this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2023
1692 points (99.0% liked)

Technology

59594 readers
3023 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Firefox users are reporting an 'artificial' load time on YouTube videos. YouTube says it's part of a plan to make people who use adblockers "experience suboptimal viewing, regardless of the browser they are using."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 year ago (4 children)

All of the people saying "I'd rather wait five seconds than watch an ad" seem to be optimistic that it will continue to be 5 seconds and YouTube won't keep upping it.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

But they can't extend it longer than the shortest ads, since then it'll affect users after they watch ads too, which kinda defeats the point

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Exactly, so this still guarantees a better experience than ad viewers because you will always have the minimum ad length

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's not a problem. Just put in longer ads. Or multiple ads in a row.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Or multiple ads in a row.

They aleady do that

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honestly, worst case scenario, if YouTube manages to completely eliminate adblockers, maybe by making some kind of cryptographic system where the browser has to provide a token embedded inside the ad video stream in order to access the video, I would still use an extension to mute sound and draw a black bar over the ads while technically playing them in the background, it's not the wait time that bothers me, it's how repetitive and obnoxious the ads are, I just don't want to perceive them.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Which is why you have to void warranties and go through a lot of hassle to r Unlock the bootloader, or root your own phone and have actual control over it.

And that's the reason Google is trying to push shitty web standards to remove your control.

And why Apple and Microsoft keep restricting your access to your OS, with rumors of Windows 12 being cloud-only.

Many governments around the world don't want you to have any control or privacy. Many tech giants don't want you to have any control or privacy. It's the same old thing religions have done forever. Enforce a lack of control and privacy through violence, social pressure, or resources. Only now, the enforcement style is indirect, trying to say you don't own your device, can't use ad blockers or privacy tools, have to agree to terms and conditions that waive your rights, your usage has to be monitored, or that backdoors have to be built into everything.

Don't expect this behavior to stop unless regulation is created to prevent it, or the company caves to financial or social pressure to change....for now.

Don't expect regulation to be created unless you put people who care about privacy and such in power.

Even then, people in power need to be held accountable if they misbehave, or nothing else matters.

It all comes back to class struggle and politics.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

"Which color hat did the extra in the background of your latest ad wear?" Wrong answer = 10 ads.

If they could, YouTube would hire someone to sit on your couch and make sure you consume the ads with your utmost attention.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I'll take 20 minutes of silence over 1 second of ads. I will never willingly watch an ad I didn't explicitly request. Ever.

Life is short and I won't devote any of it to advertisements.

That being said, I do pay for YouTube premium because I do use it a lot and understand that the platform has every right to make money. But that makes what they're doing with Firefox and ad blockers worse.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Ads are psychological abuse. I will not watch them. If YouTube make it too hard to use their service without watching ads, I don't need to use YouTube.