rushOct 13, 2023

PSA To people watching YouTube with AdBlockers

https://lemm.ee/post/11383162

PSA To people watching YouTube with AdBlockers - lemm.ee

You might have noticed that even on Firefox (depending on your lists) YouTube may detect uBlock Origin on Firefox now [https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/6089078] There’s already a workaround (found, again, here [https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/6089078]), but I figured I would use this opportunity to tell people that projects like Piped [**https://github.com/teampiped/piped] and Invidious [https://invidious.io/] exist, which both allow you to watch YouTube without loading their ads, with improved Privacy and (in the case of Piped) even Geoblocking-Circumvention and SponsorBlock out of the box. They’re both great tools, and using something like LibRedirect [https://libredirect.github.io/] you can even automatically go to Piped or Invidious when clicking/opening a YouTube link (and more). Both don’t load ads, but unless changed in the settings Individous may still make connections to Google/YouTube to load the video(s) themselves. Bit of a shameless plug for these projects, but I figured this is a really good time to show these projects as I often see people asking what they are in threads on here

Show threadflop_leash_973Oct 14, 2023

In my opinion anything that is just a frontend for Youtube is just a bandaid, and if they get to much attention Google will make using them increasingly untenable.

The real answer is moving to competing platforms outside of Googles control.

Show threadnewIdentityOct 14, 2023

That’s not possible though. There simply is no content on other platforms and they generally aren’t as good as YouTube and probably never will be.

The only platform I could see to rival YouTube in the future is Twitch

Show threadHerrLewakaasOct 14, 2023

Lemmy users are just delusional in that regard. You can’t just switch away from Google, its not the tech that makes in great, its the content. It’s the same with messengers, if your friends arent there how useful is that foss messenger really?

Thankfully the only creator I regularly watch that does non-educational videos uploads them on their own website. For everything else nebula actually is an alternative, although I’m not subscribed to it at the moment

Show threadkaseOct 14, 2023

Maybe it’s unlikely for this to happen, but I wonder if it’d be possible for yt to go down like reddit did. Yt makes a series of bad decisions, so a lot of people move from there to similar platforms. The other services don’t have much content right now, but from what I here, neither did Lemmy before the “exodus.”

I get that reddit and youtube are very different types of platforms and that the whole reddit thing happened because of pretty specific circumstances, but idk, maybe something vaguely similar could happen.

Show threadSoBoredAtWorkOct 14, 2023
“go down like Reddit did” … But did Reddit “go down”? It definitely lost users and content quality dropped, but still, everyone I talk to (that isn’t a total nerd like us lemmings) still uses Reddit and has no idea what Lemmy is.
Show threadUNWILLING_PARTICIPANT
I was going to try and contradict you, but I guess most of the people I know well IRL are also total nerds
Oct 14, 2023 at 7:17pmWeb
Show threadSoBoredAtWorkOct 15, 2023
Yeah. I introduced my wife to Reddit (she knew of it but didn’t use it until I kinda showed her how great it is (was)). Now her family and friends use it too. They all heard about the drama but didn’t seem to care or understand and they all still use Reddit.
Show threadfosstulateOct 17, 2023
You should refer her to Cory Doctorow’s writing, namely his concept of enshittification. He’s one of the most effective political communicators alive today. If anyone can get her to understand the import of the issues surrounding Reddit’s Simple Jack routine, it’s him.
Show threadSoBoredAtWorkOct 18, 2023
I’m going to check it out. Thanks!