this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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You might have noticed that even on Firefox (depending on your lists) YouTube may detect uBlock Origin on Firefox now

There's already a workaround (found, again, here), but I figured I would use this opportunity to tell people that projects like Piped and Invidious 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 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

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[–] deweydecibel@lemmy.world -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

I will gladly accept my usual downvotes to remind people Sponsorblock is only hurting the content creators, not Google, and given there's absolutely no threat of malware or tracking from a sponsored in-video ad, you have no need for it besides entitlement and a disrespect for the people that are already getting fucked over by Google in the first place.

[–] xtremeownage@lemmyonline.com 30 points 1 year ago

Sorry.... watching a sponsored video for world of tanks for the 10th time, or simply safe, or whatever other garbage is there isn't going to make me want to purchase it.

I value my time... If I didn't use sponsor block, I'm still going to skip right past it.... This, just does it for me.

[–] HonorIsDead@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sponsor block says it's skipped about 18hrs since I started using it. No way I'm going to stop using it when I have a choice.

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You've saved people from 4,176 segments ( 2d 2h 15.4 minutes of their lives )
You've skipped 9,064 segments ( 3d 1h 27.2 minutes )

Yeah... no... 3 days of my life back? That I didn't have to waste watching an AD? Full agreement with you there... Fuck that noise. I'm going to keeping using the hell out of it.

It's a terrible argument too... Does it make sense to yell at someone using a DVR that skips forward? My Plex server does this automatically.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YouTube: makes ads more and more intrusive.

People: block annoying intrusive ads.

This guy: "YoU'rE jUsT hUrTiNg ThE cReAtOr!"

Companies will keep making ads worse and worse until people stop putting up with it. I'm not going to put up with their bullshit so that the content creator can get 0.0001 cents from my view. If you want to support the creator that's what Patreon is for.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I mean people don't have to watch Youtube. Also all this shit about ads and then blocking them but still watching Youtube does nothing. People actually not using the platform might make a difference.

[–] macaroni1556@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not being a youtuber I don't know, but do sponsors even know that you're using sponsorblock? How could they tell?

[–] Morgikan@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think they can really. I don't work in that stuff, but skipping isn't included in YT analytics from what I've read. I would bet they rely on something like average view percentage to just make assumptions. For example, if a content creator places the sponsor bit in the first 10% of the video, and average view percentage for that video is 80%, then it is assumed the sponsor bit was watched. I wouldn't be surprised if sponsors require some form of transparency in analytic reporting for content creators to get paid.

I also would figure that YouTube, as it has no bearing on their revenue, is probably not going to add in analytic features for Skip just for the sake of some third party.

[–] SnipingNinja@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure you can see the parts people see more on average (otherwise I assume the viewer interest graph on the track bar wouldn't be a thing)

[–] hottari@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 year ago

You are entitled to your own opinion but it's because of Google's content monetization strategies that user-generated videos now include native content ads. Content creators are following the money. I don't have to agree with them, Google or your nonsense opinion.

[–] rbits@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm going to skip the sponsor anyway, SponsorBlock just makes it way easier. I don't have it on auto skip though, because 1: Sometimes they mark segments as sponsored that still have interesting stuff, and sometimes they do good sponsor segments, and 2: Maybe sometimes I'll be willing to watch it. For example, I always watch the end segment of Jet Lag.

So it ends up being not very different from skipping the sponsor. And besides, I never bought/used anything from a sponsor segment before SponsorBlock.

Hello there fellow Jet Lag enjoyer.

[–] librecat@lemmy.basedcount.com 10 points 1 year ago

I don't know about you, but when I watch a video I'm not there to watch an ad.

Also don't forget about the bad companies and scams (example: Established Titles).

[–] Psythik@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

SponsorBlock is useful for more than just skipping sponsored segments, you know.

I use it mostly to remove the "hey guys" and "like and subscribe" bullshit that is in literally every. single. video. It's irritating and I'm tired of hearing it.

Also, the "skip to highlight" is useful for those of us with ADHD. It keeps the less interesting videos interesting. Not everything needs a 20 minute intro before they get to the subject of the video.

[–] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

When the sponsor is baked into the video itself, there's no way for the advertiser to know how many of the people who watched the video, skipped past the sponsor. The only way they know wether their ads are working or not, is by seeing how many people used the discount code from said channel. If you're the kind of person going thru the effort to install additional software on top of adblocker to get rid of this sponsored content aswell, I think it's quite safe to assume you weren't going to buy their product anyways.

Also if you're still feeling bad about it, just donate few bucks directly to the content creator. That's way more than they're ever going to profit from you watching ads anyways.

[–] Rukmer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

It's good to keep in mind, but I mean do you sit there through 1-3 minute ads not skipping forward? I don't watch much television, I mostly watch YouTube. So I watch a lot of it. What good is watching an ad going to do if I'm never going to buy anything from them? Once or twice, I've needed or wanted a product or service I thought might be promoted on YouTube, I went and looked for a creator to get a link/code from. But I think I did that two times in the past 9 years of being an avid YouTube watcher, and those times I was not buying the product due to ads, just thought I'd support a creator since I was going to make a purchase. I don't have sponsor block (I use NewPipe and I don't feel like learning a new app), but I just skip all the ads by tapping the skip button a bunch. They're often 2 full minutes.

[–] rush@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I use sponsorblock not for sponsors, but for things like non-music parts of MVs or interaction reminders tbh