Use Youtube frontends. Here is Privacy Guides’ page about Youtube frontends. All of Youtube’s BS will disappear.
I have been using Brave as my browser for years, I have never once seen an ad on YouTube. Nor have I ever had any of the issues that have been reported with people using ad blockers.
I’m using firefox + ublock origin and have never had the reported issues either.
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I’m leeching premium from a friend so no ads on pc, but because I’m getting sick and tired of all the shorts shit being pushed onto me (even play automatically when I would open the YouTube app) I’m using Grayjay on my phone instead of the official YouTube app. Never ads and it even has sponsor block. Plus you can follow creators instead of channels, across platforms. And downloading a video means you can actually watch it without a connection too. It has more perks then someone paying for premium has. Piracy pais off.
On android I use Revanced. It patches the official Youtube app (patches are open source) to greatly expand the base functionality and offer a lot more customization of the UI.
For me the best features are ad block, sponsorblock (skips in video sponsored segments), and complete excision of shorts from all aspects of the app.
It also works on Youtube Music, effectively allowing free premium (just don’t get the local downloads of your most listened tracks to help save data, but I have unlimited anyway).
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They get paid whether sponsored sections of the video are skipped or not though, which is the beauty of sponsorblock. Sometimes the sponsor sections are high effort though and worth watching.
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That’s fair, I hadn’t considered that people may actually want to click through on sponsored content to help the creator. I really enjoy not having to see another ad for the usual sponsored brands ever again though (raid, vpns etc) .
There aren’t many products being sponsored through YouTube creators which are actually worth it imo. I mean, the best VPN providers don’t pay loads of money for ads. Same with many other products. Companies focused on mass ad campaigns often have expensive products which are not that great. I did see some which are actually pretty good, but most of it is just average at best.
But I also have a personal hate towards ads in general. We are being overloaded with ads wherever you look. I try to live as ad free as possible. I think sponsorblock is awesome, because the creator still gets payed as no one can see you skipped the promotion part. I also don’t like self promotion parts either. I don’t like begging for likes and subscriptions. If the video is good, it gets a like. If the creator is good, I’ll follow. If it’s really good, I’ll consider patreon. Many of the best creators do not beg for likes and only slightly mention patreon at the outro.
I understand creators need to do it, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t like it so sponsorblock is perfect as creators can continue doing it while I can auto skip. Before I had sponsorblock I never clicked any of the links because of what I mentioned before, so me skipping the parts doesn’t change anything for the creator.
Don’t use brave, they’re shady. LibreWolf with uBlock Origin is plenty.
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I do turn off all the rewards and other BS in the browser, but I will look into Firefox and uBlock. Thank you.
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Any reason for picking it over all the other chromium browsers?
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Firefox with user agent switcher addon.
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Waterfox…
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Good. Every chromium-based browser is evil because it’s Chromium based and therefore helps enable Google’s disastrous web hegemony.
If you think Firefox’s lack of 100% compatibility with Google’s self-serving bullshit is a bug instead of a feature, you’re part of the problem.
Oh yeah. My bad.
You forgot the VPN service they install without consent.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/20/23925192/brave-browser-vpn-windows-11
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I mean they did also inject affiliate links without the users noticing which is really shady behaviour from a browser because it has one job, open the link I click and nothing else. But that’s just IMHO if that is acceptable for you personally then there is no issue with that.
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It’s not so much shady as 1) crypto BS incorporated into it and 2) the CEO is homophobic IIRC.
The “crypto BS” also encompasses running a protection racket whereby Brave man-in-the-middles website ads to replace them with its own, then shakes down the website owners to buy into said crypto BS if they want their lost revenue back.
That counts as shady in my book: an end-user has every right to control what their computer (their property) does, but the third-party interference for the third-party’s benefit crosses the line.
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WIth user agent switcher, you can use firefox for the sites that make you use chrome. Hasn’t failed me yet with the three sites I need to use that would not work on firefox without it.
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Good riddance, I can’t wait until I’m free from the instant gratification of videos by fancy ad vessels being narcissistic on the internet. The move to video and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
I already use sponsorblock, ublock and dearrow alongside Vanced patches, piped and newpipe on mobile. Quitting YT is the next step.
It’s happening because people allow it to happen. I recently unsubbed from a channel because they were beginning to use community posts to promote sponsors. Like a giant fucking post with complete BS like “I always wanted to do X video and now thanks to RAID SHADOW LEGENDS include huge pic it is now reality. Thank you RAID SHADOW LEGENDS and with code BullshitPromoFromYT you get 10% off the newest hat or whatever shit they sell in that game”. Some people complained and asked the creator not to do this, but they were quickly flooded by the hordes of “they have to make money somehow”-drones. Despicable.
they were quickly flooded by the hordes of “they have to make money somehow”-drones.
On the one hand, fuck the comment drones.
On the other hand, that’s the freelance/gig economy for you. Everyone’s out there hustling until they can reach their passive income workless lifestyle dreams.
Oh no!
uBlock Origin updates
Anyway…
More and more Im trusting the fact that ublock origin will correct these issues in short order. Youtube must really hate those guys…
Youtube must really hate those guys…
Makes you wonder how long it will take, before Raymond Hill plummets to his death from a basement window.
More anticipating him getting sued out of existence Media Matters style, by vexatious filing in the Fifth Circuit.
Seems like it’s working as intended - have you seen the sponsor to content ratio on YouTube these days?
I actually haven’t. Any info on this? I’m curious to see which one is dropping faster.
I’ve been having this.
My videos are also randomly going from 4k to 360p, and having long hitches/pauses. Thats assuming the page loads at all, which may take a few refreshes…and its not an internet/connection related issue.
happening with Firefox with ublock origin.
edit Honestly, the youtube pages (and only the youtube pages) act slow and laggy like the CPU is running at 100% doing hard number crunching. yet system monitor shows its not even breaking 10% load on the CPU, and that firefox’s process isnt even using half that, so it feels like theres something artificially slowing the page down, in retrospect.
My videos are also randomly going from 4k to 360p, and having long hitches/pauses
I’m seeing this as well. Except I’m not using an adblocker on youtube, and I am paying for youtube premium…
I don’t think it’s entirely caused by youtube fighting adblockers. I think it’s more likely just a regular, boring, old fashioned fuck-up.
I am paying for youtube premium…
Oof.
