I just tried to look up a specific video of a Nick Swardson stand up bit. All I searched was “Nick Swardson loitering”. There were 5 fucking ads before an actual user posted video, then one real human posted video that barely had anything to do with Nick, then 5 more fucking ads.

I knew they were forcing ads into videos but clogging the entire search feed with ads is unfuckingbelievable.

Is this really what it’s come to? Ads are more important than what I’m actually looking for? Are people really okay with this?

  • bigFab@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    The tipping point for me to definitely use adblock was 2022 and the ads when forwarding in videos. It’s absolutely nonsense.

  • Art35ian@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    I never thought I’d say it, but I don’t even use YouTube anymore. I might go there once a month to watch a tute, but only if I absolutely can’t find help from any other website.

    • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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      29 days ago

      uBlock in Firefox for Android. Not a single ad. Anywhere. Add Background Play Fix and you can play audio from video even when you switch apps or turn the screen off. For any video platform.

  • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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    29 days ago

    I know this is an incredibly unpopular take on Lemmy, but YT Premium is the best value subscription on the web by my reckoning. I watch an absolute fuck ton of content on YT, and I listen to an absolute fuck ton of music on YT music. And my partner does too.

    If you don’t use YT enough to justify the cost of the sub, I understand being frustrated with the ads but it’s a free service. I can’t imagine the amount of data that YT serves daily to free users.

      • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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        29 days ago

        Extorted? Why are you so dramatic? It’s a service I’m happy to pay for.

        I use ad blockers too. But I also don’t mind paying for a good service. The cost of the service is worth it to me for the conveniences it offers. If I didn’t feel that way, I wouldn’t pay for it, but I also wouldn’t be complaining about something I’m not paying for.

        • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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          29 days ago

          Yeah if you enjoy some kinds of things that are only with it and it’s like more content there is nothing extortion about it. You kinda implied you pay for it so as to not see ads. My bad.

          Honestly though I personally don’t think any of this stuff is worth paying for but I’m not typical. My wife and I pay for Az prime for the deliveries alone but we get tons of extra stuff with it such as streaming tv, grubhub+ and a few other things like hbo max and peacock I think.

          We also pay for Netflix. With all that, I still often find I search for something and either nobody has it or Az has it but you have to pay extra.

          I torrent everything I want and fuck the lot of them. We’re already paying them as it is. But then that’s how I’ve been doing most tv and movies since like early 2000s.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            We pay Prime for the delivery options, and we buy a lot from Amazon. LOL, I even have Prime integrated on my Kodi server but my instinct is to pirate it first.

            • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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              29 days ago

              I mean… pirating gives you the content saved on your own system, in the format you’ve chosen from those available, on your own system that’s not subject to pruning at their whims. My wife uses the prime video and Netflix because it’s easier for her, as I have not yet setup anything like Plex yet. I just use a pc connected to the TV, which is more complicated for her. But I’m going to eventually get something setup on Linux and a media center system like Plex or more likely something simpler.

            • leftzero@lemmynsfw.com
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              29 days ago

              I also pay Prime for the delivery (it’s a cheap annual payment around these parts).

              I also still torrent Prime shows, not out of instinct, but because it’s more convenient and less of a hassle, I get them in higher quality, and I can archive them for later.

              • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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                29 days ago

                Yeah, one day something is on a streaming service, the next day they’ve removed it. I always pir8.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          29 days ago

          Sir! This is lemmy. You go with the hivemind or die in a fire.

          “I pay for a thing because it’s worth it to me and here’s why.”

          (OK, I’d like to hear your take…)

          “Idiot! Capitalist apologist!”

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      29 days ago

      best value subscription

      My problem with it is that it reinforces toxic monopoly, and I don’t even know how much money goes to the creators.

      Also they raised price multiple times lately

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      29 days ago

      I disagree on the value part. It’s more expensive than most other streaming aervices. If it was less than $10/mo I would sign up in a heartbeat

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      I’m the same regarding Spotify. Only service I pay for, but I’m happy to do so for now. Not even a big music listener, but it’s damned nice to hear anything I want, anywhere I want, for a small fee.

      My most frequent use case is off in the boondocks. I can download a dozen playlists to my phone and play them all offline.

      And this is coming from a guy that used to download 20 song fragments off Usenet and compile them to get a single MP3. Also, I still steal all my video content.

