• VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    YouTube: Has ads and sells your data like every other online service

    Also YouTube: Doesn’t pay creators much to the point where creators often have in-video advertisements but expects audiences on the platform to pay for an adless experience

    • Chrobin@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 months ago

      That’s not really correct. While yes, ads don’t pay great, this is generally the case, and maintaining servers with these amounts of data is really expensive. And with YouTube premium, actually, YouTubers get paid quite well. You can take a look at the LTT finances video. They make more money from premium than from YouTube ads, even though only a small fraction has it.

      • ginza@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        Is LTT the rule or exception tho for that premium vs ads metric? LTT viewers are more on the nerdy side so more likely to have adblocking software. Not saying the data is wrong or anything, I just wonder how it fares on more general topics like cooking, fashion, travel etc.

        • Gladaed@feddit.org
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          9 months ago

          Not to that extent, no. You can argue that not all watchtime is equal and hence the distribution of youtube premium money shouldn’t be proportional but otherwise its hard to argue.

  • Quik@infosec.pub
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    9 months ago

    Billy should really not support them, Ad Block Plus let’s advertisers pay for having their ads checked as “acceptable advertisements”, i.e. is selling out the core functionality of their product. Billy should use uBlock origin, which afaik does not accept donations, he could however support something like PiHole .

    • Romkslrqusz@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I’m pretty sure those ads also have to meet certain criteria though.

      Using ABP, I’ve never had a popup ad, full page ad, auto-playing video, or other intrusive form of advertisement. The “acceptable ads” have been quiet and out of the way in what would otherwise be empty space.

      With the understanding that some websites and content creators are entirely reliant on ad revenue, I prefer to have those filtered down to those that don’t provide a burdensome experience.

      I will say that having a new tab open with a solicitation for a donation / “premium” every single update (so almost daily) is irritating and they better knock that shit off if they don’t want to alienate users.

      • Asafum@feddit.nl
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        9 months ago

        The “acceptable ads” have been quiet and out of the way in what would otherwise be empty space.

        I don’t mind this whatsoever. I can appreciate the concept of free is paid for by ads, but when you force me to sit there and have to watch it, or pop ups take over the page, all that excessive nonsense, that’s when I say fuck off and use an ad blocker that will remove everything.

        I actually think dating sites could be improved if they had an ad you could swipe away every 10 swipes or something. (I absolutely loath swipe only apps though. I need to know your personality not your duck face pose…) for apps with bios they could have a “banner” type ad that is between segments of the bio. Anything but “pay $50+/month to make this somewhat functional.”

  • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I gave Premium a shot. Then the one time I wanted to use the feature Google said I was paying for - being able to download videos - I found out that it was just a glorified pre-buffer.

    • Can’t view the video outside the youtube app or the website, source video file encrypted ✅️
    • Can’t view the video if you havent connected to the internet in 3 days ✅️
    • Does less than your average youtube downloader that you can find for free with one search ✅️
    • Literally just saving Youtube bandwidth because they destroyed every benefit you would get if it was actually reasonable ✅️

    Enshittification isnt just limited to free users folks. Slammed that cancellation button right then and there. Good luck earning back my trust, I’m happy to pay if you didnt scream so loudly that even if I paid, you were going to treat me like shit anyways.

    • khaleer@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      Make sure that google can’t kill you without consequences after you bought one month of their subscription.

    • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      Wow thanks for the heads up on that! I kept getting tempted by that “Download” button thinking “No…it can’t be that easy.”

      It’s kinda amazing how much content uses existing content…so they quietly can’t ruin downloading without tanking a lot of traffic.

      • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Exactly, thinking that is what I was getting pulled me over the edge, I sometimes remember a music video I want to listen to on my phone during my commute and I don’t want to spend 30 minutes either getting on my PC to download it with a tool, or using a third party downloader which can at times be shady. So upgrading that to a single click in the app seemed like a great deal. Crushingly disappointed when I found out how it actually was. Turns out the real answer was NewPipe, which I don’t even have to pay for.

    • Tja@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      I pay for it and I like the perks. You are giving YouTube money, but also the creator of the video. And synchronizes the view with your account. And takes it into account for the dreaded “algorithm” (which I also find useful, plenty of cool channels discovered thanks to it).

      What did you expect, exactly?

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Ever go to a video website, click a download button under a video, and NOT have that video in your downloads folder? Literally that. That’s what i expect from a download button.

        • Tja@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          On android the download folder is a mess. I honestly prefer to have the videos in the app. I used newpipe before and it was a bit less convenient (although more flexible).

          Never used it on a computer, tho, that would make sense there.

          • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I get that. It would be totally fine if it just gave the option. But yes the issue is more egregious on PC.

          • Steak@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            I only use YouTube on PC. I’m kinda old school now though. My phone is pretty much just a phone now. Only app I use is lemmy other than maps and normal stuff. No social media on my phone.

              • Steak@lemmy.ca
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                9 months ago

                I consider lemmy in different realm of social media. The people here are not at all like the people I meet irl where I live. If I ever met someone from my small town who even knew what lemmy was id shit myself.

      • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I like those perks too, but if I pay more to be able to download videos (which again, I could’ve used a free tool for) I want to be able to do whatever I want with it. Download means getting a file I can watch using my own video player and store for later even if Youtube dies tomorrow, If I go on holiday without internet, or if my internet goes down for a week. Anything.

        If Google is going to be “Uhm aksually, you are technically downloading it, thats why we can advertise it like that”, then I’m already downloading literally every video I watch. And thats not the kind of bullshit you give to a paying customer. That is spitting in my face for paying you. Why does a non-Premium user get better service with free third party youtube downloaders?

