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John Regehr

youtube next week: It looks like you covered up your web browser with another window. Video playback is now modal.

youtube in two weeks: We see that your sound is turned down. You can watch one more video at volumes below 85% before your videos are blocked.

youtube in a month: Your pupil tracking score is only 0.627. Please attend our free pupillary training sessions; once your score reaches 0.95 you may again see cats frightened by cucumbers.

41 comments
G. Wozniak

@regehr I haven't run into the wackiness yet, but I'm preparing for it.

Carlos Scheidegger

@regehr mfers watch black mirror and think it’s an instructable

Ruba

@regehr I am becoming a conspiracy theorist who believes they are intentionally making videos load slowly or not at all because I have ad-blocker on

Ruba

@regehr it's become almost unusable for me. I've been trying to find alternatives to use but haven't been very successful.

noodle

@ruba @regehr I use the web interface to browse, then download with yt-dlp. Needs a lot of drive space if you're planning to ingest whole channels though.

n0mads

@ruba @regehr fyi there's now a popup if you use an ad blocker in selected countries

this popup is already showing for me, I guess I got hashed into the unlucky experiment group

businessinsider.com/youtube-is

John Regehr

@n0mads @ruba right, they've already shut me down totally, there's no way to clear the popup now

Jordan Biserkov

@n0mads @ruba @regehr Imagine if there was a browser extension that created a popup for the CEO / Board members every time their servers used an "ad inserter", in selected countries. 😂

Andy Warburton ❌❌❌

@ruba @regehr same shit if you use YouTube in a mobile browser instead of their app. They keep moving or hiding functionality.

Sky UwU

@ruba @regehr Idk, they've always been slow for me in general - unironically peer tube loads so much faster for me

jack

@regehr upgrade to youtube premium to watch in a background window

Pär Björklund

@JackEric @regehr this is already kind of a thing afaik? One of the early selling points of premium was it would keep playing on a phone with the screen locked for pure audio stuff.

Jordan Biserkov

@Paxxi @JackEric @regehr At least for now, using Firefox on iOS, I'm able to 1) Press play in browser 2) Turn off via power button, playback stops, 3) Turn on via power button 4) Press play on lock screen 5) Turn off via power button, audio continues.

Houston Bova

@JackEric @regehr Agreed. Hosting and streaming videos isn’t free. If they can find a way to make the service not work at all on ad-blocked traffic I can’t say I’m against it.

I guess that’s not a popular stance around here but, not everything can be free. :/

There’s always things like DTube if you need it to be free. But, you’re watching YouTube because people put effort into the platform and content and can only do that because they get paid for it.

Ivan :nix_snowflake_logo:

@regehr YouTube in 6 months: your google account has been suspended because someone in your household attempted to circumvent an advertisement

jtgd

@ivan @regehr

The day yt-dlp stops working is the day I stop watching YouTube.

Kris

@regehr YouTube in two months: there will be an interactive test on ad content after the break. Score 80 or better to continue

YouTube in three months: your click through and minimum spending rates are insufficient to continue.

Stefan Eissing

@isotopp @regehr „If you skip the ads, we‘ll order products in your name!“

Victor Ciura

@regehr There’s a Black Mirror episode where people need to watch 👀 constantly to earn “points” (including eye tracking)
… and pedal a stationary bike, for some reason (gotta keep those viewers healthy, I guess 😁).

John Regehr

@ciura_victor I've sometimes thought that if I should provide the electricity for netflix or whatever -- I'd either watch less or get in better shape :)

Jimmyjamm

@regehr Google has become a shell of itself over the years and it's pretty much running on its name alone. One can tell the quality of product, service, and support has declined. I've moved back to Firefox and I'm learning basic Linux. I just want to browse the web in peace.

Stuart Longland (VK4MSL)

@regehr

> youtube next week: It looks like you covered up your web browser with another window. Video playback is now modal.

Actually, it already is against the terms of use to cover the YouTube player.

For that reason, I have YouTube completely blocked.

John Regehr

@stuartl good lord. I guess I should actually read the tou

Pad53 News Blog

@regehr Just jumping in to say I've been using the Brave browser for watching Youtube on my laptop. I haven't seen an ad yet while using that browser. Who knows when Google will learn how to detect that browser and prevent any playback at all. I hope they don't.

Phil Thane ✅

@regehr So far the popup telling me YT doesn't 'allow' as blockers has had a short time delay before the X button appears and I can carry on. I anticipate the the delay will ramp up if I continue to disobey. I've installed Freetube on desktop and New Pipe on Android in anticipation.

John Regehr

@pthane good plan. for me they already removed the delay and just stopped me from watching completely...

Phil Thane ✅

@regehr And now Smart Tube on our Amazon Fire Stick. Swivel on that Google.

Harlan (He/Him)

@regehr It’s the old “drink a verification can” greentext come to life.

Martijn Vos
I still haven't seen Youtube threatening anything due to my use of ad blockers. I hope it stays that way.
Philip Trettner

@regehr Just opened youtube to see they took a first step towards your predictions:

Instead of an X, it's now a 5s loading animation icon before you can click the X (of the "adblock bad mkay" overlay)

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