    • greenskye@lemm.ee
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      29 days ago

      Same. I originally got it for YT music. I don’t listen to as much music as I used to without a commute anymore, but my wife and I watch a ton of YouTube. And it’s mildly more difficult to block ads on the Roku too. I know pi holes exist, but my wife plays those freemium games that give you currency for watching ads and blocking all ads will break shit for her and then I have to fix it. Someone will tell me there’s an easy solve I’m sure, but honestly the subscription is just way easier and I really don’t mind paying. $16/mo for a family plan is 100% worth it to just not deal with all of that.

    • Lung@lemmy.world
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      Yeah I’m with you on this, I actually only got it for YouTube music — which really is like “here you can play any song from the history of humanity and also yt video audios.” Well actually what happened is I was using Google Music and then the assholes shut it down and merged it into YT Music which is now roughly on par. I was pissed, but user retained

      But I have been enjoying the fact that my subscription goes towards paying the ppl I watch, and I like that I’m unaffected by YT’s server side ads concept (which I’ve always wondered why they don’t do, I think it makes CDNs too hard to optimize while stitching ads directly into videos)

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    28 days ago

    I’ve got a friend who thinks his YouTube Red subscription helps his subs make a living… So yes, this is what people like my retarded friend are bringing all of us.

    I’m sorry… I really am.

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    29 days ago

    I just pay for premium. Hassle free YouTube is worth more money than any other subscription I have.

    • Pherenike@lemmy.ml
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      28 days ago

      You’re doing exactly what they want you to do then. Why not try some alternatives for ad-free watching like Newpipe or Freetube or some such? Youtube is not worthy of your hard-earned cash…

    • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      29 days ago

      I’ve been experiencing a ton of buffering issues lately trying to use YouTube with uBlock Origin. I’m pretty much on the brink of subscribing myself too. It’s by far the most valuable online platform for me and I’ve used it for free well over a decade. It was a good run and I’m not even mad.

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        Not to mention a good portion of the sub goes back to all the creators you watch. People don’t want YouTube to make money for hosting costs, and people don’t want creators to make money for making video through ads. Really weird expectations.

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      29 days ago

      Jezus F Christ, Jimmy, just use Firefox and uBlock! Also works on the phone, by the way.

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        I got both of those. I’ve been with YouTube since it came out and was called YouTube red however many years ago. My family plan has 5 or 6 slots. Between YouTube music and the video side and how many other family get to use it it’s an insane value. Plus half the money goes back to the creators I watch. I can’t find a single downside to paying.

        • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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          28 days ago

          The exact amount of revenue generated by YouTube Premium subscriptions can vary significantly and is influenced by factors such as the number of subscribers, the subscription fees, and the overall engagement of those subscribers with content on the platform.

          Creators can track the revenue earned from YouTube Premium through their YouTube Analytics dashboard.

          Source-ish

          And I’ve never heard content creators mention YouTube Red/Premium aside from saying it’s not as good a way to support them as subscribing to their Patreon or buying their merch.

          It sounds like it doesn’t pay them out much, and they know it.

  • bokherif@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    Even without the ads, the algorithm is so crap that I doubt you would find what you were looking for. On an iPhone you either pay for Premium for a shitty service or try building and sideloading uYouPlus. Adguard + Safari works to an extent and Brave might work better but haven’t tried it.

    • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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      29 days ago

      Safari with ad blocker YouTube end of story. I watch YT videos ad-free for years. How doesn’t everyone do this??

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      The recommendation algo works pretty well for me, and I don’t know why!

      I’m a gun nut, watch tons of guntubers, so you would think I’d be overrun with right-wing crap, but I’m not. At all.

      It’s annoying to watch a single video outside my typical interests and get a bunch of the same. But having said that, those recommendations quickly fade. For example, I was watching outdoor survival videos for a bit, predictably got hit with plenty more. But those are long gone.

      Watched several videos about choosing and using gas masks one night. Here comes the survivalist, right-wing shit! But it didn’t really go that way. And again, faded fast.

      Anyone have insight for me?

  • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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    29 days ago

    I’ve got about half a dozen plugins in Firefox specifically for YouTube to make the front page even remotely usable.

    Without them YouTube isn’t even worth it.

      • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        Behind the overlay

        ClearURLs

        Click bait Remover for YouTube

        Disconnect

        Return YouTube Dislike

        SponsorBlock for YouTube

        uBlock Origin (with WaterFox web browser - cannot stress this combo enough.)

        Unhook - Remove YouTube Recommended & Shorts

        YouTube High Definition

        Privacy Bager (also super important)

        If you get any of these, you block origin with waterfox is a very powerful combination for YouTube and general browsing on the internet. Couple all that with privacy badger and you’ll be relatively okay.

