this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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661
Frustrated YouTube viewers seek explanation for hour-long unskippable ads (Update: Statement) (www.androidauthority.com)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
233 comments fedilink hide all child comments
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[–] [email protected] 72 points 4 days ago (1 children)

While the company stops short of directly saying as much, it sure feels like the preposterously long ads we’re seeing here are an example of one tool in Google’s arsenal for effectively disabling YouTube playback for violators of the site’s ToS.

I don't get it. When my adblocker works, I don't get to see this shit. Only if it fails I'llbe confronted with hour-long ads, so the incentive to find a better blocker is even higher?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (15 children)

They are trying hard to block all known adblockers. And if they ever do, this will become a serious problem.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It won't, I'll just go do something else with my free time...

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So they effectively blocked the video then?

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Hour long unskippable ads? You have to show me that video where this happens

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I got the entire bee movie once, but it was skippable.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

It once happened to me around 8 years ago. I just had to update the page and got a normal ad. Dumb past-me not using unlock Origin

[–] [email protected] 81 points 5 days ago (1 children)

While their statement is entirely correct, they're still wrong. YouTube is basically unusable without an ad blocker. Multiple 10 to 15 second long unskippable ads before the video even starts, and unless you watch videos all the way through you end up watching as much ad as you do content. It is damn near impossible to hop around between videos trying to find the one you want because of the pre-roll ads on every vid. On the other hand, with an ad block enabled YouTube is actually quite nice. The engagement algorithm is fucking trash of course but if you know what you're looking for and you go directly to it it's pretty good.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago (16 children)

Do you habitually not watch videos all the way through, or am I misunderstanding your comment?

No judgement, you obviously should consume media in the manner you find most enjoyable, but once I start and enjoy a video - YouTube or otherwise - I tend to get invested and want to watch as much as is available.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 4 days ago (7 children)

If you're looking for tutorials or other immediately applicable information, you've often got to skip a LOT of bullshit before even determining if this video is relevant to you.

"Hey everybody it's Mike from Mike's the guy named Mike, it's a snowy day out there, I got my coffee, took my dog for a walk, it's been the morning of a day, and now I'm out here in the garage and I figured I'd make a video about a topic a bunch of you have been asking me about. You guys have been asking me a lot lately "Hey, Mike's the guy named Mike, could you show us how to properly lick a drill press?" Well let's find out.

10 second title screen because Mike thinks he's making TV

"So a lot of you guys have been asking me "Hey, Mike's the guy named Mike, could you show us the right way to lick a drill press?" Before we get into that, be sure to leave a like, drop a comment below and be sure to subscribe. It'll really help me out more than you can think..."

19 minutes into a 21 minute video and there hasn't been a drill press on screen yet.

Three weeks later Mike's the guy named Mike along with his entire family is killed in a rock slide. The UN declares it an international day of celebration.

What was I talking about?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (4 children)

You need to get sponsor block. Not only does it block all the sponsor segments because they are also ads, that the ad blockers don't otherwise block, but they also block all of the other annoyances, like instructions to subscribe and intro animations.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Emotional rollercoaster.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I haven't read the article, but surely this is an accident? I have almost no faith left in our capitalistic society, but surely even Youtube understands that nobody is going to watch an hour long ad, right?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The most mysterious one to me happened in 2015 or so. I was watching Zero Punctuation, and it served me an hour long computer networking lecture as an ad. Like, some Indian guy delivering a power point presentation. I was like, what's the monetization strategy here, guys? Did this dude pay you to serve his lectures as ads? What?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

At one point there was a period of time where YouTube was consistently serving me ads in Arabic, a language that I don't speak and from a country I have never been to.

Their algorithm just breaks sometimes.

Edit: not sure why that was in capitals.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Haven't seen these but my solution would be just don't watch the video. These ads may be unskippable but they aren't un-watch-something-else-able.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Well, you see, there's this thing called capitalism...

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

Greed.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Can someone donate a large sum to peertube please

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

No but I'll start making some content for Peertube and contribute a modest amount to the instance I upload to. Fair?

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