Whelp, here we go again
So there are YouTube front ends for browser experience, but has anyone tried freetube from this guide?
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/
I’ve really liked the newpipe x Sponsorblock experience on my Android phone with having a subscription list, saves, playlists all locally with no YouTube account and ability to export and import the data of Playlists etc.
Freetube sounds like newpipe for desktop and has sponsorblock as an option too. Anyone use it or used it and have an thoughts on it?
I exclusively use Freetube for my Youtube needs. It is great when it works. Sometimes you have to find the right Invidious instance for it to work properly. A few times videos play at 720p. I have also noticed search failing for specific terms sometimes - for example “machine learning”. I don’t know if it is a bug or blacklisted words/phrases.
These are a few reality checks highlighting it isn’t a perfect experience all the time, but I will be damned if go back to a vanilla Youtube interface after having gotten used to Invidious and then Peertube.
The upsides are less fluff that is recommended, you control your own feed with the videos from the channels you subscribe to, no ads, sponsorblock, and I guess more privacy.
I tried it and it is pretty good. Just wish it had compatibility with newpipe playlists.
NewPipe ;)
Copy this into uBlock Origin. Tells youtube ads are allowed and have been displayed, but no ads will show. Removes all references to shorts. Resizes video thumbnails so there’s 6 wide.
`youtube.com##+js(set,yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel,false) youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.adBlocksFound,O) youtube.com##+js(set,ytplayer.config.aras.raw_player_response.adPlacements,[]) youtube.com##+js(set,Object.prototype.hasAllowedlnstreamAd,true)
! YT Homepage - Hide the Shorts section youtube.com##[is-shorts] ! YT Menu - Hide the Shorts button www.youtube.com###guide [title=“Shorts”], .ytd-mini-guide-entry-renderer[title=“Shorts”] ! YT Search - Hide Shorts www.youtube.com##ytd-search ytd-video-renderer [overlay-style=“SHORTS”]:upward(ytd-video-renderer) ! YT Search and Channels - Hide the Shorts sections www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-renderer ! YT Channels - Hide the Shorts tab www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype=“channels”] [role=“tab”]:nth-of-type(3):has-text(Shorts) ! YT Subscriptions - Hide Shorts - Grid View www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype=“subscriptions”] ytd-grid-video-renderer [overlay-style=“SHORTS”]:upward(ytd-grid-video-renderer) ! YT Subscriptions - Hide Shorts - List View www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype=“subscriptions”] ytd-video-renderer [overlay-style=“SHORTS”]:upward(ytd-item-section-renderer) ! YT Subscriptions - New Layout - Hide Shorts www.youtube.com##ytd-browse[page-subtype=“subscriptions”] ytd-rich-item-renderer [overlay-style=“SHORTS”]:upward(ytd-rich-item-renderer) ! YT Sidebar - Hide Shorts www.youtube.com###related ytd-compact-video-renderer [overlay-style=“SHORTS”]:upward(ytd-compact-video-renderer)
! YT Mobile - Hide the Shorts Menu button m.youtube.com##.pivot-shorts:upward(ytm-pivot-bar-item-renderer) ! YT Mobile - Hide Shorts sections m.youtube.com##ytm-reel-shelf-renderer ! YT Mobile - Hide Shorts in search results m.youtube.com##ytm-search ytm-video-with-context-renderer [data-style=“SHORTS”]
!(Font Size fix) youtube.com###video-title.ytd-rich-grid-media, #video-title.ytd-rich-grid-slim-media:style(font-size: 1.4rem !important; line-height: 2rem !important;) youtube.com###metadata-line.ytd-video-meta-block:style(font-size: 0.9rem !important; line-height: 1.8rem !important;)
! YouTube Fix & Customization v1.7! (1-2/12) YouTube 4 Videos Per Row Fix (Home and Channel Pages) youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-renderer:style(width: 80% !important; padding-left: 50px !important; padding-right: 1px !important;) youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-row, #contents.ytd-rich-grid-row:style(display:contents !important;) youtube.com##ytd-rich-grid-renderer:style(–ytd-rich-grid-items-per-row: 6 !important;)`
So you see YouTube, the thing is, I’m not gonna watch those stupid ads. I don’t care how short or long, it’s just not happening. No, not even the tip. I can use the site without watching the ads and maybe send links to my friends and they might give you some ad impressions. Or I can go do something else, get mad at Google and never spend another dollar at the play store and stuff. What do you think?
