submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/technology@lemmy.world
 

Hello fellow, lemmings, lemmur !

If you are like me, you probably spend a lot of time on YouTube, more than you want to admit.

I remember the days when videos had stars instead of thumbs up or down, and when YouTube had, let's say, more mature content on it.

Now the site has a lot of functionalitys that are great for Google, but that I don't need nor want.

So, to improve the enjoyment of the platform, I present to you the ultimate extension survival kit for YouTube:

  1. uBlock Origin: (or your favorite ad-blocker) This is an absolute must-have. It's a good ad-blocker that not only blocks YouTube ads but also works across all websites. It's lightweight, efficient, and open-source. Say goodbye to ads.
  2. SponsorBlock: Skip over the sponsored segments of videos. It's a community-driven project, with users submitting the timestamps of sponsored content. You can even customize it to skip over different types of segments like intros, outros, and more.
  3. Return YouTube Dislike: Since YouTube removed the dislike count, it's been harder to gauge the quality of videos. This extension brings back the dislike count.
  4. DeArrow: Extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails. It removes click-bait titles and thumbnails providing a cleaner Youtube.
  5. YouTube Shorts Block: If you're not a fan of shorts, this extension is for you. It plays the Youtube shorts video as if it were a normal video and hides the "shorts" tab from the left menu. Firefox Link Chrome Link
  6. Enhancer for YouTube: Allows you to add theming options, auto-HD, keyboard shortcuts and more.

These are the extensions I use. Don't hesitate to suggest more. I will edit the post accordingly.

It's not lost on me that these extensions remove many things that were not initially a problem on YouTube but that either arose because of the monetary incentive of Google handling the website, Youtubers trying to make money, or as countermeasures to problems that were taken care of by a previous extension. This kind of feels like an arms race…

Edit 1: Changed the YouTube Shorts Block description and added Enhancer for YouTube

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[+] 139 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (3 children)
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    [–] 75 points 3 years ago (10 children)

    Reminder to all, Firefox on Android can use UBlock Origin. It's an easy setup, no more ads.

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    [–] 44 points 3 years ago (9 children)

    Use youtube revanced with microg on non rooted phones, it comes with all the premium and unique features....

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    I'm in the Newpipe bandwagon. NewPipe has been the best way for accessing YouTube for a long time on Android. It's available in f-droid. Another plus on my book. I'm kinda not so much into installing a random apk for revanced.

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    [–] 36 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    For YouTube Shorts, you can copy this filter into the uBlock My Filters.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    That's nice, although somewhat different than what OP linked. I think the filter you linked will completely remove shorts, where the extension OP linked (Youtube Shorts Block) will instead convert shorts into a normal video, despite the misleading name. Although I think the extension has an option to completely block shorts too

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  • [–] 27 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Two things I also like to do is changing my Youtube bookmark to https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions and adding the following two filters to uBlock:

    www.youtube.com##.ytp-endscreen-content
    www.youtube.com###related
    

    This basically makes it so that I only see videos from channels I'm actually subscribed to, without having any content pushed on me from the algorithm.

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    [–] 24 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I came across Unhook, which lets you remove parts of YouTube that are designed to keep you there.

    Changed the YT home page to subscriptions instead of 'the algorithm'.

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    [+] 24 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 23 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    If you use a script manager (Tampermonkey, Violentmonkey, Greasemonkey, Firemonkey) I can recommend some userscripts:

    1. Tabview for Youtube - condenses comments, description, playlists and chat into a neatly organised sidebar,
    2. YT Resource Unholder - improves how YT handles resources and improves performance,
    3. YT CPU Tamer - more performance improvements,
    4. YT AV1 - forces YT to use AV1 for all videos.
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    [–] 22 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    All I'm wishing for on Android is for NewPipe or LibreTube to let me login to get my suggested front page. On desktop, Sponserblock is awesome, and I've been liking DeArrow.

    uBlock Origin is simply a requirement on every single browser and should always be installed. I'd recommend going into the settings and enabling all the extra filters as well.

