Experimental Youtube "feature" detects and blocks some users of ad blocking browser extensions on Youtube

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, Dracarris said:

Well, where I live usually not. The people checking tickets usually show a ton of common sense and will fine the commuter but simply sell the other guy a ticket for the regular price.

 

And let me tell you, there are a lot of entities that do care a lot about adblock, and they have all tried their way through court with all kinds of approaches (theft, copyright infringement, IP violation, you name it). The courts have so far rejected them all AFAIK.

That's because you can't sue john does to set a precedent. There has to be someone to defend it.

 

Trying to sue adblock extensions itself is pointless since as long as one remains open source, someone can just fork it and make another. We see that with the youtube downloaders too.

 

 

[LinusTech]

6 hours ago, kumicota said:

@LinusTechI have two questions about this for you.

 

When RIAA DMCA'd youtube-dl github you was one of the first big tech influencers who defended yt-dl software on twitter and IIRC on WAN Show and was against RIAA pratices. I don't know if you know but some softwares like mpv, can integrate to yt-dl, where if you have both installed and drag a youtube link to mpv, it uses yt-dl to stream it to MPV bypassing ads and the client itself. Implementing a frontend who would do the same isn't hard as invidious do it but it's ugly.

 

While some people knows that, a lot of them doesn't know that there's using unnoficial clients like those don't generated views, metric, analytics and more data.

 

So my questions are, do you still support those 3rd party softwares like you did when RIAA DMCA'd youtube-dl? if yes, would you rather have X views from uses who uses ad-blocks that are counted and have metrics or 0 views/metrics from those users who used a 3rd party client?

 

I'm asking this for the single reason that if someone improved the UI of one of those frontends and added a lot of features, it could bring more harm to channels than having an adblock enabled

I would object to DMCA abuse anytime and anywhere it happens, regardless of my 'support' or 'non-support' of the work in question.

 

As for the views and whatnot, it sounds like something for YouTube to figure out. I just work here

 

 

[Quackers101]

3 hours ago, LinusTech said:

As for the views and whatnot, it sounds like something for YouTube to figure out. I just work here

so they call people that "work on youtube" workers or not? or maybe... *puts on tinfoil hat*
(nevermind wrong thread, removed link)...

Edited May 17, 2023 by Quackers101

[Winterlight]

Problem that is a lot pop up ads in videos that a lot time have really suspicious link to website and is really sometime you can click it by accident that lead to malicious sites. They could at least add warning before open that pop up ads website and not open it until you really confirm that want open it.

[Kisai]

Looks like Youtube is doubling down on this.

 

https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-bringing-30-second-unskippable-ads-to-its-tv-apps-121051897.html

Quote

If you watch YouTube videos primarily on your TV, you may soon come across 30-second ads you won't be able to skip, just like commercials on traditional TV channels. The video platform has announced during its Brandcast event for advertisers that it's bringing 30-second unskippable ads to connected TVs. It will make the option available through YouTube Select, which is a targeting option open to eligible clients who want to reach the audiences of the website's most popular channels.

 

[Arokhantos]

pihole cant block YouTube ads which is why they can get away with tv ads of 30 seconds

[Arika]

15 minutes ago, Arokhantos said:

pihole cant block YouTube ads which is why they can get away with tv ads of 30 seconds

no, but 3rd party apps can like smart tube next

[dalekphalm]

13 hours ago, Kisai said:

Looks like Youtube is doubling down on this.

 

https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-bringing-30-second-unskippable-ads-to-its-tv-apps-121051897.html

 

I actually just came across one of these ads. It was the only add for the entire video mind you, so it honestly was not a big deal at all to me.

 

Considering traditional TV channels have ads that last way longer than 30 seconds, and you're bombarded with like 3-5 minutes of ads every 15-20 minutes, this is still far better than regular TV.

