Unlock origin + Firefox! The harassment stops. I’d rather donate to the unlock team monthly instead of paying google for a solution to a problem they created.
You also need to add SponsorBlock to skip in-video advertisements.
I don’t know, most creators I watch put a creative spin on those, and it’s fun to watch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
FYI, SponsorBlock isn’t just for skipping sponsored segments. SB gives you granular control over the sorts of sections you can skip, and it only auto-skips sponsors by default. However:
- There are several categories of section, including intro animation/intermission (“an interval without actual content”), preview (i.e. where the information already exists later in the video), sponsor (a segment made in return for payment from a third party), unpaid/self-promotion (e.g. “buy my merch”), interaction reminder (e.g. “remember to like and subscribe”), and endcards/credits. (There’s also “filler tangent/jokes”, but I haven’t tried this one.)
- For each of these categories, you can choose to disable altogether, show in the seek bar, prompt to manually skip, or auto skip.
So even if you would never want to skip a sponsored segment in your life, the extension still saves a ton of time if you have no/limited interest in watching even just one of the above-listed categories.
I see, thanks for a thorough explanation! Didn’t know it was this advanced.
Absolutely! And what I ran down is just the extent of the features I personally interact with; there are a fair few more, including one that aims to combat clickbait by changing clickbaity titles.
yeah, surprised me too when i first got it. it’s pretty much a must for me now
One helpful thing I found is that it can skip “non music sections”, ie those cringey silent scenes they put in YouTube videos. If that’d existed a couple of years ago, I probably wouldn’t have switched to Spotify. I mainly switched because I was sick of random 10 second pauses for dramatic effect in the middle of songs, often right before the chorus
I got me some new devices recently. Researching and adding privacy/security add ons to Firefox was surprisingly enjoyable.
The idea that I have some measure of control over what I experience - and what I give in return - is novel to me.
The -10 or so extensions work well enough. It’s still the internet, but it’s an earlier version. Better than what currently exists.
Actually YouTube kinda built in the feature lol. It detects sections of the video most people skip and gives you a button to skip it as well. All right inside the YouTube app.
SponsorBlock also comes by default on SmartTubeNext for Android TV.
And Blocktube for filtering.
Pi-Hole + VPN and you can stop mobile ads as well. (You connect your phone to your VPN, whose traffic passes through your Pi-Hole)
Ublock Origin also works on Firefox mobile for Android, but that only works inside the browser.
You need the Pi-Hole network-level blocking to block ads in apps.
You don’t get to say “No” to YouTube, Microsoft, or the thousands of websites that ask to you to give them your email. There’s only a “Maybe later”.
I fuuuhuhuhucking hate this condescending, pestering dark pattern that apparently every single designer on the planet is required to use
Would you like to review our app?: Yes or Not Now.
I always say yes then give one star and complain about being asked to review it
This is the way
If an open source app asks me to do so, I usually give it a five star review. It’s the least I can do to support them and make them visible on Google Play.
Maybe Later
Pro-tip: apps can’t ask for leaving a review twice, so if you press yes and then go immediately back, it will never ask again.
Yes, 1 star.
Uhm, that’ s just capitalism in a nutshell.
Everything is just routing around people telling you “no.”
Government regulation is literally the epitome of being told “no” and they spend all the money in the fucking world to force it into a “yes.”
I mean, these people are so far up their own asses, I’ve seen ad industry people say seriously that people avoiding ads is breaking a contract. The genuine attitude that if they paid for the ad, in real life or online, that we owe them our eyes on it because they spent money on it. They’re so far out of touch that they can’t even face small risk.
Is it really a shock that a lot of people in corporate America are actual fucking rapists?
Gates, Weinstein, Musk, Trump, McMahon, I could go on… Plenty of these guys are well documented as not being able to take “no” for an answer, even if there’s no evidence they raped anyone (Gates, for example).
I sometimes open the official YouTube app and set it to autoplay and mute while doing dishes, so they can be happy that I watched their fucking ads.
I fear that at some point the feds will knock to make sure I’m not distracted while an ad plays.
No means no but ask me later means ask me later. You never said no. Source: the option doesn’t exist
Use inspect element to change the button from “ask me later” to “no” and then click it
I should try that when dating to see how long it takes for a court order to arrive.
Learning from the best
Why is tech so hell bent on removing consent. We need to frame this in a way that makes their pr teams shit themselves.
I just assumed it was because they secretly wanted me to use SmartTube
No means “I’ll ask you again in 30 days, because we really really want shorts to be a thing.”
Even the shorts from your subscriptions they “optimize” using their algorithm instead of showing them chronologically. It’s such a hassle.
The way you say no is by not visiting the site.
This^. You don’t have to use YT.
But there’s no real alternative to YouTube.
And no, using a proxy service is like using YouTube itself with uBlock or whatever.
Sorry man I don’t make the rules
Firefox mobile>ad blocker>YouTube.com
Revanced
And SmartTubeNext if you have an Android TV.
You still have to do all that patching and stuff. I do enough IT for work, I won’t wanna always be doing it at home.
You just have to do it once in a few months, and recent versions made it way easier to just download the correct apk and patch it quickly.
Firefox mobile sucks. I use Brave as my browser (yes I know what I’m doing I don’t want a lecture on this) and Grayjay as my YouTube app.
(yes I know what I’m doing I don’t want a lecture on this)
I don’t want someone explaining why Brave is bad, I’ve heard it all. I like it
The only reason why I went with FF/FF clones is because I wanted to completely degoogle myself. But a few websites require a chromium base, so I have Brave on standby for that. It’s a good browser.
Okay. Fair enough
Their full screen popups when I first open the app have started to load the subscribe button a second before anything else on screen. I keep catching myself about tap it out of pure reflex and I think they doing it on purpose.
Very few, if any tech companies care about consent.
As Louis Rossman says, they have a rapist mentality.
Yes they are. But no one who can do anything about it is doing anything about it.
Not just Youtube. Google is! Ever try to use Gmail or Google Drive or Google Docs in a non-Chrome browser? That’s another level of harassment!
I can’t recall any popups when I use G-Suite Apps on Firefox. I use Keep Notes, Docs, Excel.
The main thing I notice is the imposed loading time (Gmail animation takes like 10 seconds on FF and seemingly doesn’t exist on Chrome)
Yes, every day. I don’t know what you’re referring to.
They delete like 99% of comments