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    [–] 22 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Youtube search fix: This is not a extension but if you save this as a bookmark javascript:location.href=location.href+'&sp=CAASAhAB'; in your browser it can be used to remove youtubes recommended / "people also watched" videos from a search.

    To use it, search for something on youtube and then click the bookmark you have made and it will then reload the search page and only show listings for what you searched for and remove youtubes recommended / “people also watched" videos from the search.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    javascript:location.href=location.href+‘&sp=CAASAhAB’;

    In firefox, you can also add a keyword to this shortcut (e.g.: yt):

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%s&sp=CAASAhAB

    Then you can use it from the search bar like yt testing and it will redirect you to this URL (replacing %s with testing):

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=testing&sp=CAASAhAB

    EDIT: and a fancier option is to use Redirector, Request Control (or similar) to create a redirection from YT searches without the CAASAhAB query param to the one with it.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago* (15 children)
    • Pay for youtube premium

    ^ducks^

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago

    Nah, it's worth it. Services like that cost money for a reason. I'm fine paying for a platform like YouTube. I'm just bothered by how they've changed monetization that negativity impacts the people making the content.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    I'm impressed! Suggesting paying for YouTube premium on Reddit is a one-way ticket to downvotesville.

    I pay for it too, and it's completely worth it considering how much time I spend there every day (including music)..

    Not to mention the other day I had to use normal YouTube on someone else's computer and the ads are unbearable.

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    [–] 19 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    It's bearable on smartube next if you have an android TV, firestick or similar

    My biggest problem with YouTube is they keep giving me videos I've already watched and it seems they wipe them from the watch list very quickly to try and trick you into clicking it again.

    I also hate the fact that if I say I'm not interested In something they take no notice and send it to my recommendations again regardless.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I suspect YouTube's blacklist (do not recommend this channel / video) is length-limited. I recently noticed some of the oldest content I banned coming back in recommendations.

    Feels like as I add more bans, the oldest ones get released. Really frustrating.

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    [–] 18 points 3 years ago

    Perhaps it bears mentioning that DeArrow is developed by the same person as SponsorBlock. That gave me a lot of faith in it right off the bat.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    Probably not the crowd for this but I just use YouTube premium at this point. I used ublock previously to manage some of this but the kicker was ensuring I could watch YT seamlessly on all devices (TV - fire stick, ipad, ios). I know I can setup a pi hole but have been moving last couple years. Perhaps soon once I settle.

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    [–] 17 points 3 years ago

    For people on Apple devices and Safari, check these out: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app-bundle/fizzy-water-bundle/id1601247237

    Vinegar is for YT and Baking Soda for the rest of the web. Little annoying the devs split them up but they are both great as they give you a basic video. No ads, overlays, nothing. It may seem like a small thing but man does it have a huge impact.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago (1 child)
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    [–] 13 points 3 years ago (4 children)
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    [–] 13 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    NewPipe is more than enough.

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    [–] 11 points 3 years ago

    Please keep in mind that every extension you install is an attack vector for hackers. Just because an extension does something cool doesn't mean you should install it.

    Please stick with the most used extensions, the ones that Mozilla recommends. This is for your safety.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    df tube (distraction-free youtube): toggleable options that allow hiding the recommendation feed and featured videos on the homepage, so as to reduce distractions.

    To those who allow their free time to be consumed by youtube because they consider it to be a good investment of their time since they're learning new things, please try this. You might realize that Youtube really just is a poisonous social media amongst all the others and that you really don't need the suggestions.

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    [–] 10 points 3 years ago
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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Truffle improves the livestream watching experience on YouTube significantly, adding a Twitch-style theatre mode (with chat on the side), BetterTTV emotes, and more.

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    [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    What about for twitch? cause its actually worst that cable tv was sometimes

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    [–] 8 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    I never Heard of DeArrow thats nice thanks

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    [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    That is a long list of things to make the site usable. I wonder if we as the fediverse community can leverage Peertube and eliminate the need for all these blockers.

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