[Arokhantos]

Twitch has been bypassing adblock with video ads for quite some time, google is really behind, altho it really wont matter you can advertise what you want to me it has zero impact, if anything just makes me hate your product even more, advertising is dead just make YouTube premium more worthwhile, cos i know the next step is ads even for YouTube premium and im defiantly not paying for that.

They aren't gonna make premium subscription cost of me showing me ads so why even overcharge that amount.

[Thaldor]

16 hours ago, Kisai said:

Looks like Youtube is doubling down on this.

 

https://www.engadget.com/youtube-is-bringing-30-second-unskippable-ads-to-its-tv-apps-121051897.html

 

Ah, more reasons to use adblock on YouTube.

 

It's actually funny to follow the escalation of this war of internet ads. Like adblocks really weren't a thing before someone had the great idea of making ads flashing in all imaginable colors and cause migraine, make them pop-up and play noises the loudest they could. Even today I don't think people really care about well managed ads that aren't irritating, jumping to their faces and all the other way awful. And then we have YouTube, I haven't seen any ad longer than 14s, at the best there have been 3 ads that I cannot skip even if I had seen the same goddamn ad 50 times in the past 24 hours, I have tried to report some of the most irritating ads with the reaction getting twice as much of them because clearly they got reaction from me and with YouTube we also have the dark side of the Google ecosystem, the ads coming from the same servers as the garbage ads for mobile games which are on the other level of scams, lies and irritation (and no matter how much you complain, Google does only care for your reaction so here's the ad you just reported as seen too much and as inappropriate 20 times before that, enjoy).

 

Like I remember even enjoying the ad breaks on TV in the 90's when it was more like 10 minutes show and 5 minutes ads. But trying to watch normal unpaid TV now what feels like 5 minutes of show and 10 minutes of ads and some ads even run twice because "why the hell not", yeah no, and then someone has the IQ to ask "why our viewing numbers have gone down?" I wouldn't be surprised if someone at YouTube is looking at the number of adblock users after they doubled the amount of ads and goes "why people hate ads this much?"

[TheMegaDriver]

i am getting 15 minute ad segments for abvious finacial scams, this is nothing new. Just tons of scam. So yeah, ad blocking. And of course all the malvertising going on  on so many sites (granted youtube seems to be very good at stopping that).

[williamcll]

15 hours ago, Arokhantos said:

Twitch has been bypassing adblock with video ads for quite some time, google is really behind, altho it really wont matter you can advertise what you want to me it has zero impact, if anything just makes me hate your product even more, advertising is dead just make YouTube premium more worthwhile, cos i know the next step is ads even for YouTube premium and im defiantly not paying for that.

They aren't gonna make premium subscription cost of me showing me ads so why even overcharge that amount.

Most twitch adblockers work WDYM?

[Dracarris]

3 hours ago, williamcll said:

Most twitch adblockers work WDYM?

Twitch is one of the few sites that managed to work around ublock origin in FF, for me.

[williamcll]

10 hours ago, Dracarris said:

Twitch is one of the few sites that managed to work around ublock origin in FF, for me.

Oh I just use another twitch blocker extension.

[Brooksie359]

6 hours ago, williamcll said:

Oh I just use another twitch blocker extension.

I tried that and it was super buggy for me. Whenever an ad would pop up I would have the stream freeze for a second and go back to normal or it would simply freeze indefinitely. I think the freezing was a work around but for some reason sometimes it simply didn't work and stayed frozen and I had to refresh the browser. Eventually had enough and just bought twitch turbo as I watch twitch enough ti justify it. Honestly I feel like twitch turbo doesn't get alot of advertising when it's probably the best value twitch product. Pay on fee and you see no more ads on twitch and it works on mobile which I use as well and I am fairly certain there isn't a way to block ads on mobile. 

[Dracarris]

5 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

Honestly I feel like twitch turbo doesn't get alot of advertising when it's probably the best value twitch product. Pay on fee and you see no more ads on twitch and it works on mobile which I use as well and I am fairly certain there isn't a way to block ads on mobile. 

