Dawn of the Ad Block-Blocker-Blocker 

If the ads had never started to become loud, numerous, unskippable, constant, and a malware risk, I wouldn't be using an ad blocker.

I used to whitelist RU-vid and Twitch for years, but the ads became so aggressive and intrusive that I had to block them.

Ads have been getting more and more obnoxious while my favorite creators keep getting demonetized for the most random reasons. If they don't change their ways I don't see why should anybody not use AdBlock in the platform, because at this point is more of a protest than a convenience for many users.

I didn't used to block ads while they were silent sidebar kinds of things and I'd often see something I was interested in and click on it. I started using ad block when video ads with loud sound started becoming a thing, not to mention Flash ads that were served from an ad server and therefore sometimes contained malware because the ad server didn't bother vetting them.

The use of adblockers is mandatory for safe browsing. The amount of headaches I avoided after only installing an adblocker on friends and family.

My biggest issue is that ads around the internet have just gotten horrible. I don't mind ads, but extremely intrusive ads just ruin the experience of everything so I just use an ad blocker whenever I can.

RU-vid was what MADE me get adblocker because I was so tired of getting an ad every minute. I never used one before that and it has opened my eyes. I will genuinely stop watching RU-vid than watch ad's. They treat their creators like shit, they don't punish people who falsely copyright strike, they remove dislikes so now you cant tell if a video is a scam or not. They don't deserve my money.

Worst thing that's gonna happen is making it harder to use an adblocker for some consumers because it's now requiring you to hide the ad blocker. But there will be a way.

RU-vid created this issue. The only reason I ever started using AdBlock was BECAUSE of RU-vid's obnoxious and excessive advertising. They got greedy and it exacerbated the issue for themselves.

I allowed ads for a long time, but RU-vid putting them on channels that aren't even monetized is the straw that broke the camel's back for me. It certainly doesn't help that they've dramatically increased in number and even taken away the Skip Ad button on lots of them as well.

my problem is that RU-vid has such a massive chunk of online videos that it might as well be a monopoly

This is the problem with monopolies. They have no competition so they can do whatever they want.

The issue is that youtube's ad system is just very user hostile. There appears to be no quality control on ads, with many being for outright scams. The need to skip ads, rather than limiting advertisers to a reasonable runtime, achieves nothing more than irritating the user. The content recommendation algorithm, while not directly related to ads, is manipulative, rewards clickbait and sensationalism, and is very hard to properly avoid. People just won't pay for such a user-hostile product.

Before YT Premium was a thing, I tried my best not to use ad blockers just to try and support the creator. But then there was a period where some malicious pre-roll adds were literally breaking the video player, preventing you from watching the video without refreshing and hoping the ad doesn't play again.

They've rolled it out. I use adblock because I'm sick of RU-vid's lack of oversight with ads, because they will consistently allow ads for blatant scams on the platform.

Luke, when you said that you could let the ads play while getting the tools to fix the dishwasher I laughed inside. Skippable ads on RU-vid require you to press the skip button, even if you let them play out. And if you have two ads in a row, now you get to watch another one after getting your tools.

The main problem with ads on youtube, is that it's not just some passive ad that is plastered AROUND the content, it's directly interrupting the content and getting in your face about it. The whole adblocking movement has primarily been for getting rid of intrusive ads. I'd be absolutely fine with banner ads and such that exists around the sides of the main content, but sooooo many companies insist on full screen, in your face, "YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT OUR ADS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AS IF IT WAS THE ONLY CONTENT WE HAVE HERE PLEASE BUY OUR PARTNER'S SHITTY GARBAGE PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE" and this lack of respecting the end users to such a massive degree has instigated the severe backlash that we see with adblockers nowadays. If we could agree on a simple non-intrusive method of advertising, then people wouldn't fight so hard to remove ads. Oh, and the history of viruses in ads is absolutely atrocious! I've had to help so many people in my 30+ years of life get rid of viruses because "oh, shiny ad says x thing and I must do what they say!" VET YOUR FUCKING ADS BEFORE DISPLAYING THEM.

