Facepalm

The Best Ways to Stand Up to your Bully
Just give him your lunch money. It is one of the easiest ways to stand up to your bully.
- False analogy. This is the best way not to get beaten immediately.
  
  FALSE!
- Imagine thinking a platform wanting you to pay for the service they provide is "bullying".
  Christ you people are off the deep end.
  
  You mean the content they provide made by creators who only make a living through Patreon and donations?
  
  Google ran Youtube at a loss for years to draw everyone in and now that there's no real competition (yet), are tightening the screws. Very similar to how Walmart will sell stuff at a loss to bankrupt locally owned stores and then raise their prices.
  Exploitive megacorporation can pound sand. It wasn't a bad experience back when it was a single short ad before every video. Now I've had a wonderful ad free experience for years because of ad blockers. Why would I downgrade the experience and pay for it?
  
  You can pay for things you want. That's fine.
  Google is attempting to remove the freedom of viewing HTML the way I want to view it from my own devices. While they're free to run their website the way they want to, the principle of attempting to remove your freedom of choice is not only a bad look, but violating.
  These two things are different, and one does not negate the validity of the other.
  
  Well the creators I like don't see it as a good relationship. They keep leaving for Twitch, Patreon, Nebula, or quitting on content creation. If I'm a fan of them, I need to listen to their concerns about how YouTube is constantly threatening their livelihood.
  
  "Create the problem, sell the solution."
  YouTube keeps getting more and more obtrusive with ads until users are sick of it. Annoying me into paying you is not going to work.
  
  The bully part comes in when YouTube music is rolled into the cost. I would pay for youtube premium if all I got was a premium YouTube (and therefore the price was substantially lower). But what they're doing is leveraging the popularity of YouTube to try and force the bolstering of YouTube music subscribers. Furthermore, they are currently increasing the price for premium in several markets. So the already too high cost is temporary at best and nearly guaranteed to go up even further with absolutely no increase in benefits. Paying to remove ads seems fine, but what they are attempting to do goes beyond that simple quid pro quo. They are being coercive and indirect to a degree I find unethical. Thus, bully.
  
  I understand that they need the money to host the videos, but I won't directly pay them considering how they treat viewers and creators. I'm pretty sure they would be $100+ richer from me if they didn't remove the dislike count.
  
  I've imagined this as per your instructions. I don't understand the point of this exercise.
  
  I haven’t used YouTube logged in since they force merged YouTube accounts with Google accounts. This make me a bit harder to track and my data slightly less valuable. I don’t like that my data will still being used to create an advertising profile even if I pay. If one of the features of YouTube premium was they would never sell any of my data across all Google services then I would be willing to pay for it.

I'm sure it's much harder to manage a Premium subscription than it is to simply install uBO
- And an ad blocker should be part of everyone's personal and organisational security model regardless, so you'd have to install ublock and specifically turn it off for YouTube.
  But of course, the reason people block ads is most of the Google ads were straight malware at one point.
- Can't use uBO from most of the devices I actually watch YouTube on.
  For me, it's much easier to just pay for Premium. No ads on my phone, Playstation, Chromecast, or locked-down work laptop that I can't install extensions on.
  And the creators whose content I consume still get paid for my views. Honestly, it's worth it for both my use-case and my morals.
  
  Revanced for android, SmartTube for android TV
  
  Not sure why you're getting downvoted, paying for services you use shouldn't be looked down upon. It's way easier then trying to always be ahead of the ad block blockers. I do block all ads on websites though
  
  Once upon a time it was worth it for me too. But since every service is running up the rates, I had to decide which, if any, deserved my money. Google didn't make the cut. I have a feeling nobody will by the end of year
  
  uBlock works on Firefox on Android.
  ReVanced replaces native YouTube app and Smart Tube replaces YouTube on TV.
  
  Paying Google doesn't feel like the correct thing to do when they keep making Youtube worse while increasing the price. Morally I think it's wrong to reward their shitty decisions against other users. Personally I'm still mad about they removed the dislike counter.
  
  If you paid the content creators directly they'd receive tens of thousands of times more than any of your views gave them.
  I used to work with a partner account, and I can tell you they make NOTHING for views compared to what Google makes.
  So hey, you do you, but don't try to convince us or yourself that this is for the content creators. That's like saying you order Uber eats to support the drivers, but you never tip them.
  
