Google has been blocking Invidious with error "This helps protect our community"

[ndiddy]

There’s comments on the issue that suggest that this is impacting any YouTube user rather than just Invidious users: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious/issues/4734#issuecomment...

[soraminazuki]

It's not just any random user. That's the mobile DDG browser that's being targeted. I guess user agents aren't allowed anymore, only spy agents that tattle on the user.

[ai_what]

yt-dlp also: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/10128

[crtasm]

NewPipe still working so far.

[robotnikman]

I use individious because the current youtube frontend is bloated and slow on firefox. Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend instead of blocking frontends that other people prefer.

[dsalfdslfdsa]

>Maybe they should focus on improving their frontend

They have. Do you know how many ads they can stuff into people's faces now?

Youtube is unbearable without ablock. If there are people who are able to watch it like that, then it shows just how long you can boil the proverbial frog.

[wannacboatmovie]

YouTube is borderline unusable now. For the last 6 months when I browse to YT - on any device - I get a blank page (no suggested content) with a decoy search box in the center of the page. When I click it, focus moves from the decoy to a second, real search box which unfurls at the top, but the cursor does not move and requires a subsequent click. This means on mobile I have to tap twice - in two different locations on the page - before I can start typing a search query.

Google needs to fire their entire UI/UX staff, this is "my first website" levels of usability. 2004-era websites were more functional.

[apantel]

I’ve been using Firefox for maybe 15 years. It has always been great. But in the past year or so, I’m finding that more and more web experiences are buggy and slow in Firefox, which is really frustrating.

I don’t know if it’s that developers don’t do sufficient QA testing in Firefox, or the creators of Firefox have fallen behind.

Either way it doesn’t bode well. I’m being forced to reach for Chrome more and more just to get certain websites to work, especially ChatGPT. It is way buggier in Firefox than Chrome. It feels like OpenAI doesn’t have a single person doing QA testing in Firefox, and why should they? It’s a sliver of the market.

If anyone at Mozilla/Firefox is reading this, this is really bad. This is the kind of thing that signals the death of something in the not too distant future.

[popcalc]

Firefox users represent a very small portion of the user-base. Also it's in their interest to nudge you towards chrome, no?

Among minority market-share browsers Safari gets more attention because the users are wealthier -> ad impressions can be sold for more.

[gryn]

the funnier part is that the youtube comment section of just about any video is filled with bot comments that logged in. so how is logged in helping at all ???

[nonrandomstring]

Community: A group nation, state, or body of people who share a common cultural identity, joint possession or sharing of; property, wealth, ethnicity, social organized relationships, having kinship, mutual obligations etc.

I don't think so Google

Did you mean?

Serf: minion, peon, puppet, slave, captive, chattel, servant, subject, workhorse etc

[iskander]

What is Invidious? An alternative front-end to Google-hosted video content?

[rolph]

yes

https://docs.invidious.io/

https://api.invidious.io/

[avhon1]

https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

> Invidious is an alternative front-end to YouTube

[popcalc]

Yes. Exactly.

[izacus]

Does it strip ads?

[ryandrake]

Sounds like the good ol' vague "For security reasons..." that companies use to excuse various things.

[lainga]

When I'm reading articles on the BBC, it gives me a popover prompting me to log in "to continue". I can immediately close it to no consequence whatsoever.

I have never figured out to what I would possibly be continuing.

[Acrobatic_Road]

I run a personal, private instance and things appear to still be working on my end. I also have some of my favorite channels backed up with tube-archivist. I hope I'm not the only one since a crackdown by Google was only a matter of time...

[card_zero]

Google's community is Google, I guess.

[RodgerTheGreat]

The next logical step after your company becomes too large to claim it's "like a family!"

[rldjbpin]

streissand effect here would be nice i suppose.

on another note, i am observing that some alternative frontend are now openly allowing its users to directly get the video data from youtube servers, which might be flying near the sun a bit too much.

[TheBozzCL]

That’s exactly how Invidious works, actually. Proxying from the server is an option you can toggle.

[holoduke]

One day all your online accounts could be blocked with the message: Your account is blocked. This helps protecting the community. In my case this kinda happened with most social networks on which my accounts are suspended. Yes my opinion is not default. But thats the issue.

[netsharc]

Yeah, welcome to cloud feudalism (not a concept I invented). Just like the a serf in feudal lordships of old times, the lord can decide anything and you have