Internet Historian is a creator who actually makes his sponsorship ads entertaining. If ads were actually interesting to watch, less people would complain about them. Or at least make them less obnoxious

I strongly agree that if ads were high quality and provided value instead of being malicious (in terms of content or in actual security risk as in serving malware) I would be more inclined to stop using ad block. Spots like the sponsored sections that Dennis runs are so fluid and enterntaining that I am aware its an ad but still watch, as I see there's effort and care put in, not just "give me ad rev because theres this random thing flashing in the way of the content for 2 minutes".

What we need are STRICT regulations on what ads show, how many can show, when they show, and how long they can be. Also, we need to stop double ads. At this point, suspend ALL YT ads until the malware risk ones are removed.

I don't mind some adds, but there are multiple problems with the current model. For one, there are numerous adds out there that are essentially malware. They seriously need to deal with that issue. Having an adblocker is kind of a necessity nowadays. The other problems is that there are numerous websites that have way too many adds, to an extent that it makes a website almost unusable. I've also got absolutely no tolerance for anything flashing that is obviously trying to get my attention in the most obnoxious way possible.

The ad based internet was a mistake. Adblock has massively reduced the amount of "pc no work right calls" i have to help family members with.

A really savage move from RU-vid would be to allow creators to decide if they want to allow ad block or not

What I hate is the fact that RU-vid decides to attack Ad-blockers, instead of giving viewers a better ad viewing experience Since last year I have been getting a significant amount of ads that are 1. Investment scams (Invest Rs 10 now, get Rs 2000 back in an hour) 2. Crypto scam ads 3. VPN ads with inappropriate pictures/video 4. Video chatting apps with inappropriate pictures 5. Betting site ads and I use this account to watch lectures and tech related stuff, rarely any other video If RU-vid put as much effort into Advertisement checking and false copyright checks as it does on hammering down content creators for saying a single bad word in their video, people wouldn't use much adblock as they do

The ads were the price of admission *before* RU-vid premium became a thing. Not anymore: they are now deliberately made to annoy the user into paying to get rid of them. Exhibit A: ad length and frequency increases dramatically when YT premium became a thing. The gradual worldwide roll out made this quite obvious, with countries where premium hadn't launched yet having less aggressive ads. Exhibit B: even of you turn off all of Google's privacy settings and lay bare your life to them, YT ads are almost never relevant.

the adblock vs ads arms race has been going strong for years. this is just a new chapter.

I am a very big youtube watcher but if they implemented this, I would just wait until the ad blockers catchup, but if that's not possible then I would just go else where like twitch. Wouldn't surprise me if a similar situation to twitch happens, where another huge multi-billion dollar company like stake starts to take off with private financal backing, there are actually plenty of supplymentary income streams that are possible to support the platform, they just don't want to consider them because ads have been working since it's inception.

They made ads worse, more frequent, longer, unskipable, and then stopped curating what ads get shown. We the users responded to these negative changes the only way we could by circumventing them while asking the changes be reverted and RU-vid's response was to make ads worse and more unavoidable while demonatizing and censoring content across their platform entirely to service MORE ADS Somehow IM supposed to feel like it's MY fault???

I was forced to buy yt premium because when my kids would be watching something, or I'd be watching something late at night since I've disabled targeted ads I would be literally given ads for adult content, or incredibly suggestive/ "rent a girl" type services. I totally lost it when my 18 month old on a Ms Rachel video was served an ad about "find what you're looking for here" with a scantily clad lady and moans in the background. I have all my settings set for privacy, and sure I could have enabled targeted ads, but that wouldn't change the fact that on white noise videos for sleeping google would always serve me the *loudest* commercial possible. It almost felt intentional.