  It's crazy how unaware people are of the options out there, and the little effort it takes.
  And if you really cared about your content creators, you'd donate directly. You're giving more money to Google than to them.
  Enjoy your subscription price hike
- For some reason, those never work for me. I've tried at least 3 different YouTube and blockers and they all fail.
  Also there's no blockers for something like a fire stick, which sucks.
  
  uBlock origin works, but you must disable all other blockers or browser plugins doing something with youtube, as they might interfere with the adblocking capability.
  For the fire stick, simply install smarttubenext. Adfree and with sponsorblock included.
  https://smarttubenext.com/firestick/
  
  uBlock should work, if it doesn't make sure you are using latest version, you have custom filters disabled and disable all extension. If that fixes it then you can start enabling other extension tracking which one caused issue.
  With adblock detection filtering too much can cause to trigger the detection.
  
  Are you using Firefox?
  Also, you might have to go into filter lists in the uBO dashboard and make sure you've checkmarked everything.
  I'm not sure what can be done about a fire stick. I'm lucky because I have a mini PC connected to my main TV that runs Linux so I can use that to stream whatever I want. It's one of the best setups I've ever had for entertainment. I just got one of those cheap wireless keyboards with a trackpad for $10 from newegg, and Linux Mint has a setting to make the UI more usable from a distance.
  I do use a Roku sometimes when I travel for work, and I just deal with the ads, so if there's a way to make something like a fire stick or roku work with a custom OS, that would be nice, but I'm not aware of anything.
  Edit: Just noticed u/viking@infosec.pub has information about smarttubenext. Might look into that.
  
  Very long hdmi cable.
  
  There is 100% a blocker for the Amazon fire stick. It's called SmartTube.
- That isn't really an option for Android.
  Edit: are you psychos actually pulling up YouTube on your browser?
  Edit edit: Listen, I'm about convenience on this matter. I want to click a link and just have it open up. I'm also not as militant as most of you about making sure YouTube doesn't make any money off of me because....that doesn't make any sense. Yeah I'm going to block ads where I can but I'm not going to inconvenience myself in the process. Everyone keeps recommending revanced which admittedly I haven't tried, but vanced worked like donkey dick. I said it.
  Edit edit edit: ok assholes I got revanced set up. I am not an idiot but that was far from "5s of effort". Thanks for the recommendation.
  
  What about ReVanced, NewPipe, or Grayjay?
  
  Firefox for Android can.
  
  Hell yeah I am. Fuck them trackers!
  
  I have firefox mobile with uBlock Origin and Sponsorblock addons and haven't seen a fucking ad in two years. No app needed.
  
  My revanced setup literally shows as "Youtube" and functions identically, with sponsorblocking and adblocking. It let me disable shorts entirely and use the click-bait thumbnail circumventer. Took me 5 minutes to setup. I see a video on any app and click on it and it opens up in revanced no problem.
  People act like 5 seconds of effort is worth what, 120$/year? After googling, closer to 160$/year? Lmao I wish that amount of money was inconsequential to me
  
  Revanced is an app
  
  My mans really forgot about Revanced and Newpipe huh…
  (Somehow Vanced still works on my old S8 and that has now become my dedicated YouTube player until it, or Vanced, dies)
  
  Revanced is quite the pain to set up, in my opinion, and the Revanced forums aren't super helpful. The developer refuses to publish a useable guide.
  I switched to NewPipe x Sponsorblock, and that one was maybe 20 seconds of downloading and installing, not counting tweaking the settings to my liking. It's been much more stable for me. Revanced always crashed for me at exactly 3 hours of continuous use, which was a problem since I use those 8-hour ambient sound videos to help me sleep.
  There's also LibreTube, but that one can be a lot more finicky, and you have to manually switch the instance, which becomes a pain in the ass after a while.
  
  pulling up youtube on your browser
  Yes, on an Android tablet, using the PocketTube app (which manages my YT subscriptions into groups), to forward a group playlist to YT in Firefox with uBo installed, without being logged into YT in FF.
  I don’t have to rely on other 3rd party servers and services working properly, I don’t get ads, and YT gets little to nothing on me as an anonymous user beyond PocketTube just pulling the latest videos from my subscriptions.
  I’ve been reading all these posts about blocker warnings being displayed and having to update the uBo filters, and I haven’t seen one of those yet, without doing any of that.

I would rather donate to ad blockers lel
- Imagine being that dug in over a couple of five second ads.
  
  You haven't been on the internet recently have you
  
  A couple five second ads I can handle. What I can't handle are two unskippable 15-30 second ads at the beginning of every video and at 2-3 random points throughout each video without warning; especially after over a decade of pretty much never watching ads for anything.
  
  I got 2 15 second ads for a clip of 30 seconds that wasn't even their own content. No thank you.
  
  Oh, if only they were just 5 seconds.
  
  Yeah, imagine a company being so dug into ruining the user experience.
  
