YouTube Shorts - You’re mildly infuriating!

Ever since I was forced to update YouTube on my devices, I got really annoyed with YouTube Shorts. At first, they were easily turned off. Then the option to turn them off disappeared from Settings - General. So I installed apps that allowed to skip out on Shorts. Then just a few days ago I could no longer have Youtube Vanced installed.

I’ve since learned do deal with this annoyance, but do I really have to mark “Not Interested” from channels I don’t subscribe to or “Hide” from my subscribed channels? On my Linux- and Windows PC’s I have regular blockers. But I mainly watch content on devices hooked up as small entertainment screens in the kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms. And those are iOS or Android.

All I want are steady streams of content from my favourite relaxing subjects and channels. Without shorts or AI-derived “Hey, this video from a channel featuring a redneck with 15 AR-15’s shooting coyotes in the desert might be your thing!” inserted into my playlists or streams. But the AI-derived autoplay content is beside the point.

YouTube Shorts - You’re mildly infuriating!

    • gingersneak@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      I can second this enthusiastically, especially since it also blocks ads and sponsored segments, customizes the UI, allows background playback, allows downloads, and more stuff too.

      • Monologue@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        yup it blows my mind that this is a much better experience than youtube premium not to mention you get it for free

        • woelkchen@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          yup it blows my mind that this is a much better experience than youtube premium not to mention you get it for free

          Pretty much sums up all forms of piracy these days, given how bad the official media landscape became.

          • Monologue@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            or in some cases prices are simply outrageous, i can not afford to pay that much for a medical textbook i will just sail the high seas and repay my debt by saving lives

            • woelkchen@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              or in some cases prices are simply outrageous

              Even if individual prices aren’t: no person with somewhat normal amount of income can pay for everything they’re interested in (unless the scope of interests is very narrow). Streaming services here, “Patreon exclusives” there. It adds up. I miss the time where all professional content was just on Netflix instead of spread over 30 services.

        • dan@upvote.au
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          The fact that free apps (or hacks, like Revanced) are better usually has to do with the incentives driving their development.

          For services like YouTube, Hulu, etc., the developers are doing it as part of their job, with overall direction set by the company. They may not agree with the overall direction, or may not even use the product, but they have to do what the company says so they can keep their job and get paid.

          On the other hand, for small independent projects, the developers use it themselves and are building it based on what they want plus community feedback. If it’s open-source, other developers can contribute features they want to see, too.

          This is why pirate video apps (both old ones like Popcorn Time, and also newer ones like Syncler, Weyd, CinemaHD, etc) generally have far better UX than the “official” services - it’s developed with love, not with a “get this done so we can go home by 5” mindset.

          There’s also some things the official services don’t even do. If you want to stream a movie in full quality (like a Blu-ray remux), the only way to do it is via something like Weyd plus Real-Debrid. None of the official streaming services have videos this high quality. Missed opportunity, IMO.