The amount of adds I've seen on YT that outright breach New Zealand law is the reason I am glad I primarily use YT on my PC with certain additions rather than my phone.

Ad Block-Blocker-Blockers have existed for years now. The problem is the same as the piracy problem, if you go too hard trying to force people who will never pay you just end up making the legitimate product worse than the pirated one, directly incentivizing users to stop paying for a better experience. You can replace "pay" here with "watch ads", but it equates the same.

I *was* paying for RU-vid Premium until the moment they hid the dislike count from the end user. I stopped paying for the service because as the end user that is the only thing I can do; to vote with my wallet. Now the subscriptions feed is getting littered with the damn "shorts" and there is no option to hide that trash. RU-vid is getting a lot worse wether you pay for the premium or not. Paying for the service is no longer an option for me, so I suppose I'll just have to find better use for my free time if I can no longer block ads.

I’m confident that RU-vid is a big enough deal that many men far more intelligent than myself will always devise new, ever-more ingenious ways for me to continue blocking ads on YT.

This whole situation is just like... seeing who can have their hand on top last, they're just slapping each other in an endless cycle until someone gets tired of it

When I wasn't on premium, the thing that shocked me the most (aside from things other have listed like them being obnoxioualy loud) is how LONG they would be! Like longer than the content I'm watching! I've had adds almost and hour long interrupt the middle of a 15 minute video and yes it was skippable after a time but if I'm cooking or busy it's really disruptive to deal with.

The problem isn't that there are ads, its that there are too many ads that are implemented poorly. 1 or 2 ads midway through the video are not bad, its expected; the problem is when there are multiple unskippable ads before the video that may or may not even give revenue to the creator. This problem wouldn't exist if they didn't demonetize half of the platform and decide to start piling ads ontop of eachother so that there are more ads then content for some videos.

If double ads weren't a thing I bet more people wouldn't mind going without an ad blocker

The problem is that as they add options for higher resolution video, the cost of service grows exponentially (I'm sure Linus mentioned that already). An hour of 4k video takes up more than 10x as much space and network traffic as an hour of 1080p video, which for RU-vid means they need to earn that much more to support it, ergo more ads. They also know that nobody in their right mind would pay premium just to watch 4k videos, given that 1) very few people actually watch RU-vid on a [good] 4k screen, and 2) most content on RU-vid simply isn't something where 4k would improve the viewing experience. The adblockers and anti-adblockers are simply the result of RU-vid desperately trying to get more money because they need it to provide the latest video streaming features, even though they know most users aren't going to use them, let alone pay to use them.

If it keeps getting worse and an alternative comes...people will move on. Just as people such as myself moved on to youtube from commercial tv for the same reason. It wasnt always this bad. I remember using youtube because it felt like an escape from the deluge of commercial breaks on tv. Now youtube has turned into that.

Anti adblock has been around since the advent of adblockers. It's nothing new. Adblockers always win in the end.

For a long time, I didn't use an adblocker because I believed that it was important to support creators. It was a bit annoying having the ads, but I dealt with it. What caused me to install an adblocker was when the double ads started. I'm fine with some ads, but I'm not fine with excessive ads. And from what I've heard, they've only gotten more common since.

I speak for just about everyone when I say the whole reason we started using adblock in the first place is because ads are out of control. They can also have malware, tracking and so on. If they can make ads simple and safe again, and place them anywhere that isn't directly interrupting our content (such as trying to watch a video, the unskippable full screen ads are the most annoying thing ever) then alot of people would be willing to stop using adblockers

Kind of ironic when chrome has a built in adblocker for "intrusive ads" And their help page even mention that this includes "Ad walls before you can content", looks like their products are exempted from that rule. (Help page can be found by searching "See a site by turning off Chrome's ad blocker") There probably will be a countermeasure to their blocking, I see blocking adblocker as a good incentive to finding a countermeasure, since it's an interesting technical challenge and I'm definitely not giving any money to a service that is trying to be obnoxious to me. I feel like if the ad business model was to be paid when the ad lead to a purchase instead of when its viewed, we may had have less annoying ones. Sponsor in video for instance aren't generally annoying, they tend to be at the beginning or the end of the video, and if you're not interested in the content of the ad you can just skip forward. If all ads were similar, I'm sure adblock would be way less prevalent. Well youtube in particular has a lot more reason to be hated, thay may make you reticent to support them in anyway.

