The solution for YouTube is right in your comment: it used to be the case that only tech savvy people would install AdBlock.
With more ads though, the incentive to install an ad blocker is suddenly there for more, even not so tech savvy people.
YouTube‘s reaction is already visible as they are now trying to block ad blockers: Try to make it more difficult to get an ad blocker at all, so not as tech savvy people won’t get one and continue to watch ads as they used to.

The thing is, YT is a de facto monopoly. Yes, there are alternatives, but most people don't know about or use them. I'm not talking about short TikTok-style videos, I'm talking about longer-form video content. Sure, there is stuff and other sites. I go to Vimeo and DailyMotion sometimes to watch things, but YouTube is where the vast majority of the content is. They don't need to worry about losing viewers right now, because they know viewers have nowhere else to go. So they can do whatever the hell they want. I wish I knew a good solution.

I imagine us taking the high seas is "inconsequential". Until it isn't at least, all that matter is quarterly earnings, the rest "is next quarter".

I suspect it's like video games, they don't give a shit if pay to win mechanics drive away interest for the game, they make more than enough off those who do pay. In the long run it will worsen the platform until eventually there will be a crisis (similar to some banana looking motherfucker on reddit), and the CEO of google Sundae Pichu is going to start cutting on pencils and printers at YouTube, while asking government for subsidies lest they slack off a chunk of their workforce and buyback they stock.

The fucking world we live in

@Aesthesiaphilia @SuperSpruce @Kalkaline @RedditWanderer I generally use apps (specifically on my tablet/phone) because:
* They visibly separate those activities from random web sites that I viewed as one-offs
* They look and feel lighter-weight
* Features not in the app are generally more obscure things that I wasn't gonna do anyway

There’s plenty of apps out there that improve on the web experience, like the eleventy billion Lemmy apps.

What? They literally have the project up on GitHub.

https://github.com/revanced

Why is not being able to log in a deal breaker? I imported my subscriptions into it using takeout and that was good enough for me. Although I will admit on youtube I always had search and watch history off, so recommendations have been useless everywhere (intentionally).

Honestly I use the normal YouTube App for logging in and for watching without ads I just use the share button to open that video in NewPipe. Works for me.

I kind of agree but I also kind of don't.

I thoroughly enjoy well produced content by the likes of Veritasium, Captain Disillusion, Mark Rober, Lemmino, Potato Jet and more. I do see where you're coming from tho

There still are people doing it as a hobby and some even consider it a hobby despite the high production quality. Those channels are harder to find, though and that is kind of sad. I can't help but wonder what would've been if we hadn't commercialised the web.