this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2024
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Despite all of their machinations my strategy of simply ignoring literally everything they say and continuing doing the same old same old appears to be flummoxing them.
I've literally not done anything and have never experienced any inconvenience. Are we sure they're doing anything at all?
Same, I think they must be AB testing and I don't get assigned into the shitty group
I definitely got really awful, unplayably spotty playback that seemed linked to adblock usage. Then I saw an article about it and confirmed I wasn't going crazy, and that day it stopped happening, so it felt like I was going crazy all over again. It's like the moment they realised it was going to become a problem and they weren't as sneaky as they thought, they turned it off. I haven't had an issue since then.
I had the same experience with shitty playback buffering every few seconds on popular videos that should be cached on a nearby cdn, and then saw lots of articles about it and then boom a week later everything was back to normal
That would be quite a funny strategy that they could definitely implement. Creepy as hell but clever.
They know everything you do and look at, so they know if you're the sort of person that would look up a fix for this or just take it on the nose. If they realize you're looking at articles about the problem they just turn the function off.
I guess that's possible, and a very creepy thought, but more likely they saw the level of general attention on the issue and backed off globally.
The kicker there is ... Nobody I know is going to think "wow, playback on this video sucks, I should disable my ad blocker".
Like, it wouldn't occur to ANYONE I know that a piece of software we consider necessary could be the problem, ESPECIALLY if everything else is working fine.
That's not even number ten on the list of troubleshooting steps and most people don't make it past one or two before giving up.
WTF were they thinking?
Honestly it sounds like someone was paid to do something about adblocking and just like... did something. Like if you were tasked with reducing adblocking, and your first and most obvious idea of "reduce the obnoxious ads" was disallowed because enshittification is mandated, you could say no, which most workers won't do, or you could just do whatever random bullshit feels like it might work because it's punitive. Or at least it's a gesture that shows your boss you're trying.
Authoritarian systems like capitalist corporations are inherently low-information for exactly this reason. People on the low rungs doing the real work who understand what needs to be done will typically not report problems to their superiors. And when they do, those superiors tend not to listen, because the idea that lower workers know something they don't threatens their leadership status.
Also our society's legal system trains us to believe punitive measures must do something even though they don't.
Also I guess another reason they might wind up at this strategy is that straight up telling users that the problem is their adblock is the fastest way to get adblockers to block your countermeasure, so they think they have to be sneaky.
They are definitely AB testing things like rejecting ad blockers.
MBAs are taught they can shape human behavior with decades disproven assumptions.
It's fallout like this that shows their hand.
"Oh, the customers don't like it? Fine we do it twice as hard" is fucking Pavlovian training and the executives behind the initiative should be sealed in an underground vault knee deep in hungry roaches.
One time they told me I had 3 days left to enjoy YouTube with my ad blocker, and then I would have to buy premium, or they would just lock me out of the site. I was like "welp, it had a good run, I guess that's it for ol' YouTube."
But then the 3 days went buy and nothing ever came of it.
That tactic probably did get them some preemptive subscriptions though, unfortunately.
I thought I was getting that blank screen long pause before videos, turns out my phone cable was damaged, fixed it and YouTube's back to normal.
Wait, how would a phone cable cause a symptom like that...?
Maybe they're using the phone line for their Internet ? Vsdl etc...
I'm guessing some of the wires being broken caused congestion or sonething, I dont know why it did it, I just know once I fixed the cable it was fine.
Was the video signal going through it? Otherwise, sounds more like a coincidence.
100% coincidence
Your phone could have been switching power profiles incorrectly due to your phone rapidly switching between charging and not charging (and perhaps with a low power state depending on battery level).
@[email protected] Just my guess.
And this phone cable damage only impacted youtube lol
No, it potentially impacts cpu power profile (if it's toggling between AC and DC because of a loose connection)
This would adjust throttling of the cpu, which could impact playback in certain cases, so it's possible. Likely other apps would be affected but OP was probably most often watching videos while plugged so noticed mostly there 🤷