One thing that is incredibly frustrating about streaming services for me is that you can't browse them without subscribing, it feels insane that I have to resort to a third party website to check whether they have the content I want available in my country. My instances of piracy are usually when I can't figure out who the fuck gas the rights to it, if I could just open netflix and search what shows they have before I pay I'd be way less likely to do that

For more than a decade, It has been practically impossible to surf the web without a working adblock; now a working anti-adblock block is becoming a requirement as well. Next, we'll be needing an anti-"anti-adblock" blocker. It truly is ridiculous.

As someone who understands the importance of the ad revenue for the service and for creators, I'd never used ad blockers, even though the increase in ad time and, specially, the insertion of random adds in the middle of videos REALLY annoyed me. However, that was the case up until the moment I started getting bombarded with ads related to betting websites and politicians. In that occasion, I managed to find a setting somewhere to disable betting related advertisement, however, there was none to disable stuff related to politics. Even in the advertiser's page, I could only block individual ads, which was insufficient, because it was election time and one single politician could have hundreds of different ads. For me, the moment I said "that's enough" was when I saw an ad piece where a politician I absolutely hate (possibly the person I hate the most in this entire world) showed up crying --- and, of course, lying --- and there was no way for me to skip that garbage. In that moment, I immediately closed the tab and installed an ad blocker.

Honestly, with the way youtube is going, I genuinely think that the future of the site will basically be an ad repository website. It'll be a place for companies to put their ads on, and thats it. No user content, just ads. It kind of already is that. And the even crazier part is the upper management of youtube would probably consider that transition an absolute improvement. I'm actually not joking, I really think that has a good chance of actually happening. They'll probably change its name though.

Linus admitting that RU-vid(Google) have the monopoly is the real issue on this. There is no where else to go so they get to do whatever they want. next step might end up being that RU-vid(Google) mandate ad rolls in videos and livestreams instead of allowing the creator to choose

Witnessing the birth of yet another tech arms-race gives me a very bittersweet feeling. I'm glad to see resistance to tech platforms making arguably poor decisions but resistance breeds harder crackdowns.

I watched a 42 minute video with adblocking disabled. The creator says explicitly that this video was an experiment, to see just how many ads RU-vid would insert on it's own. Two pre-roll 15 second unskippables. EIGHTEEN double mid-roll ads, all of them fifteen second and almost all of them unskippable, and two end-roll 6 second ads. That's SUPER aggressive. And they want us to turn off adblockers, or are going to now strong-arm us into doing so. Okay. Fine, but if you're going to do that, back off on the number you throw at us. A lot more people are going to see your ads so you can do your part and cut the number you serve.

I L-O-V-E it every time that midroll ad comes in blasting at a much higher volume than the content I was watching, forcing me to reach for the device to turn it down before I can even skip the legit HOUR LONG ad.

I love it when I'm listening to a soothing chill youtuber talking in a low voice only to have my ears blown by a loud obnoxious ad on my ears.

If youtube started blocking ad-blockers, I'd probably get back into gaming instead of spending way too much time watching youtube... And no Linus, I'd just look up the service manual for the dishwasher and RTFM....

Why is it the consequences of our actions and not the consequences of their actions for advertisers that we turn to ad-blockers in the first place, shoving as many ads as they can in our faces at every opportunity, if only they would do it in moderation but they're literally incapable, maximising profits at our expense.

