This has real demand, I ended up in the Gitlab secondary youtube channel one day, ordering by most views, and I found a video [0] of a seemingly normal uninteresting meeting with millions of views. Turns out people were using this as an excuse for looking like they were busy. They disabled comments now but I saved some of them because I thought it was hilarious:

I play this when I need my family to leave me alone - so helpful 4.5K I play this when I pretend to be busy. This meeting is literally about anything you want it to be about lol 1.5K I love that we all arrived at this video for the same reason 2.6K Every now and then I'll pause it at a good point in between them talking to make my own voice heard contributing to the "meeting" lol. Gets the full effect in! And the beautiful thing is their conversation just flows with it like they heard me lol. 562

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBVtvOpU80Q

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broken-kebab 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

For people without adblocker the trick will be ruined at some point by something like loud enthusiastic ClickUp ad.

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twoodfin 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I was one of those people skeptical that ad-free YouTube was worth the high price, but now firmly a convert.

Get it! The best deal in streaming content. Unlocks such a better experience you’ll find a dozen whole new areas of valuable & enjoyable content to explore.

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tyromaniac 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Why not just block ads?

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RiverCrochet 40 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I don't block ads because stealing ad revenue from companies is unethical. These companies have workers who have families that they need to feed. They provide a service for free, so it's the least I can do. I watch every ad in full.

My cousin, however, stopped blocking ads on YouTube when the YouTube warnings showed up. She is scared that at some point Google would ban Gmail accounts for doing it, and she's had hers for 10 years and really relies on it. She also says YouTube videos are really easy to download so anything she really wants from YouTube she tends to have a local copy of.

	▲	tyromaniac 17 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		You're right, I didn't think about the thousands left destitute by them using UBlock Origin to play a fake meeting video
	▲	ArvidSu 31 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Corporate psy-op
	▲	maxbond 27 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The mafia is also made of hard working people with families to feed. Sometimes industries deserve to die. Even if the people working in them don't deserve to lose their jobs. That's life in a free market.

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stackskipton 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

At some point, paying for something and knowing it will work is worth it. In particular, ad blocking YouTube on mobile is frustrating.

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prmoustache an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Had they done that from day 1 you woulf have a point but it sounds like extorsion to me given youtube got rid of most of its competition and established its casi monopolistic position being adfree.

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pimlottc an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not getting sucked into YouTube on mobile is a feature, not a bug

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bluGill an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you can. A lot of subscription TV channels have ads even though you have to pay to get them. Does paying for youtube block all ads, and if so will it continue to, or will they change as so many others have and just make your payment remove some ads? I'm not even counting sponsored content in a lot of videos as ads, but they are annoying too.

	▲	ericbarrett an hour ago \| parent [-]
		If you are a YouTube Premium subscriber you actually do get a button that skips in-video sponsor ads.

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busssard an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

NewPipe is the way to do that on android...

	▲	AdmiralAsshat 3 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Smarttube on Android TV's works exceptionally well, too. I've seen people recommend Tizentube over it because it's nearly indistinguishable from the standard YouTube app, but with adblocking--but I actually prefer the more minimalist UI of Smarttube.
	▲	JCattheATM 14 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yup. Astounding how many tech people just fork over money to an evil company instead though.