        It’s a matter of principle.

        • Tja@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          I see your point. For videos I want to hoard forever I also use yt-dlp, but for watching colbert on a plane, the app does just fine.

          • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, I thought it was a nice compromise. It seemed sensible that if Premium is the ‘compliant’ response to not wanting ads, the ‘compliant’ response to using third party tools to download videos was to just be able to do things more easily and with more options through Premium as well. But apparently they wanted to advertise something anyone who’s wanted to download a youtube video would not describe as ‘downloading’, which is easily out competed by free (but at times shady) tools.

  • ☂️-@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    adblock plus is shilled and lets ads through.

    ublock origin, folks. and firefox, because adblocking wont work on chromium anymore.

    • ours@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      ublock origin is so based, the dev doesn’t even accept donations. He wants people to donate to the chads maintaining the lists his add-on uses instead.

      • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        I can understand both sides and I’ve been on both sides. Wanting to donate to show appreciation and help support an awesome project, and not accepting donations due to creating the burden of unfair support/development expectations for a volunteer project.

        It really is such a cool extension.

      • TheLowestStone@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        There’s a firefox extension that upgrades the twitch player and blocks ads. Can’t remember the name but it was easy to find when I searched for it.

  • Rose@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’ll get YouTube premium once they fix their damn TV app.

    • If I resume playing a video from history, it often plays the ads, then re-plays them shortly after. (You know, at the point when it hit me with a fucking 55 second ad and I backed out and said fuck no, are you shitting me. Double points if the ad it tries to play again is also ridiculously long. I just keep refreshing it until it gives me 5 seconds to skip. I’m not much of a gambler, but this much I can gamble.)

    Admittedly, this bug is not applicable to Premium. Being ad-skippy and all. But it’s indicative of the overall quality of the app. For example:

    • When long-holding a video in all circumstances, I it should give me a full menu. Like, with the “go to the channel” option? …doesn’t give that to me in Subscriptions view. This might come as a surprise to YouTube, but I don’t always like watching Whatever The Algorithm Feeds Me. I might, you know, choose to watch the 10 episodes I missed. To do that, I need to actually like to go to the channel in question.
    • …Or any of the channels I like or are particularly interested at the moment. There’s no way to pin this shit either.
    • Speaking of which, the fucking way to browse my subscriptions is fucking atrocious holy shit. It’s useless. This is Google. They don’t do user experience research. They half-ass everything.
    • On my smart TV, sometimes the buttons just fuck up. Sometimes I can’t control this shit. Because my TV operating system was designed by particularly deranged people, they thought “closing” or “restarting” any given app was space technology that no average consumer can understand, so they reduced that to bare minimums: the only way to restart the app is to pull the plug. This is just fucking demeaning.

    A collaboration between Google and Samsung, people! Two giant corps serving millions of users! And they expect us to pay monthly fee for this holy shit

    …sorry for the rant.

    • dafo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Tbf the only Android TV app I’ve used which is actually usable and has not-shit UX is SmartTube. Discovery Plus deserves a special place in hell.

  • floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    I’m a GenZ-er, and I adblock everywhere I can. What makes the difference with YouTube premium for me is that I fall asleep to YouTube videos on a TV every night, and the advertisements alone can make that experience terrible because you can’t adblock YT on a TV as easily as elsewhere. Premium might be one of my best decisions I’ve made for a platform I spend so much time on. I still donate to Wikipedia and uBlock even if I pay the premium for other services.

    • Darkenfolk@dormi.zone
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      9 months ago

      I’m a GenZ-er

      I fall asleep

      Typical genZ, getting those zzzz’s. That’s probably how they got the name.

    • 0x0@infosec.pub
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      9 months ago

      Youtube premium makes sense for me when combined in a family account for 5 with youtube music for 17.5 USD in total.

      But besides that, fuck Google. Id pirate music if I wasn’t so lazy but Google diminishing anything of what I currently get would probably give me some energy.

    • Pueblo@feddit.org
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      9 months ago

      Depents on your tv. There are good ways for some. S-tube next works for android tv for example, there is a way for webos too

    • Scallionsandeggs@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I do the same, but it has to be on my phone, and last I checked that wasn’t an option with the screen off even with Premium. So I used Vanced (and now Revanced). I have moderate-to-severe tinnitus and this setup might have saved my life once or twice.

      • floridaman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        9 months ago

        Premium has background playback! I use it to listen to video essays with my phone in my pocket when I’m working, screen off. Revanced was my go-to before premium but it has been a pain for me to patch recently (I’m just lazy) so I’m just using stock YT with Premium.

  • TheBannedLemming@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    On PC and Android, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t use Youtube Revanced. Both the normal and extended editions are better than even YouTube Premium through their website and official app.

  • Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    This is the way, appeasement of ad producers doesn’t work.

    At some point number has to get bigger.

    Before you know it were paying for cable tv with ads again.

    • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Except this time we won’t just be paying for the cable, we’ll be paying to get the ads you want, too. You’ll be paying for the DVR function or whatever they want.

      As with everything else it will continue to degrade and enrage it’s customers, and erode the entire country’s very will to live. I am truly curious just how detrimental it is for everyone in this country to be exposed to the THOUSANDS of small fully intentional annoyances daily that are built into every product and service. It has to be a leading cause of how angry and divided we are and is absolutely causing many early deaths. Everyone is so stressed out by every single thing they interact with.

    • Funkytom467@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Probably because unlike paying for the service, we don’t feel how it takes our money from us.

      A psychological trick that works so great that it made a lot of services exist in the first place like the whole of YouTube. And now we’re kinda addicted to those too.