I see a lot of people saying "but that's how creators get paid".

Listen: I didn't put ads on my video. YouTube did. I can't take them off and I don't see a cent from them. Block away.

Alternatively, some folks can also try Freetube for an ad free youtube experience as a desktop app

I was worried we'd be seeing waves of this kind of anti-user aggression from large websites. My hypothesis is that twitter is running an active experiment to see just how user-unfriendly you can make something with an established userbase / what level of profitability corresponds with what level of fuckiness.

YouTube n' friends have been watching from the sidelines and picking their own jaw up off the floor after seeing just how much the average user will bend over and take.

...which all makes me absolutely LOVE to see communities like this. Yo ho, motherfuckers!

I've just noticed that this is in c/piracy. I suppose there's lots of interest in the story here and everywhere else, but I'd just like to remind you all that ad-blocking is not piracy.

Anyone else remember the first ad-pocalypse?

Like when OG AdBlock was created and there was an all-out race between individual websites and AdBlock?

Then OG AdBlock sold out and allowed "approved" ads to still show.

We are seeing history repeat. The only reason ads survived was due to increasing number of users who weren't using adblock.

Now, with market saturation, Google is starting to fight back.

I would absolutely love to see a revitalization on proxy software specifically designed to eliminate ads and tracking. I haven't looked into this in quite some time but I think we're crossing into this territory now.

The pessimist in me says to look out for a bill authored by Google to make adblocking illegal.

But the optimist in me says "the Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it."

So annoyed at how all these services keep degrading for users. I was happy to pay for premium light. I don't need download/music/etc I just wanted no ads. Simple as that. The price was fairly reasonable and I would have kept paying it. Now they got rid of the premium light and I have to pay at least 50% more for additional things I don't and will not use.

Alright then, well you lost a customer and I'll just use AdBlock. And if you somehow figure out how to disable that, I'm just going to find content somewhere else. I'm fucking sick of ads. I'll pay a reasonable amount to remove them. But I will not be continually wrung out for more and more money. Just leave me alone.

Emphasis on #4 here - the anti-adblock will trigger if it detects any subpar adblocker, including e.g. Brave Browser's "Shields" thing (even if you also use uBlock Origin). Helped a friend figure this out lately and found out they were running 3 adblockers and Brave Browser. Some people are truly special.

Lol That's awesome, less of a workaround and more of a "we fixed it already, but whatever you're using probably hasn't caught up yet".

Alternative solution: Since YouTube disabled all ads in Russia, you can just use russian vpn/proxy for the most effective YouTube adblocking possible.

I just replace youtube.com with piped.video all the time

Nobody should ever share data with american corpos - there is no example where corporations harvested data and anyone but the shareholders benefited. So for me it feels like a win whenever they fail.

Hey Google, maybe you assholes should realize that if people are willing to jump through this many hoops to not watch ads then maybe you should realize that ads are the problem, not users. Nobody wants ads shoved down their throat so kindly go fuck yourselves. Advertising is a cancer. I've been trying to convince people how dangerous attention grabbing billboards are but nobody seems to care.

Thank god we have people working tirelessly to prevent Google’s greed

PSA: skirting their attempts to block ad blockers if you have a Google account you would rather keep may be unwise.

Google has been known for banning people for stupid crap, and this checks all the boxes.

While they were silent on this topic there was a gentlemen's agreement that you could block ads. But now that they have voiced their opinion the jig is up.

I'd recommend people to use an alternative account if they are going to block anyway and they want to keep their gmail.

Maybe it is time that we start to write our favourite youtubers to start developing alternative means of distributing their videos. Patreon and so on.

I feel there will be a lot less people watching YouTube in the future and as a whole many youtubers will see their revenue drop significantly. Watching YouTube as a whole will become less and less bearable. I watch videos without ads on my pc, but on mobile i use the app and endure the videos (for now) as the app is just nicer to use compared to the browser.