If they gave me an API key I’d be allowed use with SmartTubeNext and NewPipe, I’d gladly pay for premium.
I don’t want to use your apps, Google.
Personally, I’d rather pay for Nebula than YouTube premium. Most of the creators I actively follow are on there anyways, and the few that aren’t (usually the ones with very long videos) I should probably just watch with ads anyways to support them.
I had a similar thought. How fair is nebula to their creators? I heard it was somehow creator owned, but other than that I have no idea how it works.
Nebula is great in comparison, and apparently video creators make even more money from Nebula views than YouTube Premium views, which is already a lot more than ad-supported views.
Nebula’s content base is small in comparison but very quickly growing and already includes most of the longer-form video creators I would want anyway (Jenny Nicholson is one notable exception, but her Patreon channel is wildly successful so I sort of doubt she feels like torpedoing that to do a whole new platform).
But frankly, if I paid what I pay for Nebula and only got Jet Lag, it would still be worth it to me.
People should develop a federated video hosting service. It will be expensive but I know the community can do it.
peertube?
Doesn’t Peertube already do this?
LBRY is worth looking into, it’s not quite federated but it is decentralized and based on blockchains.
You almost had me until
and based on blockchains.
😉
Honestly if I got ads for things that are actually relevant I’d have less of an issue. Right now 7 out of 10 ads are for a local event where Christians come to grift other Christians. Wtf am I getting that ad constantly?
He gets [our money]
I get that video hosting is expensive, but I’m not sitting through the number of ads that YT wants me to.
There will be other workarounds. If those fail, then I’ll just stop watching. The platform has gotten worse over the years anyway.
Hobbist devs will just find a way to make an extension or script that blocks their “ad block detection” scripts anyway. Adblocks are like pirate websites. You kill one, two appear in its place. Youtube is unusable without adblocking, and so is 99% of the internet. They abuse their power until users block them, now they cry that they are blocked lol, cute
What’s with every big tech company trying to destroy their userbase this year?
Interest rates hikes stopped the free money, so companies need profit.
I’d argue they don’t need $500 million when they already make $400 million, but I’m just a lowly peasant.
tl;dr: capitalism
they think they have us sufficiently cornered on centralized sites, they may be right.
Especially with video. Reddit was easy-ish to leave – I haven’t left entirely – since it’s just a link aggregator and glorified forums. That’s nothing new to the Internet. And Twitter was easy to replace with Mastodon.
But hosting video? That’s a tough one to replicate. I know there are some other platforms out there, but I can’t imagine any could really take on YouTube, due to space and bandwidth considerations.
So yeah, I think YouTube has us all by the balls. And they know it.
I’ll stop blocked ads when I stop using their service. Not a minute sooner.
Big web corps are a wild ride lately
Enshitification is in full force
Yeah what is it with 2023 and enshittification? This has been such a bad year in general
A lot of tech companies grew unreasonably fast during the COVID lockdowns, and assumed their new traffic patterns were permanent. Couple that with a general global recession, and you’ve got companies that overextended themselves, desperate to make some money back before people realize the emperor has no clothes
That would make sense
I’m guessing venture capitalists trying to reel in some profits after racing to outspend each other. I expect many services to implode.
I am here for it if the result is less ads and platforms in the hands of users and volunteers.
I don’t want all the other crap that YT is offering with premium. $12/month is too much.
Not as good as not giving Google money but if you use a VPN and set your country to India or Argentina you can get premium for roughly $2/month
Recently found this gem: https://adnauseam.io/
It’s an ad blocker that only hides ads and clicks them for you in the background, which means you waste advertiser’s money, support creators, can’t get flagged for ad blocking as easily, and they can’t build a proper profile against your ad activity since it’s all noise. Haven’t installed it yet, but this might be the push I needed.
This might be an acceptable sollution, but what happens on the other side of the ad? If something maliciously is being spreaded, the click might have to happen in an isolated form from the rest of the system or the browser.
