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Comment by metadat | Hacker News Reader

I always watch YT in firefox with ublock origin on, it seems to work 100%. It seems like pi-hole would work well too, but my router insists on providing a backup dns server when my pihole fails to find something... Need to go get a new one, preferably meshable.

There are a few ways to get your client devices to use the pihole:

- configure each client device accordingly (very inconvenient, but mentioning it for completeness)

- configure your router's DHCP service to tell clients that the DNS server is [IP address of pihole] instead of [IP address of router]

- configure your router's upstream DNS to be [IP address of pihole] instead of [what your modem offers] and leave the DHCP service alone (clients use the router as the DNS server)

I suspect you're using the third way, based on the issue you're having. Try the second way instead, so the router isn't even processing client lookups. (Maybe not all routers offer this. I use pfsense which does.)

Anyway, my pihole doesn't block YouTube ads... Can I remedy that?

It's not possible to block YouTube ads with pihole as they're served from the same address as the videos. Pihole does not inspect any content itself. That's why on a laptop/desktop you need ublock origin for the browser.

I've not found a solution for YouTube app on Android TV other than using Vanced! Not sure if Adguard for Android helps either.

The ads are so bad and so frequent in the YouTube app that I hardly ever use it.

Many (including google) devices use hardcoded DNS settings. You also need firewall rules to prvent them from using 8.8.8.8 and friends.

Ah, good point. With those firewall rules in place, do such devices seamlessly fall back to whatever they DNS they learned from DHCP?

What I do is set a reverse NAT rule that reverse proxies 8.8.8.8 to my DNS, so to devices where it's hardcoded, they can't tell the difference.

You can also redirect all port 53 traffic to your DNS instead of redirecting IPs one by one.

Brilliant. I'll be trying that on pfsense [0] soon.

[0] https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/recipes/dns-redir...

No, google bypass pi-hole since years by using the same dns for the content and the ads.

Tbh I just pay for YT premium. I hate ads that much and always said I’d pay to avoid them. Money where my mouth is.

If they offered a light version that was JUST ad-free YT, I'd subscribe in a heartbeat.

I already pay for two other music services and have no interest another one so the $20/mo is too steep for my blood (for the family plan).

YT apparently trialed a YT Premium Lite in Europe [0], which is at a price-point I'd be willing to pay (7 EUR). That's on par with what I'd pay for other streaming services, and that's probably 50% of my streaming source, especially with the amount of learning content on there. I'd probably be willing to pay up to $10 USD/mo for just ad-free YT.

But the other ~$10USD/mo for an unwanted service doesn't appeal to me.

[0]: https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/2/22605455/youtube-premium-l...

Sponsorblock is still required with YT premium. And because uBlock has to be installed for other sites anyway, YT premium does not add any value..

Mind you, YT premium is not available in all countries.

I also pay for premium, but vanced is how I block shorts and sponsor block

Honestly YouTube should have a way to disable shorts in app. They're trying to pull an Instagram and stomp on TikTok's grounds, but it doesn't feel like it's working and it feels like how Instagram went from being a simple photo sharing tool to being a bloated mess with four major interfaces in one.

You say you don't feel like it's working, but that might just be because you're no longer part of the new generation and have a different expectation of what "video content" is. Like it or not, the Tiktok format is very popular, and while a large part of it is the recommendation algo, Google isn't exactly a slouch in that area.

I have it on good authority that Shorts is both experiencing steady growth and is the fastest-growing segment within Youtube-the-company.

I feel like it's objectively not working and this is coming from someone who's spent a good amount of time on both TikTok and YouTube Shorts. TikTok has an actual community of original content creators and people trying to remix content that other's have made using sounds, duets, and stitches. YouTube is mostly reposted TikTok content (which loses context due to the lack of sounds, duets, etc.) and clip aggregators who just repost clips from popular memes/viral videos/TV shows. They aren't even in the same ballpark in terms of quality.

Oh it's working, but it's objectively worse for your mental health. (Addiction, dopamine overload)

>- I feel like I'm forgetting another one or two other ralphy shits they've taken on us so far in 2022.

Force people to give up phone number if they want to use gmail over IMAP

I hadn't heard this. I assume in this context, "give up" = disclose?

Yes

Ah, yes. TOTP can't be primary 2fa and isn't even a choice unless you add sms 2fa. You can remove the sms method after, but still very sketchy and unfortunate.

Also previously in 2021: adding Google Docs/Slides/Sheets and Google Photos to the storage limit of 15GB.

- Force their staff back into offices for no good reason

How does one differentiate between a service being greedy, and a service simply not operating as charity?

The difference is in the bait and switch tactic they employ. They started by offering the service for free and without ads till there were no good competitors. And then they switched to showing obscene amount of ads. Most users and a good bunch of creators are unhappy about the way they ruin the viewing experience. If YouTube declared their true intentions at the beginning, we wouldn't be yearning for competent alternatives today. Greed is definitely the word.

I dislike ads as much as anyone, and I use adblockers aggressively. If I can't use something without regularly seeing ads, I usually stop using it.

With all of that said, Youtube operated at a loss for a long time, which is impossible for anyone but a government or a charity to sustain indefinitely. According to this article, Youtube was not profitable in 2015, nine years after Google bought it: https://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-dont-add-up-to-profit-f...

I don't think "greed" makes sense as an insult directed at a for-profit corporation. It is by nature a machine to maximize shareholder value; it is nearly as amoral as its recommendation algorithm that tries to maximize watch time. Of course, letting machines run amok is dangerous and antitrust laws used to keep them in check, but not so much anymore.

YouTube has been running ads from the start and specifically video ads for 15 years. They've been paying creators via revenue share of those ads for 14 years. Something like 95% of the growth of that site has happened after the switch to video ads. The argument that it was a bait and switch seems pretty hard to justify.

This is a bit disingenuous because the ads from 15 years ago are very different from the ads today. Additionally, YouTube didn't even have ads (of any form) for the first few years and once they did roll them out, it was only given to specific creators who applied to be YouTube partners or people who were part of a network like Machinima or Maker Studio.

Today, there are pre-rolls, post-rolls, unskippables, multiple ads in a single ad segment, mid-rolls, etc. That's significantly more than the ads from years ago. Also, ads often supports copyright claimants instead of the actual content creators.

They have plenty of resources, no need to be greedy to survive. In fact, I predict it is precisely the greed that will be Big-G's downfall.

Rule #1 is: Don't alienate your power users.

They are in the exploitation phase of civ. What phase comes next? Pretty sure it's the final phase..

Is that rule #1, as stated by power users? I've never heard of it before.

And having plenty of resources doesn't mean it's wise to squander them, or give them away for free.

I wish that rule was true, but the core users are always the first ones to be eaten. Without fail.

You just install the vanced apk like any other apk. The manager app isn't really needed and since there will be no more updates it would be kind of useless.

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