Has YouTube Blocked Your Adblocker Yet?? angielski

Flynn_Mandrake, rok temu

I’ve started to just download videos with yt-dlp after grabbing links via Invidious. Using Invidious itself has become somewhat unreliable lately, and this way I don’t have to put up with buffering and can watch in good quality. Cut out the middle men

altima_neo, rok temu

I have to wonder if once the ad blocking gets fully rolled out if yt-dlp will also cease to work?

Flynn_Mandrake, rok temu

Good question. I’d hope not

ReversalHatchery, rok temu

MPV can directly play yt videos (it uses a built-in copy of yt-dlp afaik), and it’s very configurable. I always watch yt videos with it.

Sometimes it would be useful if it could use a proxy like piped or invidious, but those links don’t work

Flynn_Mandrake, rok temu

Ooh, I should try that! I already use mpv, so that’d streamline things a bit

ReversalHatchery, rok temu

Consider upping the cache for youtube. By default it is 2 minutes, which is mostly fine, except that if you are speeding through a part with 2x or faster, you may quickly run out of that small cache, because it only loads with the speed of something between 1x and 2x.
And then you may also set up saving the cache to disk instead of RAM, because it may be quite larger. Single config option.
You can make these only apply for youtube videos only with conditional auto profiles. The doc has an example for an automatic youtube profile, it’s perfect.

Flynn_Mandrake, rok temu

I don’t use the main YouTube website at all anymore. A big reason for this is that I spend a lot of time using a really weak laptop that tends to struggle with the JavaScript-laden abomination that is modern corporate web design. Firefox itself struggles as well, so I primarily use Luakit with Invidious, which runs peachy. I also put together a local html page for my bookmarks that is generated from Yaml using a small C application (which is not optimal, I know, but I’ve been learning C and this was a good opportunity). Whenever something doesn’t work in Luakit, I evade to Palemoon. I also tried watching YouTube via mpv earlier, and it’s great! It runs infinitely better than any web player at max resolution and buffers the whole video. Never going back.

ReversalHatchery, rok temu

I meant too increase the cache for yt videos in mpv :)

But you say it buffers the whole video, so maybe already changed something to do that

But yeah, I agree on your other points. If youtube blocks yt-dlp, mpv and proxies, then I’m done with it.

krimson, rok temu

Do you self host Invidious? I have zero issues with it self hosted.

Landrin201, rok temu

I genuinely think that advertising should be illegal at this point. It’s a ridiculous concept.

Venus, rok temu

Based. Absolutely true, there is no good use for advertising.

merc, rok temu

How do you define “advertising”?

Is it advertising if a community government makes citizens aware that bus service will be changing?

Is it advertising to tell people that there’s a suicide hotline available if they need help?

Is it advertising to encourage people to volunteer for a local festival?

What about telling people that the festival exists using a poster? Is that an ad? Does it depend if the festival is free or non-profit?

Advertising is just fundamentally about bringing people’s attention to something. The spectrum can range from a municipal government “advertising” its monthly meeting so that local people can participate in their local democracy, to spam emails hyping a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency.

Different people will have different ideas where the cut-off should be. The extreme libertarians will say that nothing should be banned. Others will say that it’s ok to ban ads for alcohol and cigarettes but not for makeup or coffee. Even totalitarian states and supposedly communist states where one entity controls all companies have ads. Some of the most striking ads ever made were for Mussolini.

So, the question really isn’t about banning ads, it’s just where to draw the line.

captain_aggravated, rok temu

An increasing number of states are banning billboards along highways. Travelers do need a low tech method for finding certain services though, such as food, lodging, fuel and restrooms. So you’ll see those blue signs that says “FOOD NEXT EXIT” with a Waffle House and Burger King logo. In order to put the logo on that sign, the business has to meet certain criteria (which vary from state to state like all highway laws), for example a restaurant must be within 3 miles of the highway, be open for at least 12 hours a day and feature public restrooms and telephones. The sign itself may include a distinctive logo and the name of the business in legible font but no slogans or ad copy. “This burger restaurant is nearby.”

This I see as an appropriate amount of advertising.

bobman, rok temu

Paying to tell others that they should buy something they otherwise would not.

merc, rok temu

So, the government of Florida advising people to stock up on emergency supplies ahead of the oncoming hurricane – banned?

OminousOrange, rok temu

It is a great example of how an industry can survive with only self-reported effectiveness. I remember a freakonomics episode where it was shown that very infrequently do companies get a positive return on marketing spending. It will be very interesting if that industry ever collapses.