        There are a lot of other stuff out there. Just browse through the Firefox extension plug-in store or whatever it is and they’ll all be there.

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.worldOP
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      28 days ago

      9 times out of 10 the ads have zero effect on my ability to search for things.

      I’m not saying searches haven’t gotten worse but until this specific thing or Google’s ai search it’s been easy to ignore if you know what you’re doing.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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        28 days ago

        I remember being that guy.
        It never gets better, ads only ever get worse. If you are successfully ignoring ads then they aren’t doing their job, and they will keep trying different ways to get your attention until you get sick of this shit and get an ad blocker.

        You have found a specific thing that would improve, save yourself the hassle and get ublock now to fix this for you as well as a dozen other little things you are “living with” that will be much better when they’re gone.

          • miridius@lemmy.world
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            27 days ago

            Firstly it hasn’t actually happened yet, I guess you fell for the misleading windowscentral headline. Secondly it’s not really kneecapped, but required them to rewrite, which the uBO author decided not to do (as a statement I guess). Other ad blockers however have made new MV3 compatible versions that are comparable to the MV2 ones, so it’s clearly possible. Also don’t forget there are other chromium browsers besides chrome, if you use Brave you don’t even need to install an ad blocker because it’s built in.

            • AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world
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              27 days ago

              I’m not going to get into the technical details of manifest v2 and v3, as I think it’s beside the point.

              I think we can agree that given Google has announced the end of v2, recommending uBlock Origin on Chrome right now would be pretty mad, right?

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        27 days ago

        Ads aren’t the only thing to worry about. You’re leaving yourself dangerously exposed to malware for literally no reason.

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      28 days ago

      Don’t tell him, if too many people get ad blockers they’re just going to keep evolving

      • miridius@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        Is that really how it works? I feel like the whole ad based economy is a sham anyway, I wouldn’t mind if it collapsed and we funded websites through micropayments or gift economy

        • avattar@lemmy.sdf.org
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          26 days ago

          Would it be so bad if we want back to how it was before? Just people making their own sites about things they cared about? For fun or the love of the subject matter?

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      29 days ago

      It’s still pretty shitty even with. Can’t search for shit, 5 items down they’re showing you completely different results from what you searched for.

      • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        Protip: Search youtube with bing, you can even watch the video within the bing page so you don’t get all the youtube UI spam, and since its bing, it doesn’t have a vested interest in forcing you to watch what google wants you to watch.

      • x00z@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        Gotta keep you addicted to the content they know will steal your attention.

        Psychological dopamine abuse.

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.worldOP
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      29 days ago

      Because I don’t know how to do all that shit on my phone 😭

      I’ve had several people try to explain but I just can’t fuckin do it. I’d need someone to sit down with me and show me while explaining every action.

      • JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world
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        From my experience, if you’re on iOS then Brave is the only browser I know of that includes a built-in adblocker (although I have my own issues with Brave).

        If you’re on Android, should be able to just install Firefox (or a fork like Fennec), tap the three dots in the app > Extensions > uBlock Origin

        If you’re otherwise using the YouTube app, I don’t have much to add in that respect as I usually use Invidious or NewPipe.

        • AndrewZabar@lemmy.world
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          Brave has agreements with some ad services.

          Just use a good paid ad blocker. I have Adblock pro for years as a Safari extension and I never ever see an ad.

        • SlippiHUD@lemmy.world
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          29 days ago

          Does Vivaldi not have an iOS version? It’s made by the original Opera founder that didn’t go all crypto bro and paycheck advance scammer.

          • Makeshift@sh.itjust.works
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            29 days ago

            This is what I use. Good to hear it’s not depreciated on more modern versions of the OS that my ol’ 6S Plus isn’t able to run.

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          FYI Brave is about to start having issues with ad blocking due to the Manifest V3 shit since it’s Chromium based

        • kinttach@lemm.ee
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          29 days ago

          Plenty of adblocker extensions on iOS Safari.

          For YouTube, I’d recommend Vinegar, although the more general adblockers will also work.

        • QT1@lemm.ee
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          29 days ago

          Orion Browser also has a built-in ad-blocker that also gets rid of Youtube ads. It even has some support for Firefox extensions, including uBlock Origin.

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        29 days ago

        Get GrayJay.

        That’s all. Just use grayjay. Either go to grayjay.app and get it, or get it off the Google play store. It’s “Grayjay” from “futo”

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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            29 days ago

            Op said he doesn’t really know how to do jack shit with his phone, so I provided the easiest option l, as well as the better option.