I've also yet to skip a sponsor segment; I genuinely enjoy the way some have incorporated sponsor segments into their content. I'd consider LTT's method to be the baseline of doing it well, and someone like Mern (he Skyrim mods) or FlashGitz (e.g. The fate of all weebs) to be the benchmark of doing a phenomenal promotion. Otherwise I adblock everything everywhere. It's extremely sad that adblock is the ONLY reason I haven't been pwned once in the last 20 years, which is extremely telling of Google's complete lack of vetting.

RU-vid knows that adblockers will only get more and more sophisticated for the end user to preserve their privacy and watch-time

People would be more willing to whitelist platforms that don't go overboard with the ads and/or serve ads from questionable at best sources. Adblock didn't become popular just because people don't like to sit through ads. It is a defense against abuse from bad ads and platforms

When RU-vid/Google are worried about ad blockers that's when you realize they're in financial trouble.

My problem with YT ads is that 1st, I have never purchased anything simply because I saw it in an ad. 2nd, I very seldom see an ad that is in any way related to anything I'm interested in.

I skip every single ad on my TV - especially the unskippable ones - by clicking on the video then immediately clicking the back button when I see a commercial, then again clicking on the video then clicking the back button as many times as needed till the video I want to see starts. It usually works within two tries. For the iPhone as soon as the commercial starts click the X to close the video then click on the video you want to see again. Repeat till the commercials are gone. Some may think it's dumb to do that but I think it's kinda' fun.

The thing about these anti-adblock efforts is that the developers for adblockers have always won out, part of that might be the sheer hatred a lot of people have for ads as they become more invasive. Also, another thing I see people say is something along the lines of "well, they have to make money somehow." Ok? Why should I care that a massive company is making less money because of these ad blockers? That's their problem that they caused by going overboard with ads in the first place.

This is very Good reason for developers, to make new better adblocker!

I think Linus seriously under estimates the people willing to look elsewhere for the information that they need to do a repair job. RU-vid isnt the only place to search.

They could offer a less expensive version of RU-vid Premium with less of the benefits like free movies and such. Or one that makes it so you can skip all ads or lessens the frequency by alot.

i just wanna say if Linus never complained about Adblock previously. I would've never figured out Sponserblock exists.

Ad block is a key part of most people’s anti-virus suite (remember Forbes putting malware vectored through ads?), so even with RU-vid premium, I still run ad-block concurrently lol.

Two arguments: Ads don't always pay the channel anything considering that demonetized channels still have ads just no profit from them. I don't want to view 4 minutes of unskipabble ads in a 10 minute video that don't profit anyone but RU-vid, it's a different topic when you are watching monetized channels that get revenues from ads, but the latter is that you have a sponsorship to hear about and watch embedded ads. I used to have RU-vid premium because I hated seeing ads, but I had to cancel out of financial reasons. Now I will fight this with every possible illegal way just out of spite.

i tried running youtube without an adblocker last year for half a year i went straight back to an adblocker after the experiment

About the idea that using adblockers makes RU-vid to push more ads. Here is a little thought experiment: Imagine a large amount users stops using adblockers on RU-vid and starts watching ads. Will Google reduce amount of ads? Of course not! When more people find ads tolerable it sends a signal to Google that they haven't reached the critical point yet and can still place more ads without alienating viewers. As you can see, RU-vid has pretty much no incentive to reduce the amount of ads in both cases.

The problem I had was the frequency and length of ads. Watching one 15 second ad before a video was fine. But about a month ago it became two 15 second ads before the video, and another one or two ads every 5-10 minutes of the video. I valued my time enough to go buy an Android device, connect it to my TV, and run an app on it that blocks ads for me.

I remember when Google first acquired RU-vid. There was outrage when the formerly community supported platform moved to an ad--based revenue model. Now we take for granted that there are ads unless you use ad blocker. It's obnoxious, I hate ads, but people will get over it or go elsewhere (but where considering the YT monopoly?). I just wish they would QC the ads better to remove the obvious scams that are advertised sometimes...

