uBlock origin!!
And PiHole, Sponsorblock, Adguard and ReVanced (depending on the device). This is a strict “no ads” household.
Smarttube for set top boxes like Nvidia shield etc: https://smarttubeapp.github.io/
Amazon Prime on my XBox literally doesn’t work without my PiHole. I need to block the ads otherwise nothing plays. My PiHole was recently down for a few days and suddenly we couldn’t finish any of the shows we were on.
Never trust these companies, they want to destroy their own products in the name of profit. Undermine them everywhere you can.
Billy should really not support them, Ad Block Plus let’s advertisers pay for having their ads checked as “acceptable advertisements”, i.e. is selling out the core functionality of their product. Billy should use uBlock origin, which afaik does not accept donations, he could however support something like PiHole .
I’m pretty sure those ads also have to meet certain criteria though.
Using ABP, I’ve never had a popup ad, full page ad, auto-playing video, or other intrusive form of advertisement. The “acceptable ads” have been quiet and out of the way in what would otherwise be empty space.
With the understanding that some websites and content creators are entirely reliant on ad revenue, I prefer to have those filtered down to those that don’t provide a burdensome experience.
I will say that having a new tab open with a solicitation for a donation / “premium” every single update (so almost daily) is irritating and they better knock that shit off if they don’t want to alienate users.
The “acceptable ads” have been quiet and out of the way in what would otherwise be empty space.
I don’t mind this whatsoever. I can appreciate the concept of free is paid for by ads, but when you force me to sit there and have to watch it, or pop ups take over the page, all that excessive nonsense, that’s when I say fuck off and use an ad blocker that will remove everything.
I actually think dating sites could be improved if they had an ad you could swipe away every 10 swipes or something. (I absolutely loath swipe only apps though. I need to know your personality not your duck face pose…) for apps with bios they could have a “banner” type ad that is between segments of the bio. Anything but “pay $50+/month to make this somewhat functional.”
I have no problem with the acceptable ads system. ABP doesn’t get any money from it, and the ads have to meet the criteria anyways, and it’s easy to opt out. I guess it’s a bit fishy that the list maintainers charge money to get ads reviewed, but the FAQ ThunderWhiskers posted says that smaller companies get it for free, and they only charge the bigger companies. I’m not gonna get up in arms over someone charging Disney money for a service they give the local deli for free.
I also like the way it gives companies an incentive to produce less intrusive ads. With the system, unintrusive ads reach more people. Otherwise, it’s all or nothing, which makes intrusive ads the best option from a greedy perspective; they’re far more likely to be clicked, and the only cost is the risk of damaging the ad ecosystem as a whole (and you know how little corporations can care about damaging ecosystems.)
adblock plus is shilled and lets ads through.
ublock origin, folks. and firefox, because adblocking wont work on chromium anymore.
ublock origin is so based, the dev doesn’t even accept donations. He wants people to donate to the chads maintaining the lists his add-on uses instead.
I can understand both sides and I’ve been on both sides. Wanting to donate to show appreciation and help support an awesome project, and not accepting donations due to creating the burden of unfair support/development expectations for a volunteer project.
It really is such a cool extension.
I find using scripts in Tampermonkey better for YouTube and twitch ad blocking
There’s a firefox extension that upgrades the twitch player and blocks ads. Can’t remember the name but it was easy to find when I searched for it.
I gave Premium a shot. Then the one time I wanted to use the feature Google said I was paying for - being able to download videos - I found out that it was just a glorified pre-buffer.
- Can’t view the video outside the youtube app or the website, source video file encrypted ✅️
- Can’t view the video if you havent connected to the internet in 3 days ✅️
- Does less than your average youtube downloader that you can find for free with one search ✅️
- Literally just saving Youtube bandwidth because they destroyed every benefit you would get if it was actually reasonable ✅️
Enshittification isnt just limited to free users folks. Slammed that cancellation button right then and there. Good luck earning back my trust, I’m happy to pay if you didnt scream so loudly that even if I paid, you were going to treat me like shit anyways.
Make sure that google can’t kill you without consequences after you bought one month of their subscription.
I pay for it and I like the perks. You are giving YouTube money, but also the creator of the video. And synchronizes the view with your account. And takes it into account for the dreaded “algorithm” (which I also find useful, plenty of cool channels discovered thanks to it).
What did you expect, exactly?
Ever go to a video website, click a download button under a video, and NOT have that video in your downloads folder? Literally that. That’s what i expect from a download button.
On android the download folder is a mess. I honestly prefer to have the videos in the app. I used newpipe before and it was a bit less convenient (although more flexible).
Never used it on a computer, tho, that would make sense there.
I like those perks too, but if I pay more to be able to download videos (which again, I could’ve used a free tool for) I want to be able to do whatever I want with it. Download means getting a file I can watch using my own video player and store for later even if Youtube dies tomorrow, If I go on holiday without internet, or if my internet goes down for a week. Anything.
If Google is going to be “Uhm aksually, you are technically downloading it, thats why we can advertise it like that”, then I’m already downloading literally every video I watch. And thats not the kind of bullshit you give to a paying customer. That is spitting in my face for paying you. Why does a non-Premium user get better service with free third party youtube downloaders?
It’s a matter of principle.
I see your point. For videos I want to hoard forever I also use yt-dlp, but for watching colbert on a plane, the app does just fine.
Wow thanks for the heads up on that! I kept getting tempted by that “Download” button thinking “No…it can’t be that easy.”
It’s kinda amazing how much content uses existing content…so they quietly can’t ruin downloading without tanking a lot of traffic.
Exactly, thinking that is what I was getting pulled me over the edge, I sometimes remember a music video I want to listen to on my phone during my commute and I don’t want to spend 30 minutes either getting on my PC to download it with a tool, or using a third party downloader which can at times be shady. So upgrading that to a single click in the app seemed like a great deal. Crushingly disappointed when I found out how it actually was. Turns out the real answer was NewPipe, which I don’t even have to pay for.
I believe gorhill says to support the filter list maintainers
Ah yes: Why don’t you accept donations?
[…] Have a thought for the maintainers of the various lists. These lists are everything. I can not emphasize this enough.
