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YouTube's new anti-adblock measures

(iter.ca)
990 points smitop | 4 comments | 20 Jun 25 17:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.632s | source
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lcnPylGDnU4H9OF ◴[21 Jun 25 04:54 UTC] No.44334626[source]▶
The primary thing that makes advertisements disagreeable is their irrelevance. That’s not to say whether or not the advertisement is for a product or service for which the viewer is interested in purchasing but how it relates to the context in which it is viewed.

People complain about billboards next to a countryside highway because it is entirely irrelevant to driving through the countryside. Actual complaints may be about how the billboards block a scenic view but that also seems like another way of complaining about the irrelevance. Similarly, if I am watching a Youtube video, I am never thinking that a disruptive message from a commercial business is relevant to my current activities (uh, passivities?). No advertisement is relevant, not even in-video direct sponsorships, hence SponsorBlock.

If I go to Costco and see an advertisement for tires... well, I’m at Costco, where I buy stuff. Things are sold at Costco and people go there to have things sold to them. I might need tires and realize I can get that taken care of while I’m at Costco. Nearly every advertisement I see at Costco is relevant because it’s selling something I can buy in the same building, indeed usually something juxtaposed close to the advertisement.

I don’t complain about advertisements at Costco because that would be insane. I complain about the advertisements on Youtube because they’re irrelevant and weird but somehow normalized.

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scoofy ◴[21 Jun 25 05:06 UTC] No.44334685[source]▶
You can also pay for YouTube. I do. It’s nice, not crazy expensive. No ads. Creators get paid. Everyone wins.
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1. ManlyBread ◴[21 Jun 25 09:04 UTC] No.44335927[source]▶
The value I get for paying YouTube doesn't match the price.

Ad blocking is already free and was free for two decades, why would I want to start paying for it now? It's not like I am breaking ToS (despite their pop-ups stating otherwise) and even if I did it is my computer and it is entirely up to me what kind of content it is and isn't going to display.

Personally I don't care if creators get paid or not, I have enough financial problems as it is and I have no capacity to add the problems of complete strangers on the internet to the pile.

Everyone wins aside from me, the end user. I am paying for something that is already free to do, I get nothing out of it (I still have to run stuff like Sponsorblock to get the content I actually want) and I participate in the upkeep of a business model that not only doesn't have my interests in mind but also has no issues with tricking me (there is no content moderation for YouTube ads and there are plenty of cases in which users are served scam ads).

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2. PaulDavisThe1st ◴[21 Jun 25 15:08 UTC] No.44338159[source]▶
> Personally I don't care if creators get paid or not, I have enough financial problems as it is and I have no capacity to add the problems of complete strangers on the internet to the pile.

Then stop watching youtube. You're just free-riding on the backs of whatever mechanisms exist to motivate the people who make videos to keep doing so. Plenty of other things to do in life other than watch videos you think are worth precisely zero <currency-units>.

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3. malka1986 ◴[22 Jun 25 11:47 UTC] No.44346104[source]▶
> Then stop watching youtube.

Why would I, since I can watch it for free without ads ?

> Plenty of other things to do in life other than watch videos you think are worth precisely zero <currency-units>.

Oh they definitely are worth something. But I also definitely do not want to give Google money.

4. ManlyBread ◴[22 Jun 25 19:01 UTC] No.44349408[source]▶
Or I could continue to watch YouTube and ignore this insane rule that seems to exist solely in your head.