9$ per month for "no more ads with few exceptions"? No thank you. Even without any exceptions this would be outreageous and nowhere near what Twitch makes with ads even with power users.

[Brooksie359]

16 minutes ago, Dracarris said:

9$ per month for "no more ads with few exceptions"? No thank you. Even without any exceptions this would be outreageous and nowhere near what Twitch makes with ads even with power users.

What exceptions? I don't see ads on Twitch so not sure what ads you are referring to. Also its value is based on the experience. For me I watch more Twitch than I do say Netflix so I don't see why spending 9 dollars for an ad free experience wouldn't be worth it for me. I see people complain about ads for Twitch all the time and it's so easy to just get Twitch turbo and be done with it. Also the whole comparing how much they would make with ads vs if you paid for Twitch turbo is a crap way to measure value of a service. 

[grg994]

On 5/20/2023 at 3:35 PM, Dracarris said:

Twitch is one of the few sites that managed to work around ublock origin in FF, for me.

also

8 hours ago, Brooksie359 said:

I tried that [Twitch ad blocker] and it was super buggy for me. Whenever an ad would pop up I would have the stream freeze for a second and go back to normal or it would simply freeze indefinitely.

Ad blocking (during the stream, not talking about the prerolls) on Twitch lives (and possibly on other live streaming platforms) is a different challenge, because for the duration of twitch ads the server doesn't make you available the video content of the live stream.

 

The live stream is normally sent out in 1-3 s long video segments - and during the ad the segments are replaced by video segments made out of the ad video.

 

So if an ad is blocked then the live stream video for the duration of the ad will be missing, we either have to stop the playback (freeze the stream) or replace the ad segments with a black or purple or whatever screen.

 

Only proper way around could be to start playing the same Twitch live stream a second time during the duration of the ad from another connection (might not work because everyone in the same region gets the ad the same time) / or through a proxy / or from a simulated twitch embed.

 

None of these are simple to implement correctly in a browser extension.

[Thaldor]

On 5/20/2023 at 4:35 PM, Dracarris said:

Twitch is one of the few sites that managed to work around ublock origin in FF, for me.

Works for me, tried to get ads in Thotch and got zero. Ran through like 20 streams while logged in and without and no ads.

 

Thou I run quite extensive block lists and NoScript on top of uBlock Origin so might be something else blocking Thotch ads.

It can also be that I really login to Thotch like once a year for 10 minutes and decide it's not worth it to be logged in

[Brooksie359]

14 hours ago, grg994 said:

also

Ad blocking (during the stream, not talking about the prerolls) on Twitch lives (and possibly on other live streaming platforms) is a different challenge, because for the duration of twitch ads the server doesn't make you available the video content of the live stream.

 

The live stream is normally sent out in 1-3 s long video segments - and during the ad the segments are replaced by video segments made out of the ad video.

 

So if an ad is blocked then the live stream video for the duration of the ad will be missing, we either have to stop the playback (freeze the stream) or replace the ad segments with a black or purple or whatever screen.

 

Only proper way around could be to start playing the same Twitch live stream a second time during the duration of the ad from another connection (might not work because everyone in the same region gets the ad the same time) / or through a proxy / or from a simulated twitch embed.

 

None of these are simple to implement correctly in a browser extension.

Yeah I think maybe the difference is when I get ads because the streamer actually pushed the button for ads or if the streamer doesn't run ads manually and the ads show up because a certain duration has passed. I believe Twitch does auto ads if you don't run them manually. Anyways I just pay for Twitch turbo and then I don't have to see ads anymore which is good enough for me. 

[Dracarris]

On 5/21/2023 at 2:10 PM, Brooksie359 said:

What exceptions? I don't see ads on Twitch so not sure what ads you are referring to. Also its value is based on the experience. For me I watch more Twitch than I do say Netflix so I don't see why spending 9 dollars for an ad free experience wouldn't be worth it for me.

