YouTube is running an experiment asking some users to disable their ad blockers or pay for a premium subscription, or they will not be allowed to watch videos.
  • confusedwiseman@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    It seems like we’ve all lost the plot. We’d probably be willing to view ads if the experience wasn’t literally jarring. Try browsing for a day on a plain-no-extension browser. If you use other web enhancement tools kill those too. Straight-up internet is cancer, especially on mobile.

    It’s impossible to read a 250-word article without being interrupted 5-7 times. Two of those interruptions are likely a full page overlay with give me your email, and are you sure you don’t want to subscribe, just give me your credit card number.

    Then there are auto-play videos on the side, some with audio on by default. I mean I came here to read something, so of course we have things flashing and moving and making noise, it’s the most conducive environment for thought, right?

    Ad blockers and script blocking are essentially a hazmat suit that allows us to withstand a hostile environment. Remember when we said myspace pages with audio and [marching-ants] borders was a bad UX? At least we didn’t have overlays back then.

    Go back to basics and consider what makes a good vs bad internet experience. The reality sounds like someone with a minor case of severe brain damage. I think we’ve just become unashamed of greed as a society. It’s clearly all just about money.

    Those annoying customers/users generate content and we have to put up with them so we can monetize it. *Sadly, It’s unclear if I’m talking about youtube, reddit, or nearly any other site.

    Le sigh.

    • PhatInferno@midwest.socialEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Suggestions?

      My issue is that the content creators i watch probably arnt going to leave… and im sure ad blocks will find a way around it after a month or so

  • jamesravey@lemmy.nopro.beEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Wow the enshittification is at full throttle across silicon valley! Guess those investors gotta get those returns now that interest rates are spiking!

  • Square Singer@feddit.deEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    If they really block adblockers, I will subscribe. To Nebula. It’s got everything I want, adfree (including sponsored segments), extra content and is cheaper. And the content creators get a bigger share of the money.

    • nodiet@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      There is nothing stopping you from subscribing to nebula right now. Since I haven’t gotten any ads on YouTube in many years and even use sponsorblock to skip those annoying video segments I started thinking about how I am basically leeching off of most content creators. Subscribing to nebula was a no-brainer. It’s about $4.16 per month on the yearly plan and lets me support all content creators I watch on there at once rather than subscribing to each and every one of them on patreon and I still don’t see any ads

  • Grizzzlay@beehaw.orgEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I imagine folks wouldn’t have a problem with this if the ads weren’t already so aggressive. Numerous ads before and during the content break it up too much. And if the content is extremely short form, it completely ruins the experience.

    The number of ads and their length should be proportional to the length of the video. And any creator doing built-in ads should also not be able to inject a bunch of other ads. Burying content is an easy way to get avoided.

    Print media had limits for advertisements, heck, in magazines they were premium real estate for the finest graphic designers to put together incredible imagery to get your attention. This level of care (not necessarily images or what have you) has yet to translate to the web.

  • nottheengineer@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Seems fair enough, I’ve personally been freeloading for a while. Youtube is irreplacable, so there’s not much we can do.

    • iopq@latte.isnot.coffeeEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      I’ve started using Mastodon after the Twitter changes, Lemmy after the Reddit changes, I don’t think any website is irreplaceable

      • nottheengineer@feddit.deEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        Twitter and reddit have externally hosted media, so they consist of mostly text which is easy to host. YouTube has a lot more data to deal with, a federated alternative wouldn’t be feasible for literal petabytes of it.

    • Mothra@mander.xyzEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Never heard of this, does it work on desktop? NewPipe is my go to on my phone, but some content I need a large screen to watch

  • sodium@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    YouTube feels unusable without an ad-blocker. I've gotten like 30min crazy conspiracy videos as an ad that shit is bonkers.

  • Jeena@jemmy.jeena.netEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Unpopular opinion: I like paying for YouTube Premium to get rid of ads and still make it possible for creators and YouTube to get paid and survive an keep offering me entertainment.

    In addition you also get YouTube Music so no need to pay for Spotify. It might not have as good features but I listen to music specifically so I only search for what I want to listen to and don’t want any algorithms anyway.