Comment by BuyMyBitcoins

Comment by BuyMyBitcoins 8 hours ago

41 replies

View on Hacker News

I can’t watch YouTube without an adblocker. On a surface level, I hate the ads. But, the main reason is the fact that I can’t stand how YouTube is fixated on trying to make you watch something else at all times. I need something to hide all the little cards and interstitials that pop up when pausing the video, the badges, all the obnoxious thumbnails, etc..

I also hide all of the videos on the sidebar except for the one that would be recommended next, just so I can know what might play if I leave autoplay on.

It is insane to me that the product got to this place. I get Google is all about advertising, but my goodness, YouTube is just designed to make you not pay attention for more than a few seconds.

noir_lord 8 hours ago

Ublock Origin and Unhook[1]

Lets you remove as much or as little of the "UI/UX" as you want - don't want to see shorts, recommended vids, end cards etc - live comments (who even asked for that) you don't have to.

It collapses YT back to been an intentional thing - I'm looking for a video to watch, I watch it, it suggests nothing and I go on with my day instead of getting distracted by the skinner box.

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-recom...

Reply View 6 replies
  • ryandrake 6 hours ago

    At this point this functionality should just be built into browsers. It's 2025. We shouldn't still need extensions to provide table stakes functionality like content blocking.

    Reply View 3 replies
    • pjc50 6 hours ago

      You mean the browser with 90% share owned by the same company responsible for the advertising?

      Reply View 1 reply
      • noir_lord 4 hours ago

        and removed functionality that made it more difficult for the best adblocker as an extension to function.

        I know - it's weird right.

        Reply View 0 replies
    • do_not_redeem 6 hours ago

      I disagree. All the major browser vendors have invested into the ads space to some degree. I'd rather have my content blocker built by someone without a conflict of interest.

      Reply View 0 replies
  • [removed] 3 hours ago
    [deleted]
    Reply View 0 replies
  • BolexNOLA 7 hours ago

    This is also why I love Freetube. No nonsense, just what I want in front of me the rare instances I’m on YT these days. Only annoying thing is having to update it every few weeks

    Reply View 0 replies
fainpul 7 hours ago

As somebody already mentioned, uBlock Origin helps.

I have these in my filters to make YouTube bearable:

  www.youtube.com###comments
  www.youtube.com###related
  www.youtube.com###sponsor-button
  www.youtube.com###donation-shelf
  www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content
  www.youtube.com###chat:remove()
  www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-item-section-renderer.style-scope
  www.youtube.com###chat-container
On top of that you probably want SponsorBlock, because sponsor segments are also ads.

https://sponsor.ajay.app/

Reply View 12 replies
  • echelon 7 hours ago

    I hate ads and use adblock on websites too, but I also wonder how this stuff gets paid for. We're counting on "normies" footing the bill for our technical sophistication.

    I don't care about blogspam, but a lot of YouTube content clearly costs money to make.

    Reply View 11 replies
    • WarOnPrivacy 6 hours ago

      > I also wonder how this stuff gets paid for.

      For folks in the ad-enabling chain: Caring about their well-being isn't really reciprocated. Not in a tangible way.

      If that ever changes, my psychological hygiene can be up for discussion.

      Reply View 0 replies
    • anukin 6 hours ago

      A lot of YouTubers and streamers makes a lot of money as well. The sponsorship alone is worth a lot. There was a recent video by an influenza where they made close to 45000 dollars a day.

      Reply View 2 replies
    • [removed] 6 hours ago
      [deleted]
      Reply View 0 replies
    • andy99 6 hours ago

      YMMV, to me there’s nothing I would watch an ad in order to use, given the choice. As in there are things I value enough to pay for, and things I don’t care if they go away. No ad-supported middle ground.

      Unfortunately “normies footing the bill” means in many cases we’re stuck with engagement optimized drivel instead of actual thoughtful content, which is largely the point of the original post. I’d love a world where this was driven out of existence because people stopped watching ads.

      Reply View 4 replies
      • spudlyo 5 hours ago

        I would like to take this even further, I'd like to see what it's like to not consume any intellectual property encumbered media of any sort, so either public domain or CC licensed materials. I can, and do this easily enough with books, but for video it seems impossible. Of course, one could make the argument that would mean I'd be unable to read the comments here on Hacker News, however in practice IP protections on such tiny bits of content are rarely if ever enforced.

