What the fuck happened to YouTube!?
What the fuck happened to YouTube!?
I just tried to look up a specific video of a Nick Swardson stand up bit. All I searched was "Nick Swardson loitering". There were 5 fucking ads before an actual user posted video, then one real human posted video that barely had anything to do with Nick, then 5 more fucking ads.
I knew they were forcing ads into videos but clogging the entire search feed with ads is unfuckingbelievable.
Is this really what it's come to? Ads are more important than what I'm actually looking for? Are people really okay with this?
The ad industry is truly one of the most reprehensible and insidious things humans have ever invited unto themselves. It's beyond dystopian how much of our ability to move through the world is now contingent on us allowing our brains to be bukkaked with ads that are designed specifically to bypass our rationality and embed themselves in the very fabric of our beings like psychological rootkits.
I believe conspiracism is the root of all evil. But ads are gaining on conspiracism like they're Usain Bolt being chased by an angry bee.
I have to hand it to those soulless fucking devils though, they might have pulled off one of the most brazen but successful mindfucks I've ever seen: they convinced lots of people that seeing ads about topics they were interested in was some sort of concession from the ad industry, like they were begrudgingly implementing measures to make ads "relevant" to us, and that we were somehow gaming the system because of it. It was a "win" for us to have the ads being served into our eyeballs and ears be tailor-made for us. "I'm so sick of seeing ads for products I don't even care about! I wish there was a way to make the ads be relevant to ME" said no cunt ever. But they managed to convinced us that everyone else was saying that, and that we'd won some sort of victory against them to have their advertising have the precision of a sniper rifle, versus what it was before, like some sort of shotgun fired from 150 feet away in the dark.
An entire species of marks.
It's called enshittification:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
Enshittification is a re-prioritization pattern where online product and service providers experience a decline in quality over time. It is observed as platforms transition through several stages: initially offering high-quality services to attract users, then shifting to favor business customers to increase profitability, and finally focusing on maximizing profits for shareholders at the expense of both users and business customers. This process results in a significant deterioration of the user experience.
Though the concept had been recognized and labeled with similar terms,[1][2] the neologism "enshittification" was coined by writer Cory Doctorow in November 2022 to describe this phenomenon. The American Dialect Society recognized the term's relevance and impact by selecting it as its 2023 Word of the Year. Doctorow has also referred to this concept as platform decay, emphasizing the inevitable decline in service quality due to these profit-driven changes.
To tackle and diminish enshittification, Doctorow advocates for two fundamental solutions: upholding the end-to-end principle and guaranteeing the right of exit. The end-to-end principle asserts that platforms should transmit data in response to user requests rather than algorithm-driven decisions. Ensuring the right of exit entails facilitating user departure from platforms without data loss, which necessitates interoperability. These strategies aim to uphold the standards and trustworthiness of online platforms, placing emphasis on user satisfaction and encouraging market competition.
How have you survived this long without UBlock?
Invidious was created due to this, it’s an extremely light weight, ad free YouTube front-end. Most of YouTube’s attempts at blocking it out fixed within a week. Try it now: https://invidious.io/
Odysee just removed all ads of their platform and seems like a great YouTube alternative. I've been using it and uploading videos to it and I'm liking it a lot.
The comments are also much higher in quality. I'd say it's comparable like Lemmy and Reddit. Much more positivity and people who actually add something to a video. You do ofcourse have a few Nazis hanging around, but freedom goes both ways and you don't really come across them.
Besides that just use NewPipe on mobile or an AdBlocker.
Aside from adblocking making youtube actually usable, there's been such a notorious increase in enforcement of DRM.
I couldn't watch jack anything related to Olympics because NBC got youtube to spam remove practically any footage, as if I'm going to spend cash money on their shitty streaming platform to find a 30 second clip. Same thing for any ICC highlights. Only 360p widened 2 minute videos get past the filter.
Almost no such thing as public replays, clips, montages, or highlights anymore. It all gets boxed up in some corporate ownership, never to be seen again aside from the live footage.
YouTube is broke, but it was also deliberately punishing you for looking up Nick swardson I think?
Omg, it is full of ads... Futurama, 15 years ago...
Short answer: money
Long answer: As more and more ad sales started rolling in, YT was like: “Yes please! Can I have some more of that sweet sweet ad money?” Advertisers were like: “Yeah, sure why not. That seems to boost sales, so how much money can we dump into this black hole?” Some users were like: “WTF! I’m installing an adblocker.”
Meanwhile, nobody was like: “Yes please. I want to see more ads. Who cares about the videos as long as there are lots of ads to watch. This is the best thing ever!”
I never thought I’d say it, but I don’t even use YouTube anymore. I might go there once a month to watch a tute, but only if I absolutely can’t find help from any other website.
It's like ad, four tiktok "shorts", carousel of unrelated games, another ad, actual video, repeat
Install Newpipe on your phone OP. That's all you got to do. Just use Newpipe whenever you want to browse YT.
{does Nick Swardson loitering search} {scrolls...} {thinking face} "i don't see what their on about most of this looks relevant..." {looks at Ublock notification bubble} *** {66 blocked}*** "oh... oh my."
Everyone say to use an AdBlock. And while for now they work it's a lose battle.
Youtube ads vs adblockers does not have the happy ending of adblockers just always prevailing.
As now embedded serverside ads are a pain to deal with. I don't know if any adblock currently can surpass those.
But next step will be youtube just putting a fence up and not letting you watch content unless you are registered, and thus banning any suspicious activity, or even just becoming a paid service.
The only win here is moving to a open platform like Peertube. That's the only future we can ensure. Adblocks won't be able to always win.
Try invidious or other platforms entirely lol. Newpipe on phones. Also block ads in browsers and on networks as much as possible
I know this is an incredibly unpopular take on Lemmy, but YT Premium is the best value subscription on the web by my reckoning. I watch an absolute fuck ton of content on YT, and I listen to an absolute fuck ton of music on YT music. And my partner does too.
If you don't use YT enough to justify the cost of the sub, I understand being frustrated with the ads but it's a free service. I can't imagine the amount of data that YT serves daily to free users.
Have you not heard of “The Great Enshitification “ going on?
You've discovered enshittification. Bad luck.
I see what you’re doing Nick Swardson
unfuckingbelievable
if you want that without the "un" prefix, then youtube is maybe just the wrong platform for you.
and i strongly believe that youtube "wants" to force more usage of peertube, vimeo and others by enshitting yt every day a bit more. and they really work hard for that.
I've got a friend who thinks his YouTube Red subscription helps his subs make a living... So yes, this is what people like my retarded friend are bringing all of us.
I'm sorry... I really am.
What I'm amazed ab
The tipping point for me to definitely use adblock was 2022 and the ads when forwarding in videos. It's absolutely nonsense.
If you use Brave browser, you'll get zero ads and you don't have to use an add-on. Give it a try.
Are people really ok with this?
What are you gonna do about it?
I caved and subscribed during the 2020 elections. Got tired of seeing two old dipshits yell at each other in ads. Actually enjoyed it enough to keep paying $12 a month.
All these comments about adblockers - you’re truly naive if you think those are going to last in any capacity.
Chrome/Edge are already going to be neutering the majority of the functionality with manifest v3.
Firefox is already starting to see some commercialization/enshitification with this new exec. Adblocker days are numbered. Soon they’ll be streaming the ads in-line with the videos everywhere and you’ll need to have a special hacked up rig just to content filter and be forced to sit in silence for X minutes.
Just because the problem is at your neighbors house, doesn’t mean it won’t come to yours.