I'm blocking tackers and all ads these days are trackers. Meanwhile, youtube premium is the ultimate tracker, because I have to tie it to my identity since governments wanted to crack down on money laundering or whatever. So here we are.

Creators making their sponsor content engaging makes me think of two very different ways I've seen it done: 1) Evan & Katelyn use skits with wacky recurring characters, plot lines, and gags 2) Hacksmith and Donut Media put audio-only ad reads over interesting video content like testing footage or montages that people will enjoy watching. I think both are great ways to improve the value and effectiveness of sponsor spots for the creator.

The open source community will just create better and better versions of adblocker until RU-vid gives up

I feel like the type of person who would install an ad blocker would also never buy anything from an ad so as blockers aren’t a big problem

My brain is just wired differently. Never bought anything off an ad to my recollection and seeing ads always makes me question the quality of the product, as in "if they have to push this so hard it really has to suck pretty bad"...

Blocking ads is not privateering, it is making RU-vid actually useable.

A problem I've had with RU-vid ads has been the fact that they always make me do something - mute my audio, wait a few seconds and push a button, and then raise the volume again, which is _great_ when you're trying to rest. On mobile especially, it is very tedious. There's also the sheer level of *shut the fuck up* I'd feel about the ads I'd get - horrid mobile games, products I'll never buy, media I'll never watch, actual targeted harassment in the form of "The Real Cost" anti-vaping ads (which you can neither skip nor tell youtube to stop showing you).

Honestly an interesting conversation for me as someone who just subscribes to RU-vid. I watch or listen to enough content each day on the platform that it just makes sense for me.

ads arent about buying the product directly, theyre about being familiar with the business. people tend to buy things they recognize

One major issue with the youtube ads are that they are obnoxious and extremely disruptive to the content, especially since youtube likes serving ads which are effectively long videos shilling a scam product. For example, it is not uncommon to see a preroll, midroll, or endroll ad that is a 20+ minute video that is being served as an ad. While you can skip it after a few seconds, the problem is that it requires you to babysit the app or website. I can't start a podcast and work on something while listening to it. I can't start a watch later playlist with multiple videos lines up and clean the house or wash dishes because I will be part way into a video and encounter a 20 minute ad that I will not be in an ideal position to skip. And the watch later list is useless with ads because you will end up with more ads than content if you can't easily skip them. For example, with multiple 10-20 minute videos, you are likely to encounter 2 preroll ads where if you do not skip them, will run for around 3-20+ minutes depending on what youtube selected, then you will encounter at least one midroll ad that can be 30 seconds, to 20+ minutes if you do not skip it (some sub-1 minute ads cannot be skipped), then after the video ends, you can encounter 2 end roll ads that can run for 3-20+ minutes, after which the watch later list moves to the next video which will have its own 2 3-20+ minutes of preroll ads, and the cycle repeats itself. The end result is 2 ads at the start of the list, then midroll ads, then 4 ads in a row before the next video in your list starts. I have seen many people who resisted adblocking for a long time in order to support channels they like, be forced to use them because the site became unusable due to the ads.

If RU-vid demands you see ads, you should be able to sue them for falling prey to a predatory ad.

I didn't use adblockers for a while but started to notice a few fake ransomeware and outright scams so it became a legit security concern because of the kind of scripts that can run annoying as it is youtube can do as they please, my concern is the dodgy websites and scammers using the same tactics to manipulate people into installing malware

I think the most optimal Ad Blocker will just silently trick RU-vid into thinking the ad is playing (stream 240p version in the background, without the sound) but not display it to the user. The user will just see 30s timer counting down until the video starts playing. Try blocking this type of ad blocker.

