PC?
One of the options laid out above: FreeTube
PipePipe on degoogled android lol
this just makes me want to cancel my subscription more
I really need to get around to doing that. It's the one service I pay for.
So I can still watch the video, just not read the comments that I never read anyway, and can't click the "link in the description ", which hurts creators way more than it hurts me.
Makes sense ... ?
Exactly! I can no longer read ads for crypto scams, right-wing misinformation and porn bot spam? Do not threaten me with a good time.
YouTube comments are almost never worth reading in the first place (top comment is usually: who is here in <>? 😆). I never look at the descriptions, and the only time I watch YouTube is for either music videos or concert captures or links someone has sent me. Congrats YouTube, I don't care about any of the features you turned off.
For people who only go off headlines and comments and don't read the article, here's the important bits:
edit: added "the article" after "don't read" to clarify
Comment sections removed ? That should be a feature !
I had an extension that removed those, amongst other things, but that part broke. Most video comments on YouTube are incredibly stupid, I'd rather just not have to see them.
"there's currently no way around it"
"The issue goes away with a refresh"
lol. sounds more like a bug if it's also affecting Premium users though
This is why I will never get premium. You pay the motherfuckers money and still have to take it up the ass.
I’ve expressed this a few times already on Lemmy to little fanfare to say the least, but I use YouTube a lot. I use it a lot on my phone. I’d use it offline on planes. I want to pay for it. But I’m a yucky VPN user and I’m not even allowed to pay a blanket inflated price for it.
The algorithm is still absolutely amazing for music discovery. I already have channels I automatically yank things via YT-DLG from, but like using the service normally is nice too. I don’t see ads on my computer, but I suspect they might be feeding me extra ads on the phone to compensate. Because if this is the standard ad density for phone users it is vomitingly absurd.
Theoretically the folks you watch get paid from the fee. I don’t hate that system. I’m willing to pay, my payment is ready, I’m willing to pay 5 or 20 or however many bucks for it. But using a VPN to watch YouTube on a paid account can get your account banned. Incredible stuff. This is just about the only media subscription I can see myself using. And they’re cutting off all VPN users like that.
The issue is that comment sections are disabled and video descriptions claim to be empty
So it makes the page even better?
For Android user I can recommend Newpipe. For the desktop I use FreeTube
Both have occassional issues when YT rolls out their latest enshittification features, but the devs are quite responsive.
Regardless, YT is a loosing battle, so prepare for the day when Google will win this arms race. That is why alternatives like PeerTube are important.
Yuse MPV.
So my adblocker now also removes youtube comments? That's more of a feature than a hurdle!
