this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 193 points 5 months ago (11 children)

A new wave of slowdowns is hitting users, with the only resolutions being disabling the ad blocker or upgrading to premium.

Or just switching to ublock origin.

Or just switching to newpipe.

Or just switching to freetube.

etc

etc

etc

[–] [email protected] 69 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have ublock origin on firefox and it's really bad for me currently. This has traditionally been the good combo I believe.

Not just slowing down, but stopping, then restarting after skipping a few seconds that you cannot access no matter what.

For now the best solution I've found is to copy the video url, open potplayer and just hit the paste command and the video runs flawlessly.

So they'll have to close that loophole eventually, which means enshittifying the video streaming protocol for everything that isn't the native web viewer, which will inconvenience more people who were used to something working, leading to another workaround, leading to...

Youtube is gradually accelerating their enshittification. I'm looking forward to when it comes to a real head. Too many serious interested parties rely on it. I don't know if peertube will be the first fallback, but I'm sure it'll get a big bump.

[–] Cypher 28 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Change your useragent to Chrome.

It breaks the detection of your adblocker… for now.

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[–] notannpc 143 points 5 months ago (3 children)

And still, I’m more likely to stop using YouTube than to stop using an ad blocker.

[–] very_well_lost 55 points 5 months ago (4 children)

That's what they want. Get all the users they aren't able to monetize off the platform to lower their costs.

[–] danielbln 34 points 5 months ago (4 children)

I mean, I like a good Google hate train as much as the next guy, but that's kind of a legitimate thing to want.

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[–] A_Random_Idiot 99 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I really wish government would just come in already and shatter google into a million pieces with the anti-monopoly hammer already.

Google is far worse than AT&T ever was when it was shattered into the baby bells.

Just gotta learn from AT&T to not let them re-congeal back together like somekind of fucked up liquid metal terminator 20+ years down the line.

[–] postmateDumbass 49 points 5 months ago (2 children)

50% of congress wants to know how the computer mouse stays alive without food.

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[–] [email protected] 91 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Frankly, I'd stop using YouTube entirely before I'd start using it without an adblocker. At least there are no signs of it slowing down for me, yet.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I'd consider paying a few bucks a month, but not $10 or more

Get rid of shitty YouTube music and give me a tier that's no ads only

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[–] friend_of_satan 89 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Watching YouTube load slowly is better than watching ads.

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[–] Suavevillain 80 points 5 months ago (25 children)

I will download videos then. I refuse to not use an adblocker on the modern internet.

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[–] TeoTwawki 80 points 5 months ago (2 children)

"We'll make our service worse, that'll show them!"

Ok google, good luck with that.

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[–] AgentGrimstone 62 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I wish we can fast forward to the part where Youtube completely destroys itself and a new platform takes its place so we can enjoy it for 10 years before the enshittification cycle restarts again.

[–] Kevnyon 24 points 5 months ago

The problem is that only conglomerates can eat the cost of running such a platform. Ads will be the end of free interne, that's for sure.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 5 months ago (9 children)

So I have YouTube premium but also have ad-blocker, for the first time yesterday I was noticing absolutely abysmal speeds on YouTube and I suspect this is why. I thought my computer was starting to shit the bed initially it was so brutal.

[–] Hawke 43 points 5 months ago (9 children)

I have YouTube premium

Wow, so you pay them and they still screw you? Glad that’s a product I’ll never buy then!

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[–] atrielienz 26 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I was wondering if this was coming. I don't use YouTube in-browser much if at all, so I don't see this. But I am not surprised. The fact that they're slowing down people who pay for premium is kind of an act of war. It shouldn't be a thing, and the fact that it's happening at all is a misstep on Google's part. Not that the whole slowing down people who use ad blockers isn't. But this will detrimentally affect adoption of premium subscribers which I thought was the last thing they'd want. Because they obviously don't make enough off ad revenue to support the platform. That's part of why they push premium so hard. They need more premium subscribers. This is idiocy.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Oh no (continues to watch on freetube) anyway....

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (17 children)

I dusted off an old laptop, put debian on it, put an SSD and now I have my own invidious instance, among other services...

No ads, no throttling, no bullshit. Google is very welcome to suck it. I'd gladly stop using youtube, but there's no competition.

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[–] Dehydrated 46 points 5 months ago

That's why Invidious exists.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 5 months ago (5 children)

I don't have an ad blocker, I just have the standard strict tracking protection enabled in Firefox. What's more, I pay for YouTube Premium. But still they add a five-second delay every time I visit a web page. It's infuriating.

[–] Thteven 65 points 5 months ago

Might as well just stop paying for premium then if they're going to ding you anyway.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 5 months ago

there is no way the 5 second sleep before loading isnt anti competitive, because last i heard, unless they changed it, it only checks for the firefox user agent.

Actually insane that someone would willingly implement that.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Don't worry, YouTube, I won't be using your website anymore. But my yt-dl will be ripping max quality videos by the hundreds, just for shits and giggles.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Apparently this seems to be mainly affecting Chrome users, lol.

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[–] Mango 33 points 5 months ago

YouTube speed has been shit ever since they stopped actually buffering.

[–] ZombieMantis 26 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Nationalize YouTube.

Specifically, nationalize the backend, Google can keep their website. And place it in the hands of something like the UN, rather than any specific country. I hardly trust Uncle Sam any more than Google's investors. They've successfully monopolized video hosting, now turn it into a public resource.

And open it up to the world, too. Google might get to keep their website, but everyone else can access the same database, too. May the best front end win.

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[–] CrowAirbrush 26 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Anything better than listening 3 songs and getting 5 ads.

Stop being trash youtube. Be normal like you once were and i would actually consider a paid subscription IF i get to fully exclude shorts on my side of the platform.

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