But if I have to see ads all the time (also these unskippable 20s ads) I think I'll simply stop using YouTube all together. about 90% ofy YouTube use isn't neccessary at all. I'll just watch it, because I'm too lazy to do anything else.

I could be should read a book instead. Maybe others will do that too in the future?

"What just happened?"

"War were declared."

Going to be following these threads closely as I'll be damned if my students are going to put up with adverts from a file hosting service.

The Adblock Wars continues...

I wouldn't even mind giving some money to youtube if it was asking for donations or keep the the prices low and accessible, like $4 max per month to support the up keep)

YouTube could be one of the wonders of the world of we are looking at it at a content perspective.

It should be almost protected by UNESCO, if you ask me.. yes even the stupid stuff as it is a record of mankind.

But google instead of recognising the value, they got greedy.

humankin created a massive information library which google at some point decided to monetize.

We all know what happened to unity right, just as a recent example ? it doesn't take much to turn the users away, and I truly believe, even youtube can fail

That's way too much hassle. I guess, when the anti-adblock kicks in on my devices, I'll just stop watching YouTube. I have tons of better stuff to do anyway.

you excluded an important piece - YT has been updating their script (idk terminology) several times a day. so the instructions may not work. see the below -

I followed the 4 steps, but I'm still experiencing issues The latest fix for anti-adblock was made on Oct 12, 2023 and currently corresponds to ID cc87ee3e *.

• The ID mentioned above refers to YouTube's latest anti-adblock script. You can monitor it via this link: https://pastefy.app/G1Txv5su/raw (top to bottom = oldest to newest). This means that the current fix is matched with the script with corresponding ID.

For example, in https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/c97476a7/jsbin/desktop_polymer_enable_wil_icons.vflset/desktop_polymer_enable_wil_icons.js, the c97476a7 part is the ID.

If the latest ID (the last line) does NOT match the current one written above, it means YT has updated it recently and you may encounter anti-adblock again. PLEASE DO NOT REPORT IN THIS CASE.

If the ID does match and you still get anti-adblock, kindly repeat the 4 steps above. Thank you.

Uninstalling + reinstalling uBO, then force updating all your filter lists like in step #3 may also help.

I wonder what made youTube decide to fix this loophole? These days the vast majority of people use phone apps or smart TVs to watch. The number of people using Firefox plus ad blockers must be quite small and it'll be a constant effort to keep updating their anti ad block algorithms.

I started using freetube for linux a month or so ago. This is so much better than native youtube. The entire interface is smoother, I get less "loading" moments (none really) and it does not try and constantly reduce my resolution by "auto adjusting". No ads, no BS. Just better all around.

So, Youtube's dying.

Maybe not right now. Maybe not next year. But they've decided to make everybody miserable, for a "business" that still won't cause enough misery to turn a profit.

Meanwhile creators are censored worse than broadcast TV. Nevermind the effective ban on swearing - they can't even reference concepts without a surveillance program declaring that their latest video doesn't count, even though they'll still slap ads all over that bitch.

Those people have things they want to share with an audience that wants to see. Any middleman can either help, or become irrelevant. Bandwidth is cheap. Some creators are just in it for the money... but the money is bad, on Youtube, and it's getting worse. Patreon is more direct and far less stupid. As with all these lumbering ruins of 2010s internet media, the network effect of being the default will keep them relevant for a while, no matter what they do. Twitter's on fire and it's still not dead. But its prospects sure aren't getting better... and not because people changed.

People are sadly predictable. These idiot robots exploit that masterfully, to a point, and then act bewildered when more pressure stops making more money. Like they forgot we can just leave.

Decided to start using Freetube on desktop, Newpipe on mobile. It works!

For those using Safari, a simple custom browser stylesheet with a few styles is all you need, and is undetectable, as anti-adblock works with javascript, so no pesky “Why you blocking the ads? Mimimimimi…”