6 ms·

YouTube now blocking ad block

30 points by epa 3y ago

Supermancho 3y ago
The linked thread is a comically sad example of the worst behaviors on reddit.
somedude895 3y ago
Actually noticed that just last night watching YT on Brave, but I was able to just click away the overlay. Probably not for long though...
naillo 3y ago
I initially blocked that popup with ublock origin, but I've since turned it back off and let it block me instead. It's a fantastic way to prevent you from mindlessly watching videos. Now I just use yt-dlp to download videos I know I care about and subscribe to.
patorjk 3y ago
For a few days I was getting the prompts and finally the 3 video warning. I went without youtube for a few days, when I tried yesterday my AdBlocker was working fine on it. I watched several videos and got no warnings. It's unclear to me if they gave up, or if they're testing this in waves to see what happens.
- behnamoh 3y ago
  Same here. Looks like they're A/B testing it to see if this strategy actually works, i.e., if people convert to Premium users.
- duskwuff 3y ago
  > It's unclear to me if they gave up, or if they're testing this in waves to see what happens. Or if your ad blocker updated its filters to a version which successfully evaded the ad-blocker detection.
- xboxnolifes 3y ago
  It's both A/B tested and a very frequent cat and mouse game with ad blockers. Youtube was pushing out updates daily, and uBlock Origin was responding in kind within hours (Sometimes you would need to manually update your extension though). The last few days Youtube hasn't put out any updates[1]. I believe the last change was 3 days ago. [1] The current youtube ad notice version can be found at the bottom of this link. No dates, but it's useful to compare if you knew what the last uBlock Origin filter version you were aware of. https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw
behnamoh 3y ago
There are two sides to this argument: - "If YouTube adds so much value to your life, then you should pay for YouTube Premium -- Why are you being frugal about it?" - "I want to be in control of what I see on webpages -- No company should enforce their agenda on me. If I don't like to see YouTube Shorts or Recommendations, then I must have that freedom. uBlock is more than an adblocker at this point -- it allows me to "detox" the bloated YouTube UI and make it more tolerable." The second group might not even mind paying for YouTube Premium, but that doesn't solve their problem. If YouTube really wants to increase revenue, there are other ways.
- amf12 3y ago
  The thing though is, it's not really two distinct arguments. It's easy to pay for it and control the experience by blocking shorts or recommendations using uBlock. What the second group of people really want is to not pay for it and also block ads.
- happytoexplain 3y ago
  There is also an argument that web services should not force you to pay after already pulling you in for free (unless it's explicitly a trial). Obviously this doesn't account for people using a service for free due to a hack of some kind, but there is also an argument that adblocking is not a hack - rather, that it is a "working as intended" feature of the web, and is simply a habit of a subset of the viewerbase, and, crucially, that this is known to YouTube, who chose of their own free will to explicitly allow it for many, many years.
- falcolas 3y ago
  There's a third side (as always): "I was fine with paying for YouTube, but the price has gotten so high that it's unreasonable." I'm not going to pay YouTube more than I do Netflix, Hulu, Disney, even Spotify. Especially when they're starting to get competition from Nebula, Curiosity Stream, and even TikTok.
- jetrink 3y ago
  My objection to the first argument is that I don't think YouTube adds a lot of value to my life; it's the individual contributors who do. These creators are on YouTube because that's where the audience is and vice versa. I have a lot of problems with Google's stewardship of this dominant position and I don't want to do anything to perpetuate it. The creators who do add significant value to my life I support directly through Patreon and/or through watching them on Nebula, which is a paid video service.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nmjohn 3y ago
Not sure if ublock updated their blocking rules to bypass the block or youtube stopped the experiment - but starting yesterday, I'm no longer seeing any adblock warning which previously had started blocking me (as opposed to originally just nagging me to disable) from watching youtube videos. I do wonder if the actual outcome of the experiment was increased rates of adblocking though - since every time it makes it into the news, more people are exposed to the idea it's even possible. Aside, (cmd+l, cmd+c, cmd+shit+n, cmd+v, enter) is a pretty useful sequence to have muscle memory for to open the same page in incognito, which easily bypasses the block as well.
sva_ 3y ago
Still works fine for me.
iameli 3y ago
YouTube, if you're so smart, just show me the ad instead of the overlay!
jsnell 3y ago
Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228
DueDilligence 3y ago
[dead]

30 points by epa 3y ago

The linked thread is a comically sad example of the worst behaviors on reddit.

