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by carlosjobim 351 days ago
> In order to get a vaguely usable stock YouTube, you need to install at least UBlock, SponsorBlock, No Translation, and arguably DeArrow as well.

UBlock: Solved by using YouTube Premium

SponsorBlock: Solved by not watching low-quality channels with sponsors. Also YouTube has started rolling out their own version of SponsorBlock to skip these segments.

No Translation: Yeah, this is a pain in stock YouTube

DeArrow: Why would I want clickbait thumbnails and titles fixed? Those are perfect indicators of a low quality video to not click.

> Same goes for Windows

Sure does. People who want a nice experience get a Mac, which is somewhat equivalent to paying for YouTube Premium.

> GrayJay

Can't install it on a Roku or on Apple TV. YouTube Premium is still the best option for TV watching.
1 comments
danielspace23 351 days ago
What's your argument here? That if you don't pay you shouldn't get a decent user experience, and paying solves every issue so we might as well give into the enshittification?

The SponsorBlock and DeArrow argument only works some times: clickbait and sponsors can be an indicator of poor quality (see Linus Tech Tips), but they aren't always: even Tom Scott video thumbnails and titles used to get DeArrowed, and I bet no one here would argue that Tom Scott used to push low quality content.

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carlosjobim 351 days ago
It's normal to pay for products and services which you use and which gives you value. But I also know that hackers have time to argue for at least 13 hours per day why they shouldn't have to pay.

YouTube offers the option to not pay, and instead have horrible interruptions with ads. Maybe in the future they will stop this nonsense and put everything behind a paywall, who knows?

But for normal people wanting to watch YouTube on their TV, there's really no option besides Premium. And it's really an incredible bargain compared to the value you get from it.

> clickbait and sponsors can be an indicator of poor quality (see Linus Tech Tips), but they aren't always

Agree. But I'd rather see a clickbait thumbnail from one of my subscribed channels than be fooled by a cleaned up thumbnail from a clickbait channel.

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