So I’ve been using youtube ad blockers since pretty much when ad blocker extensions were first available. Lately though I’ve been getting hit more and more with these messages that YT was sending out every 5 or so videos telling me that adblockers aren’t allowed. No problem, just gotta wait 5 seconds to x it out and then close my video. The straw that broke the camel’s back though was when instead of a close-able pop-up, they just posted it in front of a video and wouldn’t let me watch anything until I disabled my adblocker.

So I disabled it and… wow. It’s just so, so, trash. 2 ads before a video plus midrolls and every video ever. I tried listening to a playlist of songs and was getting a midroll ad every single time. Imagine trying to just listen to music for 3 minutes and getting interrupted by a commercial for a chevy silverado! Half the ads were for youtube premium and they specifically mentioned that it would get rid of all the ads. It just felt so damn predatory. I couldn’t enjoy anything that wasn’t already demonetized.

And you know I’m fine with ads I guess. I could live with an ad before every video, but the fact that I was getting upwards of 5 ads in a 10 minute video was just plain absurd. I also hate that youtube got rid of the yellow markers to show you when an ad was coming up, so now it’s just out of nowhere and always interrupts a key part of the video.

E: I’ve been on Firefox for over a year.

  • Sina@beehaw.org
    3·
    1 year ago

    Does Ublock Origin successfully circumvents the new system that is being tested in select countries?

    • Amju WolfEnglish
      7·
      1 year ago

      Yes. You need to not use any other content blocker (including potentially browser tracking protection) and keep uBo up to date. Occasionally it might not be up to date with latest YT changes but that’s pretty rare.

      • MikuNPC@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        EDIT: Ignore the following, the next day the popup message returned unfortunately

        I can confirm, I was getting the popup message yesterday with ublock-origin and was able to fix it by not only updating my filters but also subscribing to all the optional filters. It seems the default lists don’t have a fix yet but one of the optional ones does.

          • MikuNPC@lemm.ee
            2·
            1 year ago

            The lists are fortunately pre-installed with ublock-origin, just need to enable all lists within options: Built-in, Ads, Privacy, Malware, Multipurpose, and Annoyances

            EDIT: I spoke too soon, saw another popup today