SponsorBlock (and DeArrow)Jun 12, 2024

YouTube is currently experimenting with server-side ad injection. This means that the ad is being added directly into the video stream.

This breaks sponsorblock since now all timestamps are offset by the ad times.

For now, I set up the server to detect when someone is submitting from a browser with this happening and rejecting the submission to prevent the database from getting filled with incorrect submissions.

Show threadzaire the bored genderfuck

@sponsorblock

YouTube is currently experimenting with server-side ad injection

wow when/if this reaches me it might be time to break my youtube addiction and say goodbye to google

Jun 12, 2024 at 10:30amWeb
Show threadzaire the bored genderfuckJun 12, 2024
@sponsorblock according to this pinned thread on uBO's subreddit, youtube devs and adblock devs are in a pretty heated fight, like, right now
Show threadzaire the bored genderfuckJun 12, 2024

that thread gives you an idea of the kind of overengineered obfuscated overdone mess the youtube website is

google is going way too far to temporarily inconvenience adblock users

Show threadMatthewJun 12, 2024
@soop
They stopped putting email ads in "Promotions" and are now part of normal main inbox.
Show threadKay Ohtie 🔜 FWAJun 12, 2024
@mrblissett @soop I wonder if they're a/b testing that; email is still categorized there as well as their injected fake-email ads for me but it would not shock me for them to put the latter in main too, ugh.
Show threadKay Ohtie 🔜 FWAJun 12, 2024
@soop @sponsorblock YouTube devs or YouTube managers/execs? Wild to think they've fired any dev who thinks it's scummy but does the work anyway and finally found the pool of devs who like ads
Show threaddrawnto 🟨⬜🟪⬛Jun 12, 2024

@KayOhtie
I am curious how this scummy. Youtube provides a service under the condition that users watch ads. They stop delivering ads seperatly and include them in the main content stream just as TV does.

I know ads can be accessibility issue. But being able to block them never was intended functionality. So where is the scum.

Show threadAlexander Sosedkin Jun 12, 2024
@drawnto @KayOhtie If your Internet Service Provider bans some of the Internet resources, it stops being an Internet Service Provider becomes a subset-of-the-Internet-provider and should be liable for false advertising because it's scummy. By the same logic, if a video hosting starts serving back videos that differ from what uploaded, it stops being a video hosting.
Show threadhazelnot Jun 12, 2024
@KayOhtie @drawnto capitalism itself is the scum
Show threaddrawnto 🟨⬜🟪⬛Jun 12, 2024

@hazelnot

@KayOhtie

That we can agree on. It's less scum than monarchy & feudalism right now but that's hardly a good thing.

Show threadArikJun 12, 2024

@soop @sponsorblock

That means that there's a critical mass of people using ad-blocking to trigger YouTube into fighting them.

Ergo, there are a lot of people unhappy with watching ads on YouTube. Honestly, when I watch YouTube without an ad blocker, the experience is horrible.

Ergo, when (and if) YouTube somehow wins that fight, a large number of people will be generally unhappy with YouTube. A certain percentage of them will quit YouTube.

Apparently the math works out (or at least YouTube think that the math works out) that the number of people quitting YouTube will be lower than the number of people who keep watching ads.

I hope they're wrong.

Show threadNikhil 🐧Jun 12, 2024
@soop @sponsorblock I got my first Serverside injected ads today 😕