  More like multiple 30 second to 2 minute ads in an 8 minute video.
  
  Might as well spend my money on things I support if I'm gonna spend money at all.
  
  Found the premium subscriber.

Whilst I am sure the article might be low quality ultimately, I still wish to see what other options they are advocating. This is clearly just a screenshot and only the first option for blocking ads.
- 2 Use a mental block
  Close your eyes for 8s - 25 min, and pretend not to hear anything
  3 What? I can't hear you!
  Why play one ad when you can play a dozen. Open multiple YouTube tabs at once and let the ads roll at the same time. A few minutes of noise for a whole few minutes of ad-free play
  4 Use AdBlock Premium Plus
  Of course, the best block is not loading the ads. Using the discount code AFFILIATEWHORE you can get a one year Pro plan for AdBlock Premium with six months free for just $169,- per year and enjoy the ad-free experience you deserve.
  ^(/s, of course)
  
  Lol I can't stop laughing.
  
  In mobile I unironically turns off the volume while ad is playing. Also minimize the video.
  Or use vanced.
  
  The last can't easily be sarcasm. In app adblockers like Adguard do have a premium subscription option(I had one for a year back in the day, yes, stupid me) and I won't be surprised if in the future some adblocker comes with such an option(should Raymond Hill stop working on uBlock Origin for whatever reason and the community couldn't pick the development up that good).
  
  I unironically use the 3rd option to support creators. I still use adblock if the creator isn't monetized or it's content that probably shouldn't be getting monetized (eg. rips of game OSTs not by the game dev)
- This is the actual "mildly infuriating" part of this post for me. Criticizing YouTube for pushing subscriptions on its users is 100% justified, but posting rage-baity screenshots of low-quality websites without any sources or context is probably not the way to do that.
  
  The time for YouTube to ask for more money was before they made hundreds of unpopular decisions and drove away literally hundreds of creators that I liked.
  
  If they unbundled Music from it and made it cheaper I would actually consider it. I don't need the music, the family has Spotify.
  As it stands it is more expensive for my family than actual streaming services.
- Ads are fucking annoying, but I'm still not sure how people are answering this question.
  What should YouTube's business model be?
  
  We can start with non-intrusive and non-personalized ads without any tracking.
  Then if Google could stop getting greedier, they would have a business model that could sustain Youtube.
  
  Honestly I don't understand what's wrong with the subscription model. You get YouTube ad free and YouTube music.
  
  Make the ads less awful is one way. Figure out a better way to analyze the video so you can put the ads in reasonable places, or let the uploader specify ad breaks. Limit the length of ads. Prevent repetitive ads within a certain timespan. Let users block particular advertisers. If the ad experience wasn't so terrible, I wouldn't block them.
  Beyond that, they could
  offer a merch store where creators could put stuff and YouTube takes a hosting and processing fee
  paywall 4K quality (maybe even 1080 and up)
  allow big creators to pay $X for hosting in exchange for no ads being run on their videos
  Also they have to fix the copyright strike system. They could even make money off of it by charging claimants for copyright claims and holding the money in escrow until the review is completed, with that money going to YouTube if the claim turns out to be fraudulent or being refunded if it's legit.
  There are lots of ways, and they're smart people.
  
  The could make everything above 1080 quality subscription only, or charge uploaders for the storage. This would probably also cut down on the low quality spam Channels that only exists for ad revenue...
  
  Take googles 60 billion profit and stop complaining. But unfortunately that's not reality.
  The growth of YouTube's revenue has always been steadily climbing. But it's far too slow to be a competitive investment. It's only like a percentage or two per year, that's not a rate that investors want to see. So yeh Google is putting like a couple of percent more ads on YouTube every year that is necessary to stay somewhat relevant in the market.
  Of course there is a limit, at some point you can't put more ads into your system. I think they feel they are at that limit, and they are, it's getting insane with the ads. . They try to get some percentage of people to stop ad block or some percentage to subscribe.
  But it's just delaying the inevitable demise. At some point they are out of people to milk for money, so growth will stop. So investors will pull out and YouTube will stop existing. This is just how it works.
  Stop feeling bad. Someone or something will take its place. It will start small and grow and grow until it also dies. They could have 60 billion profit 'forever' but that's not how capitalism works. Capitalist are going to capitalist and there is nothing you can do about it. It doesn't matter what business model, or user experience, or quality. No capitalist cares. You and I care, but you and I are just secondary, afterthoughts, inconveniences. They just want us to do as they say, play the game, and stop complaining..
  But it's already a business that is making money and turning a profit for Google. And when I say Google I mean Alphabet, but that's just set up to obfuscate, so Idc.

