this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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I used to use NewPipe back in the days of yore. Then I got Youtube Premium since it bundled in Youtube Music as well which I used. But the former's app on mobile is a shit show. Even after paying, you are asked to tip random creators, purchase merchandise[ which are shown as actual ads below videos] and join channels to access exclusive videos for more money. Basically pay money once, and then pay more money for more content.

Okay, one could argue atleast the above goes to a channel's creators and helps them. How would one say then that the Youtube app still doesn't have a systemwide option to choose video quality for all videos. New Pipe had that option long ago, but Youtube thinks it's user base are immature who need to be coddled with only two options like "High" and "Data Saver".

Despite having a Premium thing, I finally crossed over to a Newpipe fork Tubular [available on F Droid] today simply because the paying experience on Youtube Mobile is so bad. I can't fathom how bad it would be for free customers using the official app.

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Also the problem of the algorithm that thinks it knows what you like to see instead of showing your subscriptions

"Six months ago you did a single search of a walkthrough for a Mario 64 level, so here is a feed filled with only Mario 64 speedruns"

I'm always wary of clicking a YouTube link scared it would poison the feed.

Newpipe solved this

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why not browse your subscriptions through subscriptions section? I understand that it's annoying that you can't make it default on startup in the app but it's there.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

From the app drawer in android you can long press YouTube to get this drop down:

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Then hold and drag subscriptions to your home screen.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I didn't know this was a thing and I want to thank you!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

You're welcome.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Bro life changing

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I always hear about people saying "my subscriptions aren't showing up" and I don't get it. They're right there, sorted in reverse chronological order. I've literally never experienced this problem.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

There have been many an issue with YT changing notification settings, or even unsubscribing people. I don't know if they still do that, but it used to happen to enough people at once that channels would mention checking your notification settings after seeing double digit percentage drops in base viewership.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

My bookmark goes directly to the subscription page. I never see the home page algorithm

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The algorithm issue is why I allways curate my youtube watch history, if I don't, my recommendations would quickly be messed up after watching videos outside of my normal interests.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I don't think recommendations being messed up by the algorithm is the real issue with YouTube (or any big tech social media platform). It's the fact that the algorithm is so good at predicting what you want to watch before you even think about watching it, that you slowly become pushed into an echo-chamber where your entire online space is inhabited only by people who agree with you, issues that you think are relevant, etc. It's the entire concept of algorithm-based recommendations that is messed up and it's damaging society.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh most deffinately, I tend to match non political stuff, but I have no idea if/how I am being affected.

The main issue with the algorithm is that it values engagement over everythibg else, so it will allway bring more extreme view points as they have more engagibg videos.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, exactly. Negative emotions have been shown to drive more engagement in users, so the algorithms are designed to highlight conflict and increasingly extreme viewpoints. For younger viewers, the algorithm favours addictive content to ensure they stay glued to the screen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ever thought about firing the algorithm and only watching updates from your subs?

50 people uploading weekly at ~10 minutes per video is 8 hours' watch time per week. Compare with your actual time spent watching YT...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, the feed can be janky for some though I liked the new video recommendations it sometimes gave. It reminded me of another gripe on their mobile app. When you go to the Subscriptions page, it shows polls, comments and videos all in a bunch instead of just the latter by default. This behaviour can be toggled off but seems to revert back every few days in my case.

Either way, subscriptions page should be for videos only, not other forms of data.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

YouTube is unwatchable for me without sponsorblock so I've liked the newpipe forks that include. And on desktop I love freetube because it goes further and lets me block channels.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, I installed Sponserblock too on Desktop. Also, had to disable Shorts via uBlock Filters.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Please tell me what you added to configure this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not the person you asked, but you can find ready made block lists for YouTube Shorts. For example: https://github.com/gijsdev/ublock-hide-yt-shorts

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thank you! I didn’t know about this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are welcome. You can find various lists for your content blocker on https://filterlists.com/ (click the (i) button and then subscribe).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Very helpful, thanks again :)

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I pay also, and use revanced. I watch YouTube more than any other service, and want to support some of the creators I like.

I would feel a lot less self hatred for paying google if they released a YouTube 'Lite' app that dropped everything related to shorts. Paying users should be able to use the app however they want, without having extra features rammed down their throats.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My god I wish there was an option to just not show shorts. Why that’s so difficult is beyond me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because it's the new trend to be like tiktok.
I enjoy the ones I get recommended. Usually from channels I am already subscribed to anyway.
Very rarely get a random one (I don't (doom) scroll the feed) and YT seemded to get, that I am not someone to click on it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I never open them, I come to YouTube for long form essay content not 5 seconds of gratification.