Actually noticed that just last night watching YT on Brave, but I was able to just click away the overlay. Probably not for long though...

naillo 3y ago

I initially blocked that popup with ublock origin, but I've since turned it back off and let it block me instead. It's a fantastic way to prevent you from mindlessly watching videos. Now I just use yt-dlp to download videos I know I care about and subscribe to.

patorjk 3y ago

For a few days I was getting the prompts and finally the 3 video warning. I went without youtube for a few days, when I tried yesterday my AdBlocker was working fine on it. I watched several videos and got no warnings. It's unclear to me if they gave up, or if they're testing this in waves to see what happens.

behnamoh 3y ago
Same here. Looks like they're A/B testing it to see if this strategy actually works, i.e., if people convert to Premium users.
duskwuff 3y ago
> It's unclear to me if they gave up, or if they're testing this in waves to see what happens. Or if your ad blocker updated its filters to a version which successfully evaded the ad-blocker detection.
xboxnolifes 3y ago
It's both A/B tested and a very frequent cat and mouse game with ad blockers. Youtube was pushing out updates daily, and uBlock Origin was responding in kind within hours (Sometimes you would need to manually update your extension though). The last few days Youtube hasn't put out any updates[1]. I believe the last change was 3 days ago. [1] The current youtube ad notice version can be found at the bottom of this link. No dates, but it's useful to compare if you knew what the last uBlock Origin filter version you were aware of. https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw

behnamoh 3y ago

There are two sides to this argument: - "If YouTube adds so much value to your life, then you should pay for YouTube Premium -- Why are you being frugal about it?" - "I want to be in control of what I see on webpages -- No company should enforce their agenda on me. If I don't like to see YouTube Shorts or Recommendations, then I must have that freedom. uBlock is more than an adblocker at this point -- it allows me to "detox" the bloated YouTube UI and make it more tolerable." The second group might not even mind paying for YouTube Premium, but that doesn't solve their problem. If YouTube really wants to increase revenue, there are other ways.

amf12 3y ago
The thing though is, it's not really two distinct arguments. It's easy to pay for it and control the experience by blocking shorts or recommendations using uBlock. What the second group of people really want is to not pay for it and also block ads.
happytoexplain 3y ago
There is also an argument that web services should not force you to pay after already pulling you in for free (unless it's explicitly a trial). Obviously this doesn't account for people using a service for free due to a hack of some kind, but there is also an argument that adblocking is not a hack - rather, that it is a "working as intended" feature of the web, and is simply a habit of a subset of the viewerbase, and, crucially, that this is known to YouTube, who chose of their own free will to explicitly allow it for many, many years.
falcolas 3y ago
There's a third side (as always): "I was fine with paying for YouTube, but the price has gotten so high that it's unreasonable." I'm not going to pay YouTube more than I do Netflix, Hulu, Disney, even Spotify. Especially when they're starting to get competition from Nebula, Curiosity Stream, and even TikTok.
jetrink 3y ago
My objection to the first argument is that I don't think YouTube adds a lot of value to my life; it's the individual contributors who do. These creators are on YouTube because that's where the audience is and vice versa. I have a lot of problems with Google's stewardship of this dominant position and I don't want to do anything to perpetuate it. The creators who do add significant value to my life I support directly through Patreon and/or through watching them on Nebula, which is a paid video service.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

nmjohn 3y ago

Not sure if ublock updated their blocking rules to bypass the block or youtube stopped the experiment - but starting yesterday, I'm no longer seeing any adblock warning which previously had started blocking me (as opposed to originally just nagging me to disable) from watching youtube videos. I do wonder if the actual outcome of the experiment was increased rates of adblocking though - since every time it makes it into the news, more people are exposed to the idea it's even possible. Aside, (cmd+l, cmd+c, cmd+shit+n, cmd+v, enter) is a pretty useful sequence to have muscle memory for to open the same page in incognito, which easily bypasses the block as well.

sva_ 3y ago

Still works fine for me.

iameli 3y ago

YouTube, if you're so smart, just show me the ad instead of the overlay!

jsnell 3y ago

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228

DueDilligence 3y ago

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