Youtube let the other shoe drop in their end-stage enshittification this week. Last month, they required you to turn on Youtube History to view the feed of youtube videos recommendations. That seems reasonable, so I did it. But I delete my history every 1 week instead of every 3 months. So they don't get much from my choices. It still did a pretty good job of showing me stuff I was interested in watching.
Then on Oct 1, they threw up a "You're using an Ad Blocker" overlay on videos. I'd use my trusty Overlay Remover plugin to remove the annoying javascript graphic and watch what I wanted. I didn't have to click the X to dismiss the obnoxious page.
Last week, they started placing a timer with the X so you had to wait 5 seconds for the X to appear so you could dismiss blocking graphic.
Today, there was a new graphic. It allowed you to view three videos before you had to turn off your Ad Blocker. I viewed a video 3 times just to see what happens.
Now all I see is this.
Google has out and out made it a violation of their ToS to have an ad blocker to view Youtube. Or you can pay them $$$.
I ban such sites from my systems by replacing their DNS name in my hosts file routed to 127.0.0.1 which means I can't view the site. I have quite a few banned sites now.
Sorry bud. Self hosting thousands of 3+ hour long HD game stream videos just isn't practical or feasible for the average person. Paying 15$ to YouTube to do this for me without showing me ads is hardly "appointing an overlord".
Edit: and have you seen self hosted video services? Because they aren't anything new, YouTube networks have been hosting their own content for nearly a decade now your idea isn't original. The rooster teeth website is trash. And frankly, the idea of juggling 10 plus of these websites all each with their own subscription models for the creators I want to support seems like a total nightmare.
If your audience is paying you via sponsor or patreon enough for you to do the work, what's unfeasible about paying for hosting? Patreon does plenty good for handling subscriptions and the view model is easily taken care of by Grayjay. https://odysee.com/@rossmanngroup:a/the-best-way-to-watch-online-video-my:c?r=FV2rjf5wj3s7pPm2ngr9ice2mvCtT4S3
Sorry bud yourself.
I'm not talking about creators even, I'm talking about as a consumer for all the artists you want to support. It's just not feasible for most people's income to financially support 20 plus individuals (i personally subscribe to over 30 channels!) Pal.
You really gotta look at server hosting prices. I have a friend who straight up runs a video server from his house and has crazy numbers of people streaming. Server hosting is cheeaaap.