Ever since around 2017, I have not visited (or even seen) the contemporary Youtube site.

I had been using a combination of Invidious and yt-dlp (youtube-dl).

Just within the last year or two, Google has been making efforts to obstruct these tools. This can most clearly be seen with Invidious, currently suffering from a generic “This helps protect our community” error message.

It has got me thinking that Google might eventually succeed in extinguishing these islands of safety that I’ve so enjoyed.

People who still use raw, unmitigated Youtube today; how much of a hellscape has it become?

  • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
    1·
    2 months ago

    So far, YouTube itself with uBlock Origin (Firefox) and SponsorBlock is working swimmingly.

    Until they ban Firefox and/or proper adblockers I’m still using it, and everything works as intended.

  • unemployedclaquer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I endure it at work because I can’t just modify everything to my liking. Lots of political ads lately. Use the hardware mute button when you start the video. Alt-tab to whatever tedious spreadsheet or page of code. Come back and restart the video in two minutes.

    • abbadon420@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 months ago

      Same. Back when there was just a single ad at the beginning of a video and you could skip it after only 10 seconds, I would just mute and look away from my phone for 10 seconds (counting out loud). Those days are gone. The petty “look away” is almost becoming a petty “go get some groceries”.