I’m still waiting for my “AdBlOcKeR bAd 😭” popup, at this point I’m actually disappointed it hasn’t shown up yet.
I’m using ublock and firefox (on arch btw) if your curious
WTF is with that URL. Only this bit seems required.
https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/weawg96nbplroggqwmuc.jpg
Yeah but the real question is, why the hell did you choose to look at the URL instead of the image itself?
It’s not such a bad idea to be in the habit of looking at URLs before you click on them generally, FYI. But in this case it wasn’t really a choice.
Nah I mean it literally just showed me a picture by default because OP put it as a ![] () format
Nah I mean it literally just showed me
That’s good to know. However, you asked:
Yeah but the real question is, why the hell did you choose
I didn’t choose, as I just showed you. What you saw is what I saw.
I use the same and got the popup yesterday
Update uBlock, reset filters to default, block your extensions and see if that helped. If things started working gradually start enabling extensions and check if popup started showing.
You likely have an extension that blocks too much and allows YouTube to detect adblocker.
Same, but I figured out that on Plasma X11 they won’t show up while on Plasma Wayland they do… (was it random?)
I’m on Plasma Wayland and haven’t seen the popup, yet
In my experience the popup comes up if and only if you have any custom blocking list enabled. Default uBlock filter lists are fine
Not true. I reset all my ublock settings to default and disabled any other adblockers like they recommended and I still got the popup. I then decided to use invidious instead.
weird, sticking with default lists fixed the issue for me and the moment I enabled any of the Easylist or Annoyances filters it come up again
Alright I’ve disabled easylist but now I’m receiving annoying sponsored widgets on my home screen and side bars so I might as well disable my adblocker at that point.
I imagine, they stretch this out over a longer period, so no shitstorm forms…
hasn’t shown up for me either. I mostly use invidious, but i just tried directly on youtube, and it works with an adblocker too.
I’ve been binging YouTube, preparing to disengage forever…
It’s been weeks now. The popup still hasn’t come up
I wanted to say the same but then remembered I’m using piped for a while now lol
People keep saying this but I guess I’m on the lucky slow end of the rollout because I haven’t had my adblock stop working yet.
But they’ve done this before, it’s just a cycle. If I have to, I’ll start using a new adblocker, or entirely diffent way to access the videos, once an option becomes available shortly, inevitably. No reason to worry about this long term IMO.
Ublock released an update that allowed it to keep working on YouTube.
When? I’m one video away from being blocked and I manually updated my ublock stuff like a week ago.
I had to re-update last night. I’ve heard it’s a bit of an arms race currently, so you might need to regularly update.
Personally I’m getting libredirect up and considering full abandonment of all the major platforms. I’m already on lemmy, I might as well move away from everything else that is that is going through enshittification.
Man, I’m still waiting on Netflix to tell me my parents and I can’t use the same account. They asked for an email verification code one time and that’s been it.
Honestly I’m just kind of blue balled at this point. Just make me cancel already!
Same here, but Netflix is going to increase prices again, so that might be the final straw to ditch them for me
Spotify has been harassing me to get whatever the heck the duo crap is…literally only me uses it but I’m on the verge of cancelling from their full screen garbage
That’s too bad. Just in these last few days I’ve been messing around with free Spotify and I was wondering if it might be worth trying out paying for it.
What exactly is the full screen garbage you’re talking about?
Telling me to upgrade to duo so I can share my login for whatever reason. It’s just annoying more then anything.
This is pretty much it. Desktop, android. Don’t matter.
This has pissed off a lot of people, including tech youtubers that have had to turn to alternative income sources like sponsors and patreon that are working on or promoting as blockers.
Maybe I’ve found a definitive solution, because adblocking only works for a few days, until Google noticed it and put contrameasures. In Firefox install Tampermonkey and in it this script
https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/477725-youtube-iframe-adblocker
In Vivaldi no need of Tampermonkey, download the link to an folder and don’t delete it. Open the Extension page in developer mode and drag the script in it. Done
It is an ingenious userscript that helps persistent YouTube viewers bypass the frustrating “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube” message. It employs a clever technique of dynamically inserting an iframe player to replace the standard YouTube player. This method effectively circumvents YouTube’s ad-blocker detection, allowing for an uninterrupted, ad-free viewing experience even after YouTube’s standard measures have been triggered. So you can still use your adblocker without problems.
I would just caution anyone that blocking ads while logged into your Google account is probably a bad idea if you care about still watching videos there. Google will grow more desperate to show tracked ads to users.
The only ling term solution is to seek to watch YouTube e videos in a private way. Freestone is a good start. New piped and individuals look promising as well. I’m still researching a good long term solution.
