Mashable reports that users ran into a black screen on YouTube, and that it stayed for about 6 seconds before the video began playing. The reports indicate it affected several browsers including Firefox, Edge, Vivaldi.
Some users joked that they would rather see a black screen than an ad. While that’s certainly a better experience, it does waste precious seconds of our time. A simple workaround for the black screen on YouTube is to just refresh the page, hit F5 as soon as the page starts loading. uBlock Origin’s filters were updated with a patch to resolve the problem, the add-on updates its filters automatically. If you are still experiencing the black screen issue, just open the extension’s dashboard and manually update the filters. This tug-of-war is getting annoying, but it appears to me that Google’s efforts are actively promoting the use of ad blockers, instead of attracting new subscribers.
I think its important to highlight that Odysee and Rumble are both “free speech” platforms that neo-nazis love to use to platform their calls for violence.
What does neo-nazi mean to you?
The reason I ask. I see that word get thrown around on social media (twitter) all the time. The way I see that used 99% of the time. Some Left Winger sees a Right Winger say something they don’t like. The Left Winger can’t counter it or they just don’t like that Right Winger said. So the Left Winger calls the Right Winger the worst thing they can think of.
Some Left Winger sees a Right Winger say something they don’t like. The Left Winger can’t counter it
Many right wing positions are very easy to counter with scientific evidence– climate change, crime rates, public health policy, social programs…
So if you think the “Left Winger” can’t counter it… do you not consider evidence-based arguments to be legitimate?
While I largely agree with your point, as an Odysee user myself I know there is a visible amount of actual Neo-Nazi content there. That said, such channels are not difficult to block on the user end on the platform so you don’t see them after the first time, there’s not so much that it’s a constant annoyance, and there is still plenty of worthwhile content on Odysee to watch, including various YouTubers who mirror their content to the platform. While the Neo-Nazi content is harder to find on Rumble, it’s more politically focused and feels like it’s more meant to be “right-wing YouTube” whereas you can actually find more of a variety of viewpoints on Odysee.
There are a number of examples I can give but the immediately most obvious that springs to mind is Mark Collett, who can be seen in this picture with his ex-girlfriend who has a large visible swastika tattoo.
The British Movement, formerly known as the British National Socialist Movement also have a presence on both sites. One of their primary catch phrases is, “No more brother wars.” which refers to WW2 as a war between different sects of the “Aryan race”. It means that those sects should not be fighting each other but instead non-white people and Jewish people.
As I say, I can point to more but I think those give you the picture. I should probably also add that its a common quippy clap-back for these types to say “so… huh… everyone you disagree with is a Nazi” themselves. The function of this is to muddy the waters and propagandise the questioning of whether or not their ideology is as bad as those who directly oppose them state. It means that they get to spread their ideas by a proxy to onlookers.
There’s a big difference between a protocol (what you refer to as Lemmy is actually a protocol called ActivityPub) and a centralized organization (Odyssee). Many / most Lemmy instances will ban Nazi posts, many also defederating from instances which allow them. However, the fact that it’s a protocol means it’s still free speech. This is IMO a very good system to have, and emulates real world free speech dynamics.
Odyssee, however, allowing Nazi stuff is not okay since they are not a protocol. They’re the equivalent of a Lemmy instance. Lots of people are against Hexbear, for example, myself included.
Here’s a few more in a reddit thread.
I thought Odyssey was just gun nuts? When did the shitters get there?
yt-dlp is also a great alternative, since you can just stuff it into the backend of something like jellyfin and have it work.
not technically a fronted. however, if you use it mainly for downloading YT content, it will run into the same problem as many frontends.
it’s a backend, the front end would be something like jellyfin, obviously the shitpost here being that this was a topic about frontends, if you want my opinion though, all frontends are dead, and backends are where it’s at. You can even integrate yt-dlp as a backend to something like VLC so that it operates as a real frontend.
What’s the endgame here for users?
Do we just want a reasonable subscription price? Something we can genuinely afford?
If youtube doesn’t play ads then they cant remain a service. At least not as it is today. Hosting costs money.
Im not shilling for them, i dont want ads either. And google are a terrible company. But im trying to be realistic.
Do we want cheap subscription?
Or a reduced service that can be maintained without so many ads
Do we just want 5 second skippable ads back?
Im just seeing this fight progressing to the point were youtube becomes subscription only and the ad blocker users have to pay or lose the service they obviously want to access.
