Most people, including myself, seem to agree, that ads were never the problem. When YouTube started, it had ads too and nobody cared. But the ads got worse and websites started to shove them down our throats. I miss the times of a single banner below a video. I don't think Google and all the others realise just how much determined nerds can achieve. So far the ad blockers seem to win the race, minus some minor setbacks.
Some of those that work ad tech are the same that write filters.
Yep. My day job is providing tools to marketing folks and improving lead gen. It pays me well.
But I also contribute to open source projects to unfuck the internet. I know the tricks people like me use.
Real heroes have shitty day jobs. Checks out.
Except Batman and Iron Man. Those guys also have mansions, hot chicks, cars, and sarcasm.
Oooooooo, is this the start of a RATM parody?
BLOCKING IN THE NAME OF
FUCK YOU I WON'T LOOK AT YOUR ADVERTS
It was October Spooky when Microsoft dropped the GetWinX.exe icon on everyone's Win7 and Win8 taskbars. The first time, we all followed the directions and dove into the registry to remove it, because it wasn't enough to just delete it. The icon would self restore.
Then Microsoft reinstalled their adware in a critical security update Big Mic also started using dark patterns making upgrading opt-out, and hiding the onay anksthay toggle.
Thats when an engineer, UltimateOutsider, I think, created the GetWinX Control Panel which not only did the full remove in a wizard but also monitored on boot to see if it came back.
It was a reassuring day. I think no matter how much the companies enshittify, it will only drive pissed off engineers to write hard bypasses. It's how we got the GCP. It's how we got Windows Loader for every release since XP's activation process.
That kind of shit is why I run GNU, and so should everybody else.
You don't run gnu; you probably run Linux. In the same sense, you don't mention how you ride the tires to work but you probably mention riding a bicycle, bus or car. You go to see art, not the tools used to create it, and this is why van gogh's art is on display and not the brushes he used to such great effect.
Keep it in perspective no matter how hard the feet-picker wants to distract you.
When youtube started, the ads would load perfectly every single time and the video was a tiresome afterthought that would load in fits and starts if it loaded at all.
That sounds like every streaming service
I use an ad blocker but I cringe when I see my wife viewing a short recipe online, on a page with 10+ ads.
This. Ads can be somewhat okay as long as they don't interrupt or otherwise hinder the functionality of the website or application I'm using.
YouTube's video ads interrupt the main functionality of the website for the full duration of the ads (some are skippable after 5s).
Now on mobile they even open up the sidebar where the playlist normally is and puts an extra ad there too. Then it breaks your fullscreen and youre left with the comments open and a banner ad. So dumb.
if they come for yt-dlp i will record their videos with a fucking VCR and clip out the ads so help me god
If I'm provoked to retaliation, my tactic would be to start aggressively mirroring other people's content to PeerTube.
I haven't done so yet out of respect for the creators, but my patience with Google is wearing thinner and thinner...
I've got a vcr in my closet, I don't know why, but maybe their days are coming back.
I can’t watch YouTube without getting ads with some gravy seal in camo walking around in the woods telling me there’s a storm coming.
Who’s allowing these clowns to spread their propaganda?
I don't know what a "gravy seal" is, but I'm trying to picture it and I'm kinda laughing to myself
Imagine a fat, old, or otherwise unfit civilian who has purchased tactical-looking gear and weapons, which he uses for aggressive posturing. That's my understanding of the term.
Member of Meal Team 6, Vanilla ISIS, or Y'all Qaeda. Usually drives a pavement princess.
Ads are the reason I stopped listening to regular FM radio. I used to live in a more rural town and it was at least half an hour to get to any city I would have to go to for more than basic groceries. Once when I was coming back somewhere that takes a whole hour drive to get home, I heard nothing but commercials the entire drive. Not one fucking song (aside from ad jingles) for a whole fucking hour. Ridiculous.
I switched to Sirius. And it was great.... Until they got bought/merged with XM. Now they have a monopoly on satellite radio, they immediately cut features and jacked up prices. They also started playing ads. So I cancelled that.
I've been using Spotify Premium ever since. It started off pretty great; they've recently been cutting back features and jacking up the price tho. So I may end up cancelling Spotify, too, if shit keeps trending downhill. Especially if they put ads in the premium service I pay for specifically to not have ads.
I've been adding music to my mp3 collection since Napster got started. It feels old fashioned now but I have yet to see a reason to use an alternative method. I actually have a lifetime subscription to SiriusXM. So I pay nothing, and I still don't listen to that shit.
Remember the time when people used to have a stack of CDs in the car? Some cars even had a a fancy player that could hold multiple discs.
YouTube Ads: "You are a MAN with a GUN and you will MURDER EVERYONE if it means you can PROTECT your FAMILY"
I don't even know, or care, wtf they are selling but they missed the target audience with that one. That's the cringiest fetishism I've ever seen in my life.
So many ads seems like Powerthrist turned down to 70% but lacking the irony.
These ads make it impossible to use YT as a free learning platform anymore.
When I want to dig into a subject, I want to do it focused and without being distracted, and YT makes it impossible. The only content one can tolerate ads on is entertainment, which makes YT just another TikTok.
Currently sharing piped.video with every single educator there is. There should NEVER FUCKING EVER be ads on educational videos. Youtube is run by POS's and greedy shitfaces.
Well, it's owned by Google...so...
I live in the Philippines and get ads for cock fighting.
I live in Canada and gets ads for Philippino cock.
Guess YouTube figured out your algorithm.
I have a VPN set to Sweden as the default country. I have weird ads, I don’t know what they are selling.
Hi! We're Liberty Mutual! All of our ads are weird and quirky, which is funny! Quirky equals funny, right? You're laughing, aren't you? This one has an emu! An emu is funny, isn't it? Liberty Mutual!
Don't see mention of Invidious in here so may as well share.
Like piped - front end for youtube. No ads.
I know it's not, but that totally looks like the domain of a porn site.
YouTube AIDS
Not only the way they keep pushing more and more ads is becoming way too much, they don't have any standards for what sort of ads they push. From blatant political propaganda to petty false advertising of apps. A reckoning is way overdue.
Fuck YouTube
This is why I avoid the steam in-game web browser like t͟h͟e͟ P͟L͟A͟G͟U͟E͟
Weirdly, and annoyingly, I get this same thing when watching YouTube on my TV (the quantity thing, not the war propaganda stuff. Just regular ads). Whether via Roku stick, Chromecast or anything. It's sometimes an ad every 2 minutes. However watching the same thing on a laptop or my phone even without any adblock and the video will play far better. Maybe 1 ad at the halfway point and nothing else.
I don't know why the TV version of YouTube is such an arse for ads. They're not even in clean places - I get an ad mid-sentence.
Honestly, for a 20 minute video I'd be perfectly ok with a 30 second ad or so. It helps the creators and isn't that much of a pain for me. But getting adverts every 2 minutes, even if they're skippable is just a horrific experience.
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