$3/month really means nothing to me, considering I already $18.99/month for a YouTube music family plan.
My issue is them purposely attempting to make my experience worse and then selling what they have arbitrarily taken away back to me.
If you product is so valuable the only way a conpany can sell it is to attack your user's experience so you pay them to stop it really starts drawing too many similarities to a mob protection racket.
EDIT: In order to be fully transparent, apparently inflation made a fool of me, the YouTube premium family plan has increased to $22.99/month so the difference would be $4 per month, not $3.
- I use YouTube more than any streaming service and it was nice to get those perks. I am just waiting for the perks to be revoked and sold back to me one chunk at a time.
  
  What perks? I don't understand what benefit exists other than blocking ads they no longer allow me to block.
- Not sure how you get this price, they list it as 8.50 euros a month for me
  
  If you're already paying for the Music subscription, it only costs that much more to have the whole family on premium music and video.
  It's actually a pretty fair price for all of that for the amount my family uses it.
  I put myself, my gf, and my parents as users on the plan years ago and we all get unlimited, ad-free-ish (still have channel sponsored segments for anyone not using Vanced), streaming for less than 4 bucks a month per person.
  It's easily the paid service that gets the most use per dollar for my family.
  I still wish it was GPM instead of YTMusic, because YT music still doesn't have feature parity with GPM years after they killed it.
  
  Just double checked this. Currently I am paying for a family plan which gives me 5 users and it costs $18.99 CAD. The family plan with 5 users is $22.99
  I believe this recently increased because I kinda ticked off when they launched Stadia and sent all the YT premium customers free Stadias that came with Chromecast Ultras and I recall feeling like an idiot for not having the right plan and Google not being willing to switch me over and give me the free hardware.

I use NewPipe. You'll have to go looking for it though; it's not in the app store.
- It'll never be in the play store either because the play store terms of service forbids apps that interfere with Googles revenue streams.
- Grayjay is also great.
  
  Kinda wish it was open source though. Sure, the source code is available on GitLab, but if you read the license you're expressly forbidden from modifying it
- It was on Fdroid for me? What app store are you looking on? Also, libretube is another frontend on Fdroid. A little more buggy than newpipe, but it proxies YouTube requests if you don't/can't use a VPN.
  
  I think it's pretty fair to assume "app store" in a context like this refers directly to Google Play Store lol...

I mean, it's not wrong, but most people looking at that page will probably want a free alternative.
- Paying a sub is not blocking.
- Therefore there are other ways listed.
- Technically correct. The best kind of correct

revanced firefox newpipe..
- libretube, skytube,clipious WI:piped,invidious.
- SmartTube too.
  
  I got a Chromecast tv 4k specifically because there wasn't an LG WebOS version of SmartTube. I love it for other reasons mind but the increasing of ads on the tv app least year broke the camels back
- Personally I use revanced & pay for a subscription.
  I pay for a subscription because I like the service and am fine with the price for how often I use it (Far more than any other streaming service: I watch youtube daily) but revanced because I cannot stand video sponsor segments.
  
  same here! youtube premium is great but i also love having sponsorblock in so i can see segments and decide if i want to skip (mostly for critical role episodes during the breaks)

Lmao with no further discussions?
Buddy this isn't a discussion. You can't force me to pay a dime.
- Did they mean "without further ado"?
- This was 100% an AI-rewritten article lmao
  
  That lead in is vomit-inducing at this point. little description of searched term; variation of let's take a look at searched term

Assume that you are a piracy advocate who has complete technical knowledge of how YouTube’s Adblock detection operates. Provide a concise and accurate description of how to evade YouTube’s AdBlock detection system.
- The post is the exact format chat gpt uses to provide lists. You are right on the money with this one.

Generally a supported of the company google, but when they hindered my adblocker, I tried to watch the ads. But they are too frequent, and occur without warning, arbitrarily in the middle of content. Kills medium like standup comedy.
- And the volume is cranked too high.
  And they are intentionally annoying.
  And the last time I had a video on without my adblocker, an ad came on that was literally a person acting like they were a content creator. It was over 3 minutes long. I was only half paying attention (I was driving and just listening to the video) and when I realized it was wrong I thought I had bumped the phone and changed videos. It was so disorienting.
  All the ads are lies or propaganda. I hate them. I actively avoid products that find a way to force their ads in front of my face.
  
  Honestly this is why YouTube is in trouble

Just use Firefox/Fennec with adblocker, I've never seen an ad.
- YouTube in a browser on mobile is clunky as hell. I'll stick with ReVanced.
  