MrPoopyButthole, rok temu

Multinational scam artists

blergh, rok temu

They know. The fact that targeted ads leveraging so-called “big data” are not more effective than standard advertising is now known to the public. We can bet Google knew this years in advance. But they can’t abandon their whole business model since that would freak the stock market and investors out. So, they need to squeeze as much as they can before the entire model becomes unworkable and they’ll be forced to switch to something else or disappear.

OminousOrange, rok temu

Oh definitely. Its essentially a massive case of ‘it’s difficult to get someone to understand something when their salary depends on not understanding it.’

mindbleach, rok temu

Same shit with Facebook claiming videos were the bestest content possible, using numbers sourced from the vicinity of their pelvis. Now every goddamn news site has autoplaying video for no damn reason.

jarfil, rok temu

Advertising is about creating trends, and catching some impulse buyers. Effectiveness is likely overstated, but on the other hand it’s difficult to quantify the effectiveness of a trend. I don’t think it’s likely to ever collapse, people will always want to believe they can influence others more than they actually can.

useful_idiot, rok temu

Invidious has been working flawlessly :)

bzxt, rok temu

I have been having this problem 2 days ago, but I have started using NoScript in combination with UBlock Origin yesterday and i didn’t see any ads after that.

Honse, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I’m going to start a discussion in the comments here about methods to bypass the message. I will add suggestions here, so leave comments if you find a method!

Methods to bypass Youtube Anti-Adblock:

• The easiest method is simply to comply and turn off your adblock extension.My Method- My method, and the one that will likely work universally is as follows:

Install Extension Enhancer for YouTube™

• Downloads:Firefox | Chrome

Go to the extensions settings and ensure that under the Ads Management section, “Block Ads” is turned OFF

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/16230dc5-ade1-4c6a-b6f8-f0104a4b080d.png

Now find the Custom Script box at the very bottom and enter the following script. I did not write this code, it comes from egaudette on GitHub

<span style="color:#323232;">(function() {
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    'use strict';
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    var clickInterval = setInterval(skipAds, 5);
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    var ytpAdModule;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    var miniAdd;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    var skipButton;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    var currentVideo;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    function skipAds() {
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        ytpAdModule = document.querySelector('.ytp-ad-module');
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        skipButton = document.querySelector('button[class*="ad-skip"]');
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        miniAdd = document.querySelector('.ytp-ad-overlay-container');
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        if (ytpAdModule !== null &amp;&amp; ytpAdModule.innerHTML !== '') {
</span><span style="color:#323232;">            ytpAdModule.style.display = 'none';
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        }
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        if (skipButton !== null) {
</span><span style="color:#323232;">            skipButton.click();
</span><span style="color:#323232;">            return;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        }
</span><span style="color:#323232;">
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        currentVideo = document.querySelector('video[class*="main-video"]')
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        if (currentVideo !== null &amp;&amp; currentVideo.duration &lt;= 5) {
</span><span style="color:#323232;">            currentVideo.muted = true;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">            currentVideo.play();
</span><span style="color:#323232;">            currentVideo.currentTime = currentVideo.duration;
</span><span style="color:#323232;">        }
</span><span style="color:#323232;">    }
</span><span style="color:#323232;">})();
</span>

Lastly, ensure the “Automatically execute the script when YouTube is loaded in a tab” box is checked, and press Save

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/10b997a8-0a72-4616-8155-0cdfc59d7b59.png

---

I’ll add more methods as they are discovered!

Neato, rok temu

Why would this work when others get blocked? Is it a novel way to block YT ads that's not popular? Because I think YT isn't looking for specific extensions but looking for certain kinds of behavior.

Honse, rok temu

This method lets ads load for half a second but then get skipped instantly. i have not personally found a way to 100% block ads once ive gotten their block page.

nilloc, rok temu

I use greasemonkey to do a similar trick with the skip and dismiss buttons. But added random delays up to 2 seconds in an attempt to mimic a human clicking the button.

Also instead of an interval running, you can use MutationObserver and a callback to only run the code when the DOM changes and adds the button.

tombuben, rok temu

I pay for premium.

I spend like 20x time on YouTube compared to other premium streaming services, knowing the money at least partially goes to the creators and that it’s usually a much larger source of revenue than the midroll ads (and the fact I spend like 40% of my watch time on an iPad) makes it pretty worth it to me. Other than that I use uBlock on medium/high, but if there was an extention that could skip the sponsor segments inside the videos themselves I’d use it in a heartbeat.