Ignore the exceptions. Lets assume there are none. It's too much, way too much. And due to the vast differences in the content types, Twitch and Netflix can simply not be compared.

On 5/21/2023 at 2:10 PM, Brooksie359 said:

Also the whole comparing how much they would make with ads vs if you paid for Twitch turbo is a crap way to measure value of a service. 

Hm lets see. No, absolutely not. Like really not. You reimburse them for the ad revenue lost, plain and simple.

So it's objectively a horrible deal and a huge win for Amazon. I'm interested in what your arguments are why that price tag is justified, other than "I feel like it's worth it to me". With that way of argumenting they could as well charge 30$ per month, billed up-front annually, for the removal of ads.

 

Anything north of 5$ per month needs to get me actual content that I could not watch otherwise and not simply removal of ads. I think it's really sad that we have come that far, people considering sth like Twitch turbo a valuable deal.

Ofc people like you willing to spend that much for ad removal make corporations like Amazon really happy. The profit margins on those subscriptions must be gigantic, even higher than with the regular rip-off that twitch subs/bits/whatever are.

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, Dracarris said:

Ignore the exceptions. Lets assume there are none. It's too much, way too much. And due to the vast differences in the content types, Twitch and Netflix can simply not be compared.

Hm lets see. No, absolutely not. Like really not. You reimburse them for the ad revenue lost, plain and simple.

So it's objectively a horrible deal and a huge win for Amazon. I'm interested in what your arguments are why that price tag is justified, other than "I feel like it's worth it to me". With that way of argumenting they could as well charge 30$ per month, billed up-front annually, for the removal of ads.

 

Anything north of 5$ per month needs to get me actual content that I could not watch otherwise and not simply removal of ads. I think it's really sad that we have come that far, people considering sth like Twitch turbo a valuable deal.

Ofc people like you willing to spend that much for ad removal make corporations like Amazon really happy. The profit margins on those subscriptions must be gigantic, even higher than with the regular rip-off that twitch subs/bits/whatever are.

How else would you determine the value of something other than what people are willing to pay? That is how the free market economy works. Again I watch way more twich and youtube than any other services so youtube premium and twitch turbo are worth it for me over say paying for Netflix when I would likely only watch for maybe several hours a month. Also ads on streams are much more disruptive so yes removing them is very much worth the money to me. And yes Amazon probably does make a good amount of money if people bought turbo but for some odd reason they don't really advertise it which is beyond me. 

[grg994]

Upping this once because many users are reporting that Youtube apparently started to roll out this anti-adblock popup on a massive scale today: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/

[Donut417]

22 minutes ago, grg994 said:

Upping this once because many users are reporting that Youtube apparently started to roll out this anti-adblock popup on a massive scale today: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/

I got hit by it about two weeks ago. Im at the stage now where a timer shows up before I can exit out of the window. I just gave up on YouTube. Premium is too much, I dont care for music portion and would sub if it was about half the cost. The issue is I pay for other streaming and Im not becoming subscription poor. The other streaming services I pay for my folks use, so I know Im getting my moneys worth.

 

On a side note this pissed me off that I decided to try Firefox again and switched on my desk top. Im going to install it on my Mac and get rid of Chrome.

[wanderingfool2]

3 hours ago, Donut417 said:

On a side note this pissed me off that I decided to try Firefox again and switched on my desk top. Im going to install it on my Mac and get rid of Chrome.

I always find it a bit comical that people feel angered when denied a service where they are leeching off the people without ad-block.

 

Ultimately all the people with ad-block contribute nothing to the service, while making costs higher for other people...which in turn makes the ads worse for those who don't use it.

 

 

I'm actually wondering, if the ad-block makers try coming up with a way to bypass this if you will find Google will launch a lawsuit against them (because in a case like that, it's an intentional design to breach a contract)