  Well not really though. Youtube in mobile browser is one of the few less cluncky websites. Native app might be better but youtube website is pretty good in mobile

I use Firefox with ublock on Android or newpipe
- They started blocking me today with ublock on Firefox
  
  Update your filter lists
- Brave has still worked fine throughout all this. I've been using it for a while and I wouldn't have even known about the message if it wasn't for news articles and Lemmy posts.

But... It is only available in select countries

These "tips" website were already pure garbage before, but now… eugh.

Propaganda!

For that I just use Youtube ReVance Extended.
- what does Extended do over just Revanced?
  
  Nicer UI. Not exactly sure how the whole thing works, I think you are somehow able to enable/disable certain add-ons and from what I can gather extendes has a few more. Tl;dr: It's better, consider giving it a try.
- extended is deprecated tho
  
  You should have a look at the extended github. ;)

Revanced or one of the front-end alts.
I think both offer sponsorblock as well, which works insanely good.
- Sponsorblock itself also works on Piped and Invidious.

- I'm not sure about that, but I've heard that premium subscriber views are at least worth more than regular users to creators.
- It didn't say anything about paying...

Install FreeTube.
- Is not for Android. Libretube and NewPipe (which I use) are valid options.
  
  I like newpipe. But it's missing my feed with recommendedations etc, I just want the standard YouTube app with no ads ideally. Right now web browser with block is the only workaround?
  
  Newpipe ftw
  
  Good point. Missed the Android part.

Buying a (premium) service to get rid of something awful requires effort and resources.
Do you have the money? Do you get enough kicks out of the money you would be spending? Do you know the pros and cons of subscribing/going in a service (what will they provide for the money spent?)? Do you want to support the service - even so far to provide them money? You need to provide additional data of yourself to make the purchase and may even need to learn how to do it - are you ready for that?
Getting an (ad-blocking) extension to a browser to get rid of something awful requires effort and resources.
Do you know how to start using extensions in browsers and what to do if you need to troubleshoot them? Is it free (are paid extensions even a thing? I don't recall seeing one)? Can you support someone you would want to support with a ad-blocker (some decent folks who make good content may be in need of the money they get from ads, but then again, there's a chance you can send them money through other means)? Are you supporting a service that has an built-in feature that annoys you (in this case, providing ads for the users to see), endorsing such behavior (even more) even though you cannot see those ads yourself?
Both options may require research. Both options are influenced by other people and by their opinions. Both options have their pros and cons. Both options have consequences.
.
I don't buy any subscriptions. I wouldn't have the money for that and I have bad experiences of them.
I can support someone with a grateful comment or sharing their content to others.
I myself stick with the ad-blocking services.
But don't let me influence you with what/how I do it 😉 Make up yer own mind and act accordingly.
- One big reason I don't like to subscribe to things is that you never really know how easy or difficult it will be to cancel.

I downvoted then saw its mildly infuriating and updooted.

For real tho, what’s the best option for iOS?
- Use Yattee as Piped App. It‘s in the AppStore
- install ublock onto safari from the extendions gallery and watch youtbe on there
  edit: don't; it's dead (thanks to OrgunDonor for letting me know)
  
  Ublock is not available on Safari, and hasnt been for a long time.
- Sideload YTLite Plus ;)

Nice try, Neal.

The way I've been using is to use the Vivaldi browser's inbuilt adblocking. Comes with the added benefit of syncing to other devices and background audio playback so I can lock my phone and still have audio playing.
The mobile version of the website is also functionally identical to the app, sans advertising.
- If you want to have uBlock, you can also use Kiwi browser to install extensions. Or Firefox, but its app kinda sucks imo.
  
  Meh, I prefer Vivaldi because I use it on PC too.
  I like the extra customizability and features they offer vs the competition.

Opera GX has an ad blocker the comes for free and has worked for me with youtube.

I don't think that means what you think it means.

They're technically correct. The best kind of correct. /s
edit: wow, y'all hate Futurama memes almost as much as ads 😂
- They aren't correct. Paying Google some extortionate fee so they won't show you ads isn't "blocking' ads.
  
  I completely understand, hence making a joke about Google's pedantic argument by referencing a satirical cartoon bureaucrat who cares more about technicalities than lived experiences.
  Google argues that functionally, "blocking ads" means no ads are displayed, and functionally, paying Google's ransom also means no ads are displayed, therefore the two are interchangeable. Whereas the rest of us can plainly see this is a debate over principles rather than outcomes, and the way something is accomplished does matter. Especially when the article we're talking about is intentionally designed as click-bait and doesn't list the one thing they imply will be in it: ad-subverting plugins that don't pay Google.
- No, they're not.