I agree with the sentiment, and I do have a blog (of which I'm the only visitor as I don't advertise it).

However... for me, the communities come first. I mean I do have a goal in my internet usage, and this goal comes before any principled stands (mostly; there are exceptions). So if, for example, the hobby communities around games and crafts I enjoy form in Facebook, what can I do? Facebook sucks as a platform, but I want to be in those communities because I enjoy being part of them. It's a trap, but one where there's no easy way out.

As for YouTube: my search history and the algorithm are my main use of YT; I wouldn't dream of turning them off. Because I basically use it for two things, my hobby things (subscribed to several channels I like) and watching cartoon clips with my daughter, all the algorithm ever recommends me is exactly those two things: cartoon clips and things related to my hobbies. Never rage bait, never random nonsense. When I click accidentally on rage bait inducing stuff, I remove it from my watch history; I know this isn't perfect but it works in the sense I don't get recommended that crap.

Also, YouTube Premium because I can't stand ads. Yes, I'm aware I'm paying the mafia thugs to leave me alone. It sucks.

This is no defense of YouTube, I know it can turn to shit any minute, but at least for me the algorithm works.

The one thing that is absolutely driving me nuts is the AI-driven en-slopification of the internet. I wish AI got magically banned from most venues. I want to interact with humans and human-created stuff, not AI spam. I think this is a battle that cannot be won, to my eternal sadness.

Again I must repeat I do agree with the sentiment of the blog post, and I wish the internet got de-enshitified again. I'm not sure it's that easy though.

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rmunn 2 days ago | parent [-]

> Also, YouTube Premium because I can't stand ads. Yes, I'm aware I'm paying the mafia thugs to leave me alone. It sucks.

uBlock Origin has been able to block 100% of Youtube ads in my experience so far; granted I don't visit Youtube all the time. I also use yt-dlp to download videos so that I can timeshift them and watch them later when I'm not connected to WiFi and yet not burn through my phone data. This also happens to exclude ads, though that's not my primary purpose in using it.

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rmunn 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

BTW, I'm aware that yt-dlp is against Youtube's terms of service, but in America, the right to timeshift a broadcast was well-established in the days of VCRs by multiple court precedents. It has never been tested in court whether that right would also apply to Youtube and downloading videos from Youtube for the purpose of timeshifting, but IMHO it would apply, so I'm doing it.

Also, while Youtube claims that adblockers are also against their Terms of Service, if you actually go read https://www.youtube.com/t/terms you'll see that their claim is not supported by the actual language of their ToS. They forbid you to "access, reproduce, download, distribute, transmit, broadcast, display, sell, license, alter, modify or otherwise use any part of the Service or any Content" without their express permission. But adblocking is not altering the Content of the service, it's blocking certain videos while letting other videos through. If there was a service that detected "here's a word from our sponsors" parts of the video and removed them, that would be altering Content. But the ads are not part of any given video, rather they're external videos inserted at certain points into the video you're watching. Selectively blocking video A while watching video B is not forbidden by any part of Youtube's Terms of Service.

So go ahead and use uBlock Origin with a clear conscience, unless you can find the part of their Terms of Service that actually forbids blocking certain videos while letting others through.

	▲	pfg_ 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		> If there was a service that detected "here's a word from our sponsors" parts of the video and removed them, that would be altering Content This exists and it's called SponsorBlock. It automatically skips past sponsored segments. Debatable if that is altering content though

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the_af 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> uBlock Origin has been able to block 100% of Youtube ads in my experience so far;

What about mobile and the YouTube app?

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rmunn 2 days ago | parent [-]

I don't use the Youtube app on mobile, precisely because I've been unable to block ads in it. Instead, I do one of two things: either pre-download the video with yt-dlp then copy the .mp4 to my phone and watch it with the VLC app, or else if there's a video I need to watch right now and all I have is my phone, I use the NewPipe app (https://github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipe, GPL 3, has to be sideloaded because of course Google won't allow it in the Google Play store) to watch the video without ads. Every so often Google changes the internals of how Youtube works, and then NewPipe fails until they get out a new release, but it's been working fine for the past several months.

	▲	ffsm8 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Android Firefox has ublock origin support. And there is also https://revanced.app/ Though I personally just pay the premium sub, as I use it to play music on most days.
	▲	the_af 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I'm not familiar with NewPipe, I'll take a look! Unfortunately yt-dlp is a no-go for me, I don't plan so far ahead and I mostly watch YouTube from my phone, usually when cooking dinner, doing the dishes, etc. That's why simply paying for YouTube Premium is (for me, and for now) the path of least friction. Paying off the thugs so they leave me alone :(