Youtube's recent (late '23) campaign against Ad-blockers

[BotchQue]

I found a couple other threads on ad blockers, but the most recent was last July and this regards Youtube only, so I'm starting a new thread (mods please merge if necessary).
This started a few weeks ago, I called up my normal channels on Ewetube and got a pop-up saying "We don't allow ad blockers, please disable", with a helpful two buttons to either disable my ad blockers, or switch to Ewetube Premium. That window also had a "Close" button, which worked and I was able to continue on.
After a few days that "Close" button was replaced with a simple clock face, than ran for 5 or ten seconds, and then the "Close" button reappeared, and worked. A mild irritation but not too bad.
Then the clock was replaced with "You may only watch three videos ad-free, then you will be blocked" and got the Disable/Premium choices again. I figured out that many of the channels I follow have their own Home Page, often with an index of their videos; and if I called up their latest via their website, the ads were bypassed; cool. I used Sonoma/Safari's new "Profiles" feature to set up a separate Safari page that listed all my Channel's separate home pages, and even a third "Profiles" page that had my ad-blockers disabled, so I could watch a one-off if I really wanted to, with ads.

Well, Ewetube is now running as before for me for the last two days now. Either they gave up, or my ad-blockers were constantly re-tweaking their programs to bypass any new Ewetube changes (kinda hard to believe, as they were both free iirc). I am using Wipr and Vinegar (both Safari extensions) and one prevents pop-ups, the other prevents video ads (can't remember which did which).
And, WOW, I had forgotten how infuriating those pop-up ads could be! There was one site where I was scrolling thru a list of "25 restaurant chains going out of business in 2024" or something like that, and every time I stopped scrolling more pop-up windows would appear; at one point I had SEVEN pop-ups WITH THE SAME AD in each!! I'll quit using the internet before I put up with that kind of crap (and I stand by that; I already refuse to ever again use a US airline, sirius-xm, facebook, twitter, cable company, and two local plumbers 😛 after they tried too much crap).

Thanks for letting me vent. Anyone else have similar issues with Ewetube in the last month or so?

 

[OrenLindsey]

It's not hard to download YouTube videos directly from the YouTube servers (https://vesper.micahlindley.com is my favorite site to do it, free of all ads and trackers) and the process is open-source.
So, if worst comes to worst, someone could make an extension that clears all the YouTube garbage from the page and replaces it with the downloaded video. Wouldn't be very hard, but would slow things down by a few seconds.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I use Downie to download videos from YouTube and elsewhere. I also use SwizzTube to watch YouTube without ads and without getting adblcok warnings etc. It works great.

 

[bogdanw]

I found a couple other threads on ad blockers, but the most recent was last July and this regards Youtube only, so I'm starting a new thread (mods please merge if necessary).

"AdBlocker recommendations?" (Sunday at 14:23)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/adblocker-recommendations.2413309/
"You won't be able to view YouTube videos if you use an adblocker. SwizzVPN works." (Oct 27, 2023)
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-you-use-an-adblocker-swizzvpn-works.2408819/

 

[Fishrrman]

I've noticed the same messages about adblockers on YT.

Some thoughts on how I've "worked around" the problem.

First:
I stopped using Safari as my "browser of choice" for YT.
I now use "Orion" (free browser from Kagi).
It's very "Safari Like".

With Orion, I use the "AdBlocker for YouTube (0.4.1)" extension.
This is really a Firefox extension, but it works with Orion, too.

When viewing videos, I do it this way:
I will go to the page on which the video is on, OR, a page which shows the link to the video.

Then...
I RIGHT CLICK (or "control-click") on the link, and choose to:
"Open Link in a New Private Window"
... from the contextual menu.

This works for me to bypass the YT "adblock warning", and view the video without problems.

Yes, it involves using another browser other than Safari.
Yes, it's a few more steps.
But... IT WORKS.

I think one of "the keys" here is to open the link into a new, PRIVATE window (not associated with your YT account, if you have one). That's my choice. Whether you want to do it this way is... up to you.