            • Scrollone@feddit.it
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              29 days ago

              Yes, you’re right and I agree with you. If OP decides to download it from the Play Store, however, he/she’s going to be disappointed when they remove the app and it stops getting updates, and then it breaks.

        • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.worldOP
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          28 days ago

          Realistically I don’t use YouTube very often at all unless I’m searching for a video I already know the full name of.

          After all this shit I’m just not gonna be using it at all.

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        29 days ago

        I used to run a public TLS DNS server that would do some hardcore ad/tracking blocking. I shut it down when I switched myself, friends and family to a private Tailscale network with VPN on the exit nodes.

        It was a little janky to manage but I still have the files laying around; my point is I could turn it back on. Since it’s DNS-based it applies to all websites and apps running on your devices, and with TLS it’s also encrypted so your ISP wouldn’t be able to track your DNS requests. You would however be trusting me, a random stranger with your queries.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        29 days ago

        Use your app store to install Firefox.
        Install ublock origin Firefox extension.
        Go to Youtube using Firefox.

          • Fribbtastic@lemmy.world
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            29 days ago

            I tried it but it doesn’t seem to work for me correctly or maybe I am doing something wrong. I patch the YouTube app and install it but as soon as I close and open it, all the changes made by the patch are apparently gone. Shorts that are hidden on the first start after the patch are visible again, ads seem to be reduced but still happen occasionally.

            I disabled the default YouTube app, gave the patched version a different name, disabled auto update, repatched it but nothing seems to stick after opening it again.

            And then the whole “I have to download the apk so that I can use it” because I don’t have rooted my phone is just inconvenient.

            I stick with my yt-dlp server and Plex instead.

          • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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            29 days ago

            You can also download and install Newpipe

            You can then subscribe to your favorite channels through that app without subscription and view videos without ads and even download the video or audio to your phone!

            • BCX@dormi.zone
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              29 days ago

              Tried to import, Google doesn’t let you have the subscriptions file anymore

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                  29 days ago

                  I get nothing, maybe because it’s a brand account attached to a Google account. It doesn’t even have a password and it won’t let me add one 😂😭

              • tate@lemmy.sdf.org
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                29 days ago

                Google breaks Newpipe regularly, and then Newpipe always fixes it very fast. Sometimes I’ve been unable to use it for about two days or so. Totally worth it to not support Google.

                Check for updates within the app itself. Those are more current than the app stores.

                • illi@lemm.ee
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                  29 days ago

                  So… I guess despite it’s name it doesn’t work based on Piped then? How does it work?

                • Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  29 days ago

                  Yeah, I know it sometimes breaks and I’ve accepted that. But holy shit google, alternative frontend’ users are like .001% of your total users, are you sure you want to spend ressources on us instead of doing other things…?

      • AlternatePersonMan@lemmy.world
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        29 days ago

        The internet with a proper ad blocker is a game changer. Take the five minutes to figure it out. You’ll save more as free time than that on your first day.

        Ironically, you could also YouTube how to install Firefox, then unlock.

      • Blizzard@lemmy.zip
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        29 days ago

        If you’re on android, use AdGuard that blocks ads in other apps. Or use Vivaldi browser with built in adblocker.

      • abbadon420@lemm.ee
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        29 days ago

        Assuming you’re on android, you can use this download link on your phone to download the .apk for NewPipe. This link is a direct download to install the app. (If you don’t trust my link, you can got to newpipe.net yourself), so if you click it, it should immediately start downlaoading and you can follow the steps to install the app. It’s pretty self explanatory.

        It’s a frontend for youtube that removes all ads. You can’t comment or like, but you can subscribe to channels via NewPipe, just like you’re used to in youtube. But no ads. You do not need to login, it is not tied to your youtube account.

        Youtube doesn’t like ad dodging frontends, so every once in while the app won’t work and you’ll need to go back to youtube (or a different alternative) for a day or two until the folks at NewPipe fix it again. It’s kind of an arms race like that, but with advertising.

        • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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          29 days ago

          For Android, NewPipe is great. I think I prefer FreeTube now however. Mostly because of the ability to use the Invidious api, built in SponsorBlock, settings coss-compatibility with the desktop version, and a better way to organize and export data (IMO). However, freetube android does has a few rough spots that newpipe doesn’t have, so ymmv.

  • smb@lemmy.ml
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    27 days ago

    unfuckingbelievable

    if you want that without the “un” prefix, then youtube is maybe just the wrong platform for you.

    and i strongly believe that youtube “wants” to force more usage of peertube, vimeo and others by enshitting yt every day a bit more. and they really work hard for that.