from Hacker News

BlockTube, a YouTube Content Blocker

by unnervingduck on 1/30/24, 1:51 PM with 64 comments

  • by whywhywhywhy on 1/30/24, 3:39 PM

    Has anyone noticed YouTube now likes to surface shock content in the "For You" suggestions even if you've never searched for it? I search for recipe videos all the time and in the past week alone the 7th or so search result (Always the 3rd result in the For You box) has been a shock video.

    So YouTube this week alone has tried to show me Blackhead videos twice, one video of a deformed baby just after it was born, one video of a child dying free fall in an elevator.

    All when I'm getting ready to eat dinner so thanks for that Neal Mohan...

    Wish I was joking, never watched videos like these on YouTube in my life but yeah I search for a recipe and there it is, a gore or grossout video....

  • by compressedgas on 1/30/24, 4:05 PM

    I looked this extension over and found that it had two issues:

    It can lose data if you use it from more than one tab.

    It uses local storage and so has a much lower limit on size of its block list and the information it can retain about what was blocked than if it used IndexedDB instead.

  • by nomilk on 1/30/24, 3:40 PM

    I can't work out why youtube doesn't let you block a channel from search results with a single click.

    I regularly search for nature videos. There are a handful of notorious channels that create absurd thumbnails and stitch together footage from completely different animal encounters to create an extravagant story that would be incredibly interesting if only it were real. Such channels are easy to spot but clutter results and keep showing up because they do trick a lot of people and are therefore seen as popular by youtube's algorithm.

  • by AShyFig on 1/30/24, 4:23 PM

    I hate to use this thread as a general forum for complaints against YouTube, but I've come across some concerning behavior.

    I've gotten fed up with the app, so this morning I decided to use Firefox mobile to play a video on YouTube.com

    Whenever the video plays, my microphone turns on. The thing is I have my microphone permissions in Firefox turned off, with no exceptions. Has anyone else encountered this behaviour?

  • by sparrowInHand on 1/30/24, 3:34 PM

    Ah, it can also block shorts - excellent. No more pseudo choice harassment before they shove the feed down your throat anyway.

  • by unnervingduck on 1/30/24, 1:51 PM

    Just found about this handy extension and thought you all might appreciate it. Never thought I needed it but recently I've seen so many bs channels in my search results, when searching CERN for example.

  • by ensocode on 1/30/24, 4:06 PM

    I'd like to have an configurable AI-based content blocker which scans the video's thumbnail and subtitles and decides if this is wrong or too stupid or anything for my x year old kids

  • by timbit42 on 1/30/24, 11:22 PM

    I find "BlockTube" OK for blocking key words in video titles or channel names but I much prefer "Channel Blocker" for blocking channels. It puts an X in front of the channel name on each video. Clicking the X blocks the entire channel and its video instantly disappear from whatever page you're on.

  • by rvnx on 1/30/24, 4:47 PM

    To YouTube: you really need to skip Sponsored segments when you are YouTube Red subscriber...

    You don't pay xx USD per month, to get LinusTechTips shoveling ads down your throat.

    The content creator is already paid for the content as he receives a small % of the subscription as revenue.

    It would be very logical that content creators have to mark these segments.

  • by hemaglobin on 1/30/24, 3:58 PM

  • by senectus1 on 2/3/24, 5:33 AM

    Gods I wish I could put this on the gateway to cover all devices.

    like a pihole sort of thing.

  • by MrJagil on 1/30/24, 3:43 PM

  • by denvaar on 1/30/24, 3:57 PM

    any popular youtube alternatives?