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Hate Modern YouTube? Sick of YouTube's dumb antics? Then check this out!!!

Carboniferous's profile picture

Posted by Carboniferous

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YouTube is undeniably going down at the moment (quality wise). Google's never ending push to monopolise the video market and their repeated attempts at keeping their advertisers happy has led to a terrible situation where the site has become less user-friendly in exchange for nothing. However, there is hope! If you hate the situation YouTube is in but want to keep using it (let's be honest, all the good stuff is on there), check these links out!

YouTube Redux

YouTube Redux allows you to change UI elements of YouTube. For example, if you prefer the old YouTube favicon, you can change it to appear instead of the modern one. You can change profile pictures to appear as squares instead of circles, you can change the YouTube logo used, you can change the like/dislike ratios to be the classic red/green colour, and much more.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/youtube-redux/

Return YouTube Dislike

An addon that has become famous in recent times, Return YouTube Dislike does exactly what it says it does, it returns a visible dislike number to YouTube videos. Also, YouTube Redux has a setting so that it becomes compatible with Return YouTube Dislike.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/return-youtube-dislikes/

Annotations Restored for YouTube

Listen up kids! Way back long ago, YouTube had annotations, which were basically little notes an uploader could add to their videos to correct mistakes, add more info, add links, etc. YouTube removed these a long time ago, so if you want to see one in action, it's best to watch really old videos.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/annotations-restored/

SponsorBlock

YouTubers nowadays love to take up sponsorships. I can't fault them for it, who wouldn't want the money? But it can be annoying when huge parts of a video are taken up by sponsors, so this addon lets you easily skip those sections.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/sponsorblock/

YouTube ReVanced

Sometimes, you have to use YouTube on-the-go, but the app version of it is no doubt worse than the web browser version since it doesn't allow for the same quality of life addons that the web browser version can have. YouTube ReVanced helps by letting you use those quality of life addons on the app version. A successor to YouTube Vanced, it lets you use SponsorBlock, AdBlock, Return YouTube Dislike, and more on the app version of YouTube. Also, beware of faker versions, you can't download YouTube ReVanced as an app, so follow the guide on the subreddit!

https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/

Don't suffer under YouTube's overbearing restrictions and regulations! Broadcast Yourself Again!


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Majoris's profile picture

Reply by Majoris

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I cant live without youtube redux lol, it has occasional bugs here and there but the old look of youtube is just so much better its unbelieveable.


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Virtual Insanity's profile picture

Reply by Virtual Insanity

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I think it's funny that their attempts to block ad blockers seems to be backfiring, apparently a lot of people are like 'what, you can block ads??' and go off looking for ad blockers, that's what I've heard at least.

I put up with ads for a while.  It was annoying when they started doing video ads at the start of videos, but I didn't get too upset over it, but when they started having 2 ads at the start and / or one in a random place in the middle which might completely disrupt your enjoyment of some music or your concentration whilst listening to someone speak and ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY HAD THOSE GRAMMARLY ADS OVER AND OVER AGAIN!  Then it just got too much and I had to do something.

To be fair to YouTube, they have made some improvements like the chapters, but taking away the dislike button (or going even further back and changing the 5 star rating system for the polarising like or dislike) and changing the search results so you only get about 10 results for what you actually searched for, after that it's just "people also watched", those are really really bad changes.  Also the posting of 'Wikipedia facts' under some videos is disgusting and dystopian.

Another project worth looking up is Invidious.  It's a new front end for YouTube but without all the ads and fluff.  I do have my own instance of Invidious at home but I've not set it up properly and need to do it over again.  There are public instances available.


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Carboniferous's profile picture

Reply by Carboniferous

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+Virtual Insanity It was satisfying to see Google's call to stop using adblockers backfire terribly in their face lololol. Companies never seem to understand that telling people to stop doing something will lead to an increase in people doing said thing.


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Majoris's profile picture

Reply by Majoris

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+Carboniferous Streisand effect at work perhaps?
Even if it backfired though, Google will keep at this charade because mmm sweet adsense money and we all know it
Like heck, when the entire "adblock bug slows youtube down" thing happened a few days ago, nobody believed that it was actually the adblock's fault. Everyone thought that it was something deliberately done by Google




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Carboniferous's profile picture

Reply by Carboniferous

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+Majoris honestly people shouldn't be using AdBlock anyway, since it whitelists some ads. Ublock is a true adblocker.


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Virtual Insanity's profile picture

Reply by Virtual Insanity

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Invidious is next level though because it deals with some privacy stuff; the Invidious server makes requests to YouTube for videos and other content but all the users who watch stuff on Invidious are buffered from that, all their viewing habits are mixed together in one place and YT has no way to know who is watching what, as far as I can tell!  It's a little like a VPN just for YT.


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Carboniferous's profile picture

Reply by Carboniferous

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I'll have to check Invidious out then!


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Belzebubulubu's profile picture

Reply by Belzebubulubu

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Also, there's some scripts for Invidious to add Sponsor-block, Return the Youtube Dislike button and add local subscriptions!


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Virtual Insanity's profile picture

Reply by Virtual Insanity

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Dragutinov, you just reminded me of something regarding subscriptions.  I know you can have subscriptions on an Invidious server (though I think if your particular server were to disappear you'd loose all those subscriptions), but I actually subscribe to channels on YouTube through RSS.

The trick is to go to a channel's home page, right click and select "View Page Source".  View the HTML code and do Ctrl + F (or Command + F) to bring up the find function and enter "RSS".  After RSS you'll find something that says "href=" followed by a link.  Right click on the link and select "copy link".  Paste the link into your RSS reader.  

Congratulations, you've now subscribed to a YouTube channel with no need to create an account anywhere!  :)


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adelxx's profile picture

Reply by adelxx

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youtube redux is a life saver, tysm for recommending me that :)


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Carboniferous's profile picture

Reply by Carboniferous

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+adelxx you're welcome! :D


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f4t4lfrankie's profile picture

Reply by f4t4lfrankie

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omfg tysm


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Carboniferous's profile picture

Reply by Carboniferous

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+XxLie_AbilityXX you're welcome!!!


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xxRebellious_Emmaxx's profile picture

Reply by xxRebellious_Emmaxx

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I use YouTube Redux, Return YouTube Dislike, and uBlock Origin (it also helps that I'm a Firefox user here since Google's crackdown on adblockers is mostly affecting Chromium based browsers).


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