I see my wife for that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

To each their own. I enjoy some posts.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Save the money you spend on Premium, put it towards direct donations instead. Better for Youtubers, better for community-built FOSS alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

YouTube Premium costs as much for just two months as Nebula does for an entire year (if you sign up through a creator's code—US prices. Australian prices it's about 2.6 months) Highly recommend, probably the best bang for your buck option.

Dropout is quite a bit more expensive than Nebula, and narrower in range of content (basically comedy panel shows, sketch comedy, and D&D), but it's still only 5.4 months' worth of YouTube Premium in cost (for your second & subsequent year—4.3 months for the first year discount), and you're directly supporting the creators. Still a very good deal.

If you've got both of those, that's 8 months of YouTube Premium's cost, leaving 4 months worth that can be spent directly on individual creators' Patreons, Kofis, one-off donations, or on their merch.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How much exclusive content is there on Nebula? I was always under the assumption that it's pricing would be higher than YouTube's. If they have done localized pricing, maybe that might be better than giving stuff to Google once my YouTube subscription expires.

Also, off topic, but some companies just convert dollar values to local currencies. I think a year of Reddit Premium in my country is as expensive as YouTube, Google Play Pass and Netflix COMBINED.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Nebula is US$50 per year if you go straight to the website, but $30 per year if you click through any one of the creators' own referal URLs. No region-specific pricing as far as I know (but YouTube does have region-specific pricing, which is slightly cheaper in Australia than America using current currency exchange rates, which is why Nebula is more expensive here than in America, in YT-months).

The vast majority of Nebula content is available on YouTube, albeit with sponsors/ad reads removed, and sometimes a week or so early.

There's a fair amount of Nebula "Plus" content. Extra or supplementary material to videos that are otherwise available on YouTube, or an extra video in a series where most of the series is on YouTube but this episode is not.

There are also Nebula Originals, where Nebula themselves helped fund the project and the video is exclusive to Nebula. There are quite a few of these, but they're less common than the other categories.

The entire library is available to browse for free without an account if you go to their website and hit Explore so you can see for yourself. Look for the Nebula logo star for Originals, the + sign for Plus content, and the lightning bolt for Nebula First. You can also use the filters near the top to see only those, if you want. To give a rough sense of the relative abundance, my tablet displays up to 9 thumbnails per screen, and when sorting by most recent, the oldest I see without scrolling is 20 March for Originals, 30 April for Plus, just 9 May for First, and when unfiltered it only goes as far back as 19 hours ago, including 2 Nebula First videos.

some companies just convert dollar values to local currencies

This is what Dropout does I think. It displayed some weird numbers like $91.74, but didn't actually say anywhere that this was AUD until I read the fine print, so I almost started out comparing it to the US YT price. I assume the US price is a more round number.

Nebula just displays US prices and charges US prices regardless, I think. It's been a while since I actually looked at how they do it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I actually checked Nebula and it's the opposite of cheap in my country. It is THRICE as expensive as YouTube Premium on a yearly basis. I mean, even Netflix is cheaper than Nebula here, it's so expensive.

I don't think they have done localized pricing and have just converted dollar values to local currency. I doubt they even care if anyone signs up from India for their service.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh damn yeah. I was comparing YouTube Premium in countries like Australia (US$11.07/month), US ($13.99), and UK ($16.41). If you're somewhere that it costs a tenth of that, it definitely changes the calculus.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't even like the widespread use of the word "creator".

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I pay for premium as well and just use Firefox for YouTube. I get tabs and a better layout

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wasn't it limited to 720p?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I don't actually know, my internet can't run 720p anyway so I never tried to do that or above.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Happy customer personally, never had these complaints.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Am somewhat late to the (third) party, why are most people here using a newpipe fork? Is the original compromised somehow?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No Tubular is just NewPipe with Sponsorblock. The original devs didn't want to add that, so a fork was created to add it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Got it, just switched over myself because I liked the differences in the description. Thanks for letting me know!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Are you using the YouTube Music app, or the YouTube app and loading the music section? I've never seen anything you're describing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I might be mistaken but, I think cellular carriers force 480p. I always use a VPN and PipePipe, LibreTube, or Clipious so, I don't know for sure. Lol And, I do look for PeerTube content sometimes.

Yeah, I don't think any of the "creator" advert things you mentioned have much to do with the big G. I'd guess that 70% of that goes to the channel. Hopefully that much or even more.

Either way, as someone who makes music and goes to local shows, I generally avoid YT and other big platforms. I encourage other bands to upload to PT and FunkWhale. They may as well upload torrents with how much artists get paid from streaming, and use whatever third party tipping platforms.