The excessive ads thing reminds me of how video game companies add antipiracy crap like Denuvo. It actually devalues the game and makes people pirate more and punishes the people who do the legitimate thing. Google is just biting themselves in the ass. The whole reason ad blockers have become so common is because they're annoying, and people have legitimate safety concerns about ads. The day I put ad blockers on my computer is the day I stopped getting viruses. I never looked back. What they're asking me to do is put my computer at risk. I'll just find another way to waste my time. Linus saying people will just come here is hubris. Facebook used to be the top social media platform, but people got sick of their shit and moved on. Videos are convenient, but there's just as many websites I will prefer to use because, surprise-surprise, they removed the dislike button so I can't even put a cursory amount of trust in help video anymore. That argument is now invalid. Also, anyone says they'll reduce the number of ads if more people can't use ad-blockers is delusional. Once a company sets a standard for monetization, they almost never step it back unless there's backlash. Also, there's no way RU-vid will pay the channels more. They've already set THAT rate a long time ago. Papa Google will be keeping nearly every extra cent they get from these ads. By the way, when Luke argues about the traffic going away being a good thing; it isn't. RU-vid won't be able to claim certain levels of traffic on the site, thus advertisers won't want to pay as much. The advertisers will pay less for ads on RU-vid and will pay more for the platform people spend more of their time on. What will likely happen is either a giant backlash like with the remove for "free" 4K, or you'll see traffic from RU-vid plummet. It's as simple as that.

It's a problem with how ads are served. RU-vid ads are immersion breaking and intrusive.

As long as Google allows scams to advertise on RU-vid, I will keep using adblock.

Block ads everywhere, not being slammed with a sales pitch for something all the time is good for your mental health going back and watching broadcast tv now is just mind numbing

Blocking ads is not privateering, it's protecting yourself.

Remember when Linus say ad block is piracy a few years ago. Not to mention Linus don't know how ad blocks work.

Makes your baked in ads more comical, funny, or even just weird, or have more of Dennis being himself, I'd probably end up skipping the actual content just to watch the baked in ads

You know. It was a throw away line in "Ready Player One": "We can sell 80% of the screen without causing seizures." Heck, even in the tabletop game, Starfinder. There are literal items/tools you need to use that Universe's version of the Internet. And if you don't use these tools. The unwanted ads and pop-ups WILL KILL YOU. Thus, I refer back to that quote from "Ready Player One". All for this gameplay use.

The Internet Historian is a great example of a RU-vidr that makes ads enjoyable to watch. Been a premium member for a while cuz I cannot stand the many ad breaks in the vids I watch

reminder that purchasing youtube premium does not stop ads. Many videos have sponsor positions baked into them and there's no skipping that. some have two, even three sponsor segments. I pay for youtube premium; it doesn't stop me from being advertised to. premium is not a viable alternative; blocking is a-okay.

