Most people, including myself, seem to agree, that ads were never the problem. When YouTube started, it had ads too and nobody cared. But the ads got worse and websites started to shove them down our throats. I miss the times of a single banner below a video. I don't think Google and all the others realise just how much determined nerds can achieve. So far the ad blockers seem to win the race, minus some minor setbacks.
this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2023
520 points (94.7% liked)
Technology
72360 readers
4811 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It was October Spooky when Microsoft dropped the GetWinX.exe icon on everyone's Win7 and Win8 taskbars. The first time, we all followed the directions and dove into the registry to remove it, because it wasn't enough to just delete it. The icon would self restore.
Then Microsoft reinstalled their adware in a critical security update Big Mic also started using dark patterns making upgrading opt-out, and hiding the onay anksthay toggle.
Thats when an engineer, UltimateOutsider, I think, created the GetWinX Control Panel which not only did the full remove in a wizard but also monitored on boot to see if it came back.
It was a reassuring day. I think no matter how much the companies enshittify, it will only drive pissed off engineers to write hard bypasses. It's how we got the GCP. It's how we got Windows Loader for every release since XP's activation process.
When youtube started, the ads would load perfectly every single time and the video was a tiresome afterthought that would load in fits and starts if it loaded at all.
That sounds like every streaming service
I use an ad blocker but I cringe when I see my wife viewing a short recipe online, on a page with 10+ ads.
Why don't you help her? Do you not like her??
She's drowning and you're just standing there watching :( :(
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Now on mobile they even open up the sidebar where the playlist normally is and puts an extra ad there too. Then it breaks your fullscreen and youre left with the comments open and a banner ad. So dumb.
load more comments
(18 replies)
if they come for yt-dlp i will record their videos with a fucking VCR and clip out the ads so help me god
load more comments
(4 replies)
I can’t watch YouTube without getting ads with some gravy seal in camo walking around in the woods telling me there’s a storm coming.
Who’s allowing these clowns to spread their propaganda?
I don't know what a "gravy seal" is, but I'm trying to picture it and I'm kinda laughing to myself
Imagine a fat, old, or otherwise unfit civilian who has purchased tactical-looking gear and weapons, which he uses for aggressive posturing. That's my understanding of the term.
Pretty much spot on. This imaginary man also owns a truck too big to park and will assault you for being gay and/or brown. People just like him populate moderate swaths of the American South and make other minor appearances farther north.
Member of Meal Team 6, Vanilla ISIS, or Y'all Qaeda. Usually drives a pavement princess.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Ads are the reason I stopped listening to regular FM radio. I used to live in a more rural town and it was at least half an hour to get to any city I would have to go to for more than basic groceries. Once when I was coming back somewhere that takes a whole hour drive to get home, I heard nothing but commercials the entire drive. Not one fucking song (aside from ad jingles) for a whole fucking hour. Ridiculous.
I switched to Sirius. And it was great.... Until they got bought/merged with XM. Now they have a monopoly on satellite radio, they immediately cut features and jacked up prices. They also started playing ads. So I cancelled that.
I've been using Spotify Premium ever since. It started off pretty great; they've recently been cutting back features and jacking up the price tho. So I may end up cancelling Spotify, too, if shit keeps trending downhill. Especially if they put ads in the premium service I pay for specifically to not have ads.
I've been adding music to my mp3 collection since Napster got started. It feels old fashioned now but I have yet to see a reason to use an alternative method. I actually have a lifetime subscription to SiriusXM. So I pay nothing, and I still don't listen to that shit.
load more comments
(4 replies)
Remember the time when people used to have a stack of CDs in the car? Some cars even had a a fancy player that could hold multiple discs.
load more comments
(6 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
YouTube Ads: "You are a MAN with a GUN and you will MURDER EVERYONE if it means you can PROTECT your FAMILY"
I don't even know, or care, wtf they are selling but they missed the target audience with that one. That's the cringiest fetishism I've ever seen in my life.
So many ads seems like Powerthrist turned down to 70% but lacking the irony.
load more comments
(3 replies)
These ads make it impossible to use YT as a free learning platform anymore.
When I want to dig into a subject, I want to do it focused and without being distracted, and YT makes it impossible. The only content one can tolerate ads on is entertainment, which makes YT just another TikTok.
Currently sharing piped.video with every single educator there is. There should NEVER FUCKING EVER be ads on educational videos. Youtube is run by POS's and greedy shitfaces.
Well, it's owned by Google...so...
load more comments
(13 replies)
I live in the Philippines and get ads for cock fighting.
I live in Canada and gets ads for Philippino cock.
Guess YouTube figured out your algorithm.
I have a VPN set to Sweden as the default country. I have weird ads, I don’t know what they are selling.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Hi! We're Liberty Mutual! All of our ads are weird and quirky, which is funny! Quirky equals funny, right? You're laughing, aren't you? This one has an emu! An emu is funny, isn't it? Liberty Mutual!
load more comments
(1 replies)
Don't see mention of Invidious in here so may as well share.
Like piped - front end for youtube. No ads.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I know it's not, but that totally looks like the domain of a porn site.
Baby, you're going to get piped so hard.
This is why I avoid the steam in-game web browser like t͟h͟e͟ P͟L͟A͟G͟U͟E͟
load more comments
(2 replies)
Fuck YouTube
YouTube AIDS
Not only the way they keep pushing more and more ads is becoming way too much, they don't have any standards for what sort of ads they push. From blatant political propaganda to petty false advertising of apps. A reckoning is way overdue.
Chumba casino ads are the so dystopian and bleak it's like I'm listening to an ad in a GTA game.
Weirdly, and annoyingly, I get this same thing when watching YouTube on my TV (the quantity thing, not the war propaganda stuff. Just regular ads). Whether via Roku stick, Chromecast or anything. It's sometimes an ad every 2 minutes. However watching the same thing on a laptop or my phone even without any adblock and the video will play far better. Maybe 1 ad at the halfway point and nothing else.
I don't know why the TV version of YouTube is such an arse for ads. They're not even in clean places - I get an ad mid-sentence.
Honestly, for a 20 minute video I'd be perfectly ok with a 30 second ad or so. It helps the creators and isn't that much of a pain for me. But getting adverts every 2 minutes, even if they're skippable is just a horrific experience.
The time and set duration for their ads is based on viewer habits, so they are basically banking that you are too lazy to skip it or are out of the room and they can still claim they ran the whole ad.
Recently in a 5 minute video an ad came up that showed it was an hour and 10 minutes long. There is no good reason for that garbage
Dude with kids cartoons it’s horrible. 5+ min ads disguised as cartoons for 2min videos. It’s absurd.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
view more: next ›