Chef_Boyardee, rok temu

It’s a no-brainer. You get a music service at the same price as everyone else. They just add on ad-free YouTube. I don’t get why so many people hate the idea of it.

blaine, rok temu

I've had Google Play Music (and YouTube Premium as a freebie) since it launched at $7.99 per month. Folks like me who were grandfathered in at that price just got an increase to $13.99, which forced me to cancel. I can't afford restaurants or takeout anymore with inflation as bad as it is, and I guess I can't afford YouTube either.

snowbell, rok temu

I don’t like YouTube Music

Flynn_Mandrake, rok temu

Sure there is addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/…/sponsorblock/

DaGeek247, rok temu

if there was an extention that could skip the sponsor segments inside the videos themselves I’d use it in a heartbeat.

sponsorblock does that. it's crowd sourced, so it doesn't always work with the small channel newest videos, but it's very good at what it does considering.

Thorny_Thicket, rok temu

It’s quite amazing how well sponsorblock works really. I spend a shit ton of time on youtube and I almost never have to mark those sections of the video myself because someone else did it already.

nudnyekscentryk, rok temu

someone previously marked all breaks inbetween numbers in this 3h video as intermissions. though now I see they’ve been removed and there’s merely one highlight in there

bamboo, rok temu

If you have access to a VPN you can also buy premium for a much smaller price in another region. I bought a year for 16 USD via India.

WtfEvenIsExistence, rok temu

Wait till they start assigning pricing based on your payment info’s location.

Lobo6780, rok temu

I buy it in turkey

ninpnin, rok temu

if there was an extention that could skip the sponsor segments inside the videos themselves I’d use it in a heartbeat.

arrow key

nudnyekscentryk, rok temu

SponsorBlocks does that but it either requires non-webkit Firefox or Revanced, which means you can’t get it any way on iOS

deegeese, rok temu

The irony of the straw poll site throwing up an anti-adblock banner 🤣

glad_cat, rok temu

I have a VPN and I can’t vote.

balderdash9, rok temu

That’s self selection bias if I’ve ever seen it

randint, rok temu

Mine is not blocked yet. I am definitely worried about this though. I am in East Asia.

Wonder how much YouTube is going to squeeze out of this ad blocker blocking.

Thisfox, rok temu

I recommend trying something like AdNauseum or similar. I get the idea they haven’t reached us yet, only people reporting this are in the US so far.

LoafyLemon, rok temu

Remember when some people said we're nuts thinking Google will try to ban ad blockers with manifest v3? Yeah.

HerrLewakaas, rok temu

Google will try everything in their power to stop us from blocking their ads. It’s their main source of revenue, you don’t have to be a genius to see why they don’t like ad blockers

jarfil, rok temu

Wouldn’t this show that they failed, if they have to recur to site-based adblocker blocking? Clearly v3 hasn’t stopped people from using Firefox, yt-dl, or whatever.

LoafyLemon, rok temu

The Gecko Engine (Firefox), holds a user share of 4%. When compared to Chromium's (Google Chrome and its clones) whooping 72% (roughly) user share, it's clear that Firefox has limited relevance to their business strategy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:StatCounter-browser-ww-monthly-202011-202011-bar.png

jarfil, rok temu

(according to latest statistics, Firefox would have an even lower share)

My point is: if v3 were effective at neutralizing ad blockers in 75% of the user base, or even 95% since Safari is supposed to get on board too, why are they developing additional countermeasures?

Or has Safari decided to do like Firefox, and still allow full ad blockers?

LoafyLemon, rok temu

I reckon that blocking ad blockers isn't some extra countermeasure here. It's actually right in line with what Manifest V3 and that new environment attestation system are all about. They're basically making sure that if you tinker with crucial bits of the JavaScript -- stuff they see as essential (like anti-adblock) -- you won't make it through the attestation and you'll get blocked.

They don't want to block all modifications because that would be a hindrance to many users, for example the visually impaired. However, anything affecting their bottom line will probably be blocked.

How that will affect Firefox? I don't know, maybe nothing will change for us, or perhaps Google will block Firefox altogether. We certainly know they're capable.

jarfil, rok temu

Yes, attestation is in line with V3 changes, just that it makes them irrelevant: YouTube’s website could some day ask for environment attestation of “no extension using the intercept hooks”, or “only the approved ones”, and still have the same effect. The fact that they’re implementing a server-side anti-adblock now, while postponing V2 deprecation over and over, makes me think the V3 changes are a flop.

Firefox… would likely require Mozilla to play ball and implement similar attestation in an official binary attestable by the OS. Edge too, just so MS doesn’t mess with Chrome’s binary attestation on Windows.

Safari already has attestation, without extra parameters, but it could be extended:

httptoolkit.com/…/apple-private-access-tokens-att…

ParanoidFactoid, rok temu

Ah. I see yt-dlp will be my good friend again.