In the grand tapestry of the internet, a tale unfolds of titanic struggles, the Dawn of the Ad Block-Blocker-Blocker. Ah, RU-vid, the realm where I've roamed, my paws padding over the icy terrain of endless content since time immemorial (or, you know, since the '80s). I've seen the rise and fall of many trends, witnessing the platform's metamorphosis from a land of cat videos to a den of polished, professional creators. Yet, I see our peaceful consumption of anime clips, gaming montages, and movie analyses threatened by a nemesis most foul - the incessant barrage of advertisements. Oh, RU-vid, you saucy minx! You lure us in with your siren song of endless content, only to slap us awake with the deafening cacophony of ads at outrageous volumes. They assault our senses like a pack of yapping foxes on a tranquil, moonlit night. It's like trying to listen to a Beethoven symphony while someone is simultaneously playing death metal at 11. As an Ice Wolf, I can confirm that this induces a fight-or-flight response - it's a scientific fact! I've seen this ad-age slowly creep upon us, like a blizzard creeping down from the mountains, ready to bury us in a frosty avalanche of promotion and sales pitches. It's a veritable Winter of Ads-content, if you will (Shakespeare puns, anyone?). As the avalanche grows, it becomes harder to choose what to watch without planning akin to a military strategy. Ads, like invasive, incessantly chatty chipmunks, pop up and disrupt our peaceful consumption of 5-10 minute videos. The joy of spontaneous browsing turns into a grueling survival trek through the wilds of capitalism. This digital Siberia might drive people back to Netflix, where the terrain is far less treacherous. And to the nefarious scammers who pollute the pristine waters of RU-vid with their false promises of instant wealth, I say, "Begone, ye pesky raccoons!" You're ruining our quality content consumption time with your intrusive sales pitches and questionable business ethics. To those trying to combat this ad-infestation with silent Ad Blockers tricking RU-vid into thinking the ad is playing, I say, "You clever foxes!" The old "distract them with a fake prey and slink away" tactic. Clever indeed. So, what's the moral of our frostbitten saga here? It's that RU-vid needs to respect its audience and the creators that populate its icy tundra. The ad-system needs to be less obtrusive and more selective, much like a snow leopard stalking its prey - silent, elegant, and selective. Fellow RU-vidrs, whether you be fox, hare, or other, I implore you to let your voices be heard. For only then can we hope for a change, a Spring of Un-Ads-content, a thawing of this frozen battleground. Stay frosty, my friends. And remember, a smart wolf always finds its way through the storm. With the warmth of the pack, Kiba Snowpaw 🐺❄ P.S. Oh, and did I mention I've been watching anime, gaming, and reading mangas since the 80's? I've got a decade's worth of memories and "told you so's" that could fill a library. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to catch up on my 'Anime of the 90's' marathon.

the internet is unusable without AdBlock these days. almost every website is full of more ads than content... it does my head in. The longest ad ive seen on youtube was 45MINUTES... insane.

What's funny is I used to never block Ads on RU-vid. I only started after their Ads got so horrendously pervasive. I honestly will just stop watching anything on RU-vid if I have to go back to 15 Ads per 10 minute video. Yes, I know that could be an exaggeration, but it honestly felt like I was watching more Ads than content.

I was in the same room as someone airplaying youtube over a TV, there was a 16 minute youtube ad which was just a whole episode of a kids show.

I genuinely think more people would be interested in a RU-vid premium plan with JUST as block and maybe a higher bitrate for JUST a few bucks a month. But the current plan has so much crap stuffed into it to inflate the price to an actually pretty high amount, that I think it's too expensive.

I have two major problems with RU-vid ads: 1. The volume. For instance, I'm listening to this video at a certain volume, which results in a pleasant, coherent experience. If an ad popped up - and because RU-vid ads are at an outrageous volume - it would have startled me. Honestly, when these things happen (on other websites, where I don't have an ad-blocker for videos and where I rarely ever watch any video) - I literally feel an unpleasant sensation throughout my body (primarily in the legs; fight-or-flight response, I assume). That's not only unpleasant, but likely unhealthy too. 2. Most RU-vid content is short (I guess something like 5-10 minutes on average) and the way most people who use an ad-blocker choose whether to view a certain video is by watching the first 10-20 seconds of it and deciding if it's more interesting to them than whatever RU-vid suggests to them on the right side of the page. If you took away the ad-blocker, you'd force the user to do much more planning in deciding what to watch. That can - and probably will - drive people away from RU-vid. I mean, I have a Netflix subscription that I rarely use, because I usually enjoy stuff on RU-vid more. But if finding an interesting-for-me video will take substantially longer, that might drive me back to Netflix (whose modus operandi is very, very different). RU-vid can do whatever they want in this respect - it's their platform and their decision. But, in my opinion, if they want to avoid risking losing a substantial portion of their users (mostly in the form of having many users using RU-vid much less than they currently do), they need - before removing the option for ad-blockers - to change how their advertisements work, primarily in terms of volume and frequency (no lame pun intended).