I’m actually rediscovering YouTube right now. A few years back it seemed like too many attempts were a huge unskippable ad, for a short video. Ads were way too high a percentage. And even when a video was a bit longer, any attempt to scroll was met with more ads, and maybe getting reset to the beginning
This time around, I typically see one ad, skippable after 5 seconds, then another every 15 minutes or so. While I’d rather not have ads, it’s not bad. Even better, content has matured enough in the years since I first tried it, that there’s actually longer stuff worth watching: the percentage of ad time is much lower, so I do get entertainment value rather than just be fed constant ads. I could watch that.
I remember the days of tasteful ad banners on the internet. Those are long gone. Now everything has to be an obtrusive unskippable autoplay 30 second ad or cover half the screen.
It is not reasonable to browse the internet without an adblocker anymore, regardless of privacy concerns…
I remember when banners weren’t tasteful and the internet was the wild west
Do we just want a reasonable subscription price?
Yay, basically. I paid for premium when I could afford it because I want the platform to keep working and I hate ads.
Premium prices went up without a lot of value for me so I quit paying. Technically premium offers a lot but the core feature that I actually cared about (YouTube without ads) never changed in value. If I had the option of only paying for that, I’d do it. To me, YT is a higher priority than any other streaming service. But they don’t provide a way for me to only pay for the stuff I care about
I think the baseline of what I would want is:
- Have actual moderation of the ads. Don’t allow malware ads, don’t allow porn ads etc
- Don’t allow obtrusive ads, or at least categorize them and have preferences. Do NOT play my ads 2x the volume of whatever I was watching.
- Don’t interrupt my video with ads. Play before or after. Ideally after, but I can see why that would not be feasible. I guess it is also feasable if the creator marks ad breaks, like the current-day sponsor segments.
I genuinely think Youtube premium is alrightish as it is. I wouldn’t pay for it; though, since I do not want to give my money to Google. They are getting enough out of me that I don’t want to give them.
I honestly just want the alternatives, like PeerTube, to have a funding model, which allows creators to get paid. Donations? Sure. Optionally ads? Sure. I think peertube having opt-in ads that go to the creator would go a long way.
Don’t interrupt my video with ads. Play before or after. Ideally after, but I can see why that would not be feasible. I guess it is also feasable if the creator marks ad breaks, like the current-day sponsor segments.
FYI ad placement and type is decided by the creator not youtube. If you see a video full of ads in the middle it’s because the creator of that video chose it to be so.
That’s not necessarily true (though I’m sure in most cases it is). I remember cases where creators had to specifically ask Youtube support to disable mid-roll ads since they were disabled on the creators side but viewers still saw them. Also happened with non-monetized videos/channels. But it’s been at least a year since I saw the last case of that, so maybe Youtube has fixed it in the meantime.
Let creators choose: normal ads or sponsors. Not both. YouTube getting part of the sponsorship deal.
If they choose ads, YouTube goes back to 1 shippable ad after 1 second.
OR
A subscription which is just “no ads”. No YouTube music, not Google drive, no nothing. Just a cheap “no ads” subscription.
That being said, even if option 1 happens, I’m probably not uninstalling ublock. Once YouTube forced me to install it, it’s impossible to use the internet without it. Actions have consequences.
There already is a subscription service, it’s called YouTube Red or Premium or something.
I’ve been toying with a “Pay Per View” model for a bit. But it’s sort of modified.
Basically you can “pay what you want” on a per view basis. You as a user get to decide how valuable your view is and pay a creator that much each time you watch a video. Maybe this gets linked to watch time somehow to avoid people just spamming short content. YouTube presumably gets a cut to keep the lights on.
Creators making actually good content will hopefully attract viewers willing and able to pay, and viewers that have the means and really like a creator can up the amount they are paying. This could be on a per channel basis, or just a blanket setting of I pay someone ¢10 a view or something.
Idk, seems like a bit of a silly idea now I type it out
Me personally? I just want to watch them burn. Google I mean. This is my endgame
My problem is that paying for premium doesn’t actually remove the ads. YouTube fucked creators so hard that they started running their own sponsorship segments and product placements. So with premium I’m still paying to watch ads.
Well thankfully SponsorBlock still works whether or not you’re a Premium subscriber. There’s also always YouTube ReVanced for mobile (which has SponsorBlock built-in). There’s no reason to ever have to put up with an online ad, no matter the source.
Sure but I’m not gonna pay for something I still have to actively fight with is the point.
Hot take for those who hate YouTube ads while still keep using it. You deserve it. The answer is right in front of us, stop using it there are alternative out there.
Those that make peaceful ad-blocking impossible make violent rage quiting inevitable.
6 seconds?! GASP