        In a similar vein, I'd like to be able to block any YouTube content that is sponsored. This seems a lot more possible, since Sponsor Block already maintains this info.

        Reply View 0 replies
      • rkomorn 6 hours ago

        > No ad-supported middle ground.

        So instead of an ad-blocker, you have an extension that detects ads and immediately closes the tab if there are any?

        Reply View 2 replies
    • righthand 3 hours ago

      > I don't care about blogspam, but a lot of YouTube content clearly costs money to make.

      By the time the video is uploaded to Youtube, for the creator is a sunk cost. What most of your Youtube ad view generated money goes to is the hosting on Google’s end, not the creator. It’s a false belief that 99% of Youtube creators will go extinct if you use an ad blocker, because it’s a post pay system.

      This is only really true for successful channels not most Youtube content. The ad blocker hurts Google more than YT creators.

      Reply View 0 replies
qntmfred 8 hours ago

Ad-free YouTube Premium is a Luxury Good

Reply View 11 replies
  • nemomarx 7 hours ago

    Even with premium you still can't hide suggested videos, shorts, the front page is still messy...

    Reply View 4 replies
    • Elidrake24 7 hours ago

      Have people forgotten what a bookmark is? https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

      And once on a video, suggestions cannot be seen in Cinema Mode, which can be made the default. Still have the ones at the end of the video I suppose, though they show up inconsistently for me, so might be a channel creator setting.

      Reply View 0 replies
    • SilverElfin 7 hours ago

      I wish there was a way to block those floating boxes recommending additional videos, that always cover up the end of a video

      Reply View 2 replies
      • dhritzkiv 4 hours ago

        I recently noticed a tiny "Hide" control (to hide these) that pops up in the top right, which is long overdue.

        Reply View 0 replies
      • [removed] 7 hours ago
        [deleted]
        Reply View 0 replies
  • bigyabai 7 hours ago

    Which is why I pray everyday at the shrine of my 10tb 5200rpm spinning rust and yt-dlp client.

    Reply View 1 reply
    • [removed] 7 hours ago
      [deleted]
      Reply View 0 replies
  • carlosjobim 8 hours ago

    Aren't luxuries supposed to be expensive?

    Reply View 3 replies
    • brookst 7 hours ago

      No, or at least not in money. An afternoon on the couch reading a good book is a luxury.

      Reply View 0 replies
jimmydddd 5 hours ago

Youtube as we know it will probably be dead in a few years anyway. Tiktok has shortened everyone's attention span. I shockingly found myself clicking away from one of my favorite classic rock songs from my youth because I didn't want to stay the entire 3 minutes.

Reply View 1 reply
  • righthand 3 hours ago

    No, just a portion of the population that’s into having no focus will continue to do so. You can change your habits and not be cattle without agency.

    Reply View 0 replies
pipes 4 hours ago

Or pay for a YouTube subscription?

There is a lot of complaining on hacker news about adverts, yet when Google offer the only other viable solution (subscription fees) everyone still complains.

Reply View 3 replies
  • j1elo 4 hours ago

    Problem with that solution is that Youtube is not an independent company that one could be happy to pay for their services. You're paying Google, and there are more than enough reasons to not wanting to give Google any money at all.

    That's the problem with corporations: they cover too much. I cannot pay Youtube while at the same time not giving an ounce of support to the company that wants to remove all remaining freedoms of the Android ecosystem.

    Reply View 0 replies
  • namibj 4 hours ago

    Doesn't fix the app from booting into a short that thus defaults to playing with sound.

    Reply View 0 replies
  • Krasnol 4 hours ago

    > Or pay for a YouTube subscription?

    At this point, if I had no choice like ublock: I'd still not pay them. Why should I? To enforce this behaviour so everybody suffers more? What about those people who can't afford a subscription? Why is their mind and attention free to be abused?

    The advertisement industry has became disgustingly evil. I hate everything about it.

    Reply View 0 replies
nxor 8 hours ago

For meaningful focus our brains need uninterrupted periods.

I use Brave, though I know its reputation could be better.

Reply View 0 replies
BoredPositron 7 hours ago

The only way to get a sane YouTube experience is to deactivate the history and only use the subscription page but that has other downsides.

Reply View 0 replies