Front-ends and streaming platforms are several outsite, but Google also is blocking those, its not a solution for a long term. I was recently using FreeTube as a desktop client, but it has become unusable. I recently replaced VLC with SMPlayer, MMplayer like VLC but way better, also FOSS, this allows me to watch, among others, streaming videos from different sites, among others also from YT so far without problems. I also use an extension (FOSS) that allows me to record the audio of the active tab and save it as mp3, that is, with this it does not matter whether it is a music video from YT or from other sources and with this outside of Google’s control.
A good option is also IMDB, or better its online service, Odysee, which allows you to import subscriptions and playlists from YT, it is somewhat complicated to do, but it is guided. Odysee is not related to Google, it has a UI similar to YT and a good number of videos of all kinds, many have already moved to this platform. In my opinion it is the best direct alternative to YT.
In any case, at least so far, this userscript works wonderfully and I think it will continue to work, since it prevents YT from discovering that you use an adblocker, not like other anti adblock killers whose script I also have in the Vivaldi blocker list, since these do block the YT detector, which naturally has already been discovered, however this script does not block the YT detector, but surrounds it by putting a “mask” over the video, with which the detector passes underneath without discovering anything.
The risk that YT discovers it and blocks me? Yes it does anyway if I continue using an adblocker and I prefer to suck my elbow before deactivating the ad- and all the other blockers on YT and swallowing all the garbage of ads, clickbaits and the other shit that YT is full of (a single music video, blocked 12 ads and more than 20 trackers and without the Clickbait Remover, YT completely changes the thumbnails it shows, which mostly have nothing to do with the content). No, thanks
Yeah, I definitely agree, and haven’t looked into all the options yet. It is pretty logical that they would catch on to stuff like free-tube very quickly. But I still think the only reasonable posture is to view video content anonymously, until google goes the twitter route and demands that you identify yourself to watch a video. They kind of already do that for mature content.
I know, there still videos blocked for NSFW content, where you need to identify you, eg the music video from Harakiri for the Sky - Funeral Dream is flagged as such, but you can still warch it from an other upload, Also not a problem to watch it in Andisearch or SMPlayer. But this filter has nothing to do with the current adblocker problem, age restricted vids in YT are exist since several years.
Google’s desperation to show tracked ads is but one vector in the equation which determines longterm viability for watching Youtube ad-free for free. There are also other vectors to consider like the level of obtrusion required to actually effectively adblock-block, and its related effect on the userbase. And also just the level of inconvenience presented by ads, determined by their length, skippability etc.
The proportion of the userbase blocking ads is still relatively negligible, and this is an outcome manufactured by Google toeing the line between too obtrusive and too ineffective. Any measure I can imagine which would actually capture a significant portion of users blocking ads would also significantly skew the balance in favour of obtrusivity, which they would pay for in lost users.
As long as many users are happy to continue being vigilant in blocking ads, IMO this balance will ensure blocking ads will remain feasible.
Long term, google will demand our identity to serve video data to us, even if only out of principle. I just think that service will degrade in the pursuit of more price extraction.
I have a longer term project to decouple my identity and property from online services. Part of the reaso thnat I am also on lemmy in the first place. With google products, it is becoming clear that anonymous use is really the only answer.
In general I would agree, but as it pertains to Youtube adblock blocking - there is no gradual slide into degradation (apart from perhaps to do with the implementation of ads itself, though I’d argue they’re less obtrusive now than in their original implementation many years ago).
There is fundamentally no way to adblock-block today which does not involve collecting info in a way that causes obvious privacy concerns. It’s not somewhere Google can get to by taking little steps. The adblock-blocking that’s been happening to date is easily circumvented. Logically an arms race between adblockers and adblock-blockers will ensue, except in practice it’d be like raising the stakes from a civil war re-enactment to actual nuclear war
Right. That is why I am saying: beocme anonymous now before google demands your identity to watch videos. That is where I believe this is headed.
This is working for me, super simple to install too.
No love for freetube? Started using it a few days ago and it’s actually brilliant. Rather than contunue with the constant battle back and forth with ublock and YouTube, I’ve just taken the nuclear option and blown away the front end. It’s amazing. Loads faster than the Web version of YouTube too.
Also invidious and also Piped, tons of options. Or say fuck you to google all together and go for odyssee or something
Which Invidio.us instance would you recommend? I’m looking for one that’s the most stable and relatively fast compared to other instances. Also, I believe it’s also geography dependent because instances don’t have CDNs?
Big fan of yewtu.be but location matters absolutely. They could use a CDN but its costly so I doubt it
PeerTube has some pretty good lofi streams. I use it for that and not YouTube anymore.
Nebula.tv is a good paid streaming service if you like science goodness.
What others are there? 🤔
Yeah, I thinknthebmost important aspect of these things is that we have to start consuming video without letting Google track our activity. Whether it is Freestone or another client, this means tacking our own video preferences and searching for likewise content manually.
I am a bit worried that long term, Google will simply withold video content. Without the ability to track users, and be the definitive authority on what a view means, Google really has no reason to stream video to people for free. Eventually, Google, in their desperation will resort to more and more forceful measures to track people who watch your videos - invalidating your Google account and cutting off your access to drive, maps, and search is a possibility.
It is prudent to get off of their client and go private now. But we also have to think about replacing the backend, similar to how lemmy is replacing the reddit backend. Peertube exists, but it is a much heavier lift for self hosting. I would also want to see a client that is committed to mixing youtube videos with peertube bidoes, or other backends before it is too late.
I’m going to Odysee, it’s the best alternative to YT i know and it isn’t related to Google.
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Brilliant idea for a universal front end. If the user experience is seamless so that the hosting service doesn’t matter that would be such a good way to transition to freer platforms
It’s what I would like to see, but I don’t have high hopes for it getting developed. No body seems to want to, because youtube is just too dominant. I certainly don’t have the time to work on this, so I don’t expect others to.
It is just hard to imagine going back to a world where we can view long form videos for free, privately, without ads, without a major hassle. I just think I will be watching less videos, ultimately. I have a lot of work I want to do. I am somewhat confident we will return to that world eventually - the cat is out of the bag and something will fill the gap to compete against youtube’s degraded service.
Copy the URL, open it in a private window with ublock origin set to allowed in private windows. Can still view the video, and now they also can’t attribute it to your user account.
So they lose again.
They can definitely still associate it to your household by IP though. Me and my roommates get video suggestions for things the others are interested in because of the IP tracking.
Yikes lol
While they can track your IP for all sorts of nefarious purposes, they can’t and won’t associate it to use of an ad blocker if the ad blocker has successfully blocked their ads because they, by definition, don’t know that you’ve blocked them. If they did they would show the popup.
Or just don’t ever sign in to YouTube and always clear cookies when you close the browser. And out of curiosity, why do people actually sign into YouTube? For “favorites” I just use my browsers bookmarks and it’s not like “hitting that bell” actually helps me because usually I won’t watch a just published video until I’m ready to actually watch something. So struggling to think of a reason to sign in except for the one time I need to increase the subscriber count for them. And even then, I promptly log out.
Because their algorithm is pretty damn good at recommending relevant stuff. For example, titanfall 2 got revived and I found a lot of small youtubers (<20k subs) making some incredibly good content through it. The secret is to click “not interested” on all the clickbait crap often enough and at some point it’ll learn.
Though I do use
on an android TV and block out crap like shorts altogether because google’s youtube app is unusable.
I kind of like the recommendations that populate aligned with my sub interests, basically
Only thing I can think of is getting notified for new videos from youtubers you’re subscribed to and the convenience of saving the play position when you don’t finish a video
For “favorites” I just use my browsers bookmarks
They don’t work over multiple devices though, unless you have an account for your browser I guess.
Firefox syncs all my bookmarks for me across all devices. So that might be the account thing you’re talking about.
If I had any programming ability above the level of a sloth I’d make a blocker called “Muffler” that basically separated out all the adstreams and made them think they were viewed and played in real time, but invisible to the user.
Shouting into the void, and nothing to be done about it as they’d look like they were being played.
Sounds like what adnauseam is doing. It loads ads hidden and clicks on some of them but I am not sure if it does that with YouTube ads or just blocks them.
So does this cause advertisers to lose money since their ads are being clicked but never viewed by human eyes? Because if so, I’ll install ad nauseum asap
I thinkk the main idea behind ad naseum is to drown out any information you leave behind. Basically it hiides your data in a pile of useless and fake data that becomes useless.
Not for AdSense ads, like what YouTube uses. Click-Through Rate (CTR) is only used to determine how much of a cut Google gives to the ad hosts, the advertisers just bid for the spots. The advertisers can see the CTR metrics, and so they might be willing to bid more, but that’s not guaranteed.
So google makes money either way, and the advertisers spend money either way. The only difference is that your favorite websites and youtubers get paid too.
Hmmm well for some reason I was under the impression that ad nauseum can be used alongside uBO, but I see now that it can’t so I guess I’ll keep uBO since I’ve got a ton of custom filters, but this was insightful so thanks.
Yep, advertisers are paying for ad clickthroughs that no human ever sees.
In a vice versa way, that’s pi hole. The website makes ad requests to the DNS and pi hole says:
I use pihole. Pihole does not work for sites that serve ads from the same domain, like YouTube
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Like, downloading the video files with yt-dlp and then uploading them? Or streaming, like what Piped/LibreTube do?
I personally have my own piped server, and don’t enter to youtube for anything. The only 2 things it can’t do are post comments and see live streams comments. No ads, no tracking, i can do whatever i want without google’s permission
There was an app that did that.
Google found it and killed it.
Not a bad idea, but if possible, you want to skip loading the ad altogether, which is – to my understanding – what currently happens.
This is so inherently detectable, though, I’m amazed it worked for so long and that it’s still working now. Likely a consequence of offloading as much of YT onto the client side as possible, because if you’re doing anything server side how hard is it to require that the ad has at least downloaded before streaming the video?
The Spotify ripper “zotify” has an undetectable “realtime” mode that does basically what OP suggested. Instead of downloading every track as fast as possible, it pretends that it’s actually streaming and listening to them. Obviously it takes a lot longer to rip a whole album, but it’s a good idea.
I think Spotify ripping isn’t big enough that it’s actually needed at this point, but it’s good that they considered the potential for it.
I always thought the reason they don’t take any action, is exactly because adblockers would then work as the guy above described.
Companies posting ads would eventually become aware, that a not insignificant portion of viewers don’t even see the ads they are paying for. I don’t see how this won’t cause a backlash… i guess youtube calculated that in and thinks it’ll be worth it any way.
Good point, if you’re counting ad impressions and billing accordingly then it’s better to simply lose the impression than bill the customer for displaying a “ghost ad”.
However this is exactly what’s happening to sponsors with SponsorBlock, their section gets skipped and nobody knows (well, the channel owner knows from the watch stats, but does the sponsor demand those stats, do they only pay for clickthroughs on the referral link, I have no idea how the YT sponsor ecosystem works)
They don’t need any other information than referral link clicks/signups and video views, one of which they have metrics on, the other is public information. A SponsorSkip user is equal in their eyes to a person who isn’t interested in the product.
I’m personally not a big fan of spotify ripping, the audio quality isn’t great and more annoying. If I were you I’d check out Soulseek or the alternative ui Nicotine+
Piped is pretty much that.
?
After updating my uBlock lists to the latest version the popup no longer appears. Something to try out.
Check out GrayJay it’s like YouTube vanced, but it can access twitch, nebula and many other sources at the same time
Thanks mate
*laughs in NoScript
My mind was just blown. Turning off Javascript works, doesn’t it?
Very much so. Should also be deleting cookies after every session, and probably never logging in.
Are you able to view YouTube at all with NoScript enabled ? When I tried it out last the page itself doesn’t load because everything is JS based.
Yes, just allow ytimg and youtube and it works. Though I also have Enhancer for Youtube and Unhook installed, but I doubt those have any impact.
Just update the filters
I did the recommended stuff (resetting ublock, updating the filters and Restart). The ad popup about disabling adblock still opens up.
If you also use “Enhancer for YouTube” try disabling its adblocker.
Yes. I updated my uBlock Origin and it seems to skip through YouTube video ads for now. But I’m sure YouTube’s team is hard at work trying to overcome the new workaround. This is essentially going to be a tech arms race, lol.
The good news is it probably costs Google 1000x in resources to come up with a solution than uBlock to get around it. Its a war they cannot truly win.
you can also use invidious or piped
If you’re not afraid of Docker you can even spin up your own instance of Invidious. You won’t get much in the way of recommendations, but you won’t have to worry about the site going down.
Be the frontend you want to see in the world.
When docker get their shit together and work on freebsd? Sure
That’s a way taller order than you might think. Docker has loads of kernel level integration that FreeBSD isn’t interested in supporting, also there are separate techs for similar purposes, like jails.
Yeah, so if projects don’t support freebsd I’m out. Tired of everyone’s fetish for docker, even Canonical have added freebsd style jails to ubuntu now
cgroups are very different and much more powerful than freebsd jails. The server world is leaving freebsd for Linux.
Docker still sucks, though, and you should use podman instead.
The problem with podman is that we use stuff like Docker-compose and tilt at work, that require the docker daemon socket. I do try to use podman when possible, though. But yeah, I avoid Red Hat these days, that company is doomed.
I use kubernetes+containerd for my servers, which is neither Docker nor Podman.
Just get into the routine of going to ublock origin addon each morning, clear the caches and loading all filters. Close all youtube tabs and reopen them. Those daredevils are playing anti-anti-adblock with youtube via blocklists daily now.
Ah, if it doesn’t work, disable all addons, restart browser, update filters, try. If it works, enable addons one-by-one until the method suddenly fails.
Also pi-hole and similar adblocking solutions can cause this now, so you might need to remove those, add exceptions or stuff. It’s tedious, but doable.
Might be time to migrate to indiviuous as my new youtube frontpage (uses youtube as video source, nothing lost) or setup my own instance of it. My TV runs smarttubenext for years now, anyway, which is way better than the original yt app.
anti-anti-adblock
Trace Buster Buster!
I’m way too lazy to update filter lists every day, so I just use Redirector to redirect the watch page to Invidious.
Haven’t had this issue yet. Firefox with ublock on Linux.
They’re rolling it out only for certain users.
staged rollout
And new circle between adBlocks and antiAdDlocks begins.