PeterPoopshit, rok temu

This. When YouTube finally succeeds in making it impossible for anyone to use their website without watching ads, they probably still won’t succeed in preventing people from downloading for offline viewing. When this happens I’m going to invest in making scripts that autodownload stuff ahead of time and I’ll only watch whatever videos are in my home network.

Im not watching their brainwash bullshit ass propaganda. I’ll find other stuff to do for entertainment before I give in to ads.

Steak, rok temu

Fuck ads. I put in a decent amount of effort to make sure I see exactly 0 seconds of ads per day. So far going strong.

jaschen, rok temu

YouTube algorithm has been garbage for months now. There’s literally no good content.

mortrek, rok temu

The site has plenty of good content, just no way to find it.

kionite231, rok temu

Some youtuber link other channels with similar topic/content. I found few new channels that way.

jarfil, rok temu

Sounds like the death knell for YT… what’s the point of a centralized platform, if we’re back to links to discover content. They could link to PeerTube.

BrownianMotion, rok temu

Is google that stupid that this will not bring on an onslaught of abuse to circumvent their false god status of the internet? I have already been “part 3’d” and completely bypassed it.

They get jackshit from me now at all. At least before they may have made some revenue from me for viewing the videos, now I am a ghost. No money for anyone. (and in case you are gonna say - I dont care content makers are losing, they are all dumbarses, and if they are supporting yt still and not posting elsewhere, then they are just stupid cunts. The only reason google is doing this is to make more money off of the people who make content, but not upset their already unstable revenue income. If the content providers get antsy and leave, YT loses.

ASK_ME_ABOUT_LOOM, rok temu

Talk about exactly what you did to bypass it!

XYZinferno, rok temu

I dont care content makers are losing, they are all dumbarses, and if they are supporting yt still and not posting elsewhere, then they are just stupid cunts.

You had me until here. If you want to monetize online video content or get widespread appeal, YouTube is pretty much the viable choice atm, save for Twitch which only works if you’re a streamer or Nebula, which even then it alone doesn’t suffice and is very specific. If you plan on trying to “make it big” using PeerTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc. alone, your aspirations may as well be dead on arrival.

Not losing sleep over the money content creators lose over you using adblock is fine, I personally don’t put too much importance on it myself. But to call them all dumbasses or stupid cunts is just unreasonable, given the lack of a proper, popular alternative for most of them to do what they do.

jarfil, rok temu

I don’t agree with the name calling, but many content creators have already set a website, with some outside revenue sources like Patreon, selling merchandise, or other stuff.

They can’t leave the most popular platform, but they can set up alternatives for when it stops being the most popular, and in the meantime also target people who are leaving it already.

XYZinferno, rok temu

Oh yeah, I agree it’s a wise decision for any content creator, especially those who want to make a living from it, to diversify their sources of income. Backing up all content they post on YouTube to other sites as well is also really nice as it contributes to the push away from YouTube without having to risk little on their part as well

MattTheTekie, rok temu

There’s constant fixes for it btw from the ublockorigin team now! :D

MiddledAgedGuy, rok temu

I feel like we can ignore this and it’ll mostly be a non-issue. Hopefully I don’t have to eat those words later.

YouTube can detect common current adblocking methods, and use this to hinder you now, prompting to comply with them. If you do, they win. You pay for no ads or you have an exception in your adblocker.

As another comment mentioned, it’s a cat and mouse game. Adblockers will get ahead of it. So just wait it out.

MonkCanatella, rok temu (edited rok temu)

I have a script I used to auto download new stuff from my subscriptions using yt-dlp. I never watch videos on youtube anymore because it’s just garbage, buffering all the time or just straight up not playing content. The only thing I miss is sponsor block but I don’t care that much

here’s instructions on setting the script up if you’re interested

paris, rok temu

I believe yt-dlp has sponsorblock integration but I haven’t used it

MonkCanatella, rok temu

I have the script running every five minutes so I get a desktop notification telling me there’s a new video downloaded and by who. It takes some time for the sponsorblock segments to show up

rivalary, rok temu

Mind sharing it?

kionite231, rok temu

ytfzf

MonkCanatella, rok temu

reddit.com/…/auto_download_latest_youtube_videos_…

I’ll make an updated lemmy post as well but for now it’s an old reddit post of mine. There’s also some great alternatives that I think are easier to set up if you don’t mind managing a separate subscriptions list - I made this script specifically because none of the options I’d seen were able to take your subscriptions from youtube and check them.

May be worth trying to set up with one of the alternative youtube frontends that have been popping up so you can use those accounts. I think it depends on if yt-dlp allows it as that’s what’s doing all the work here.

rivalary, rok temu

Awesome, thanks!