from Hacker News

YouTube now blocking ad block

by epa on 10/23/23, 6:32 PM with 28 comments

• by behnamoh on 10/23/23, 7:15 PM

  There are two sides to this argument:

  - "If YouTube adds so much value to your life, then you should pay for YouTube Premium -- Why are you being frugal about it?"

  - "I want to be in control of what I see on webpages -- No company should enforce their agenda on me. If I don't like to see YouTube Shorts or Recommendations, then I must have that freedom. uBlock is more than an adblocker at this point -- it allows me to "detox" the bloated YouTube UI and make it more tolerable."

  The second group might not even mind paying for YouTube Premium, but that doesn't solve their problem. If YouTube really wants to increase revenue, there are other ways.

• by jsnell on 10/23/23, 7:22 PM

  Dupe:

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35892512

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793375

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35883457

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37782171

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37106802

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37798150

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36277079

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37825887

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37866601

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35916592

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37869315

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37883228

• by nmjohn on 10/23/23, 7:17 PM

  Not sure if ublock updated their blocking rules to bypass the block or youtube stopped the experiment - but starting yesterday, I'm no longer seeing any adblock warning which previously had started blocking me (as opposed to originally just nagging me to disable) from watching youtube videos.

  I do wonder if the actual outcome of the experiment was increased rates of adblocking though - since every time it makes it into the news, more people are exposed to the idea it's even possible.

  Aside, (cmd+l, cmd+c, cmd+shit+n, cmd+v, enter) is a pretty useful sequence to have muscle memory for to open the same page in incognito, which easily bypasses the block as well.

• by patorjk on 10/23/23, 7:15 PM

  For a few days I was getting the prompts and finally the 3 video warning. I went without youtube for a few days, when I tried yesterday my AdBlocker was working fine on it. I watched several videos and got no warnings. It's unclear to me if they gave up, or if they're testing this in waves to see what happens.

• by naillo on 10/23/23, 7:14 PM

  I initially blocked that popup with ublock origin, but I've since turned it back off and let it block me instead. It's a fantastic way to prevent you from mindlessly watching videos. Now I just use yt-dlp to download videos I know I care about and subscribe to.

• by somedude895 on 10/23/23, 7:10 PM

  Actually noticed that just last night watching YT on Brave, but I was able to just click away the overlay. Probably not for long though...

• by Supermancho on 10/23/23, 7:08 PM

  The linked thread is a comically sad example of the worst behaviors on reddit.

• by iameli on 10/23/23, 7:21 PM

  YouTube, if you're so smart, just show me the ad instead of the overlay!

• by sva_ on 10/23/23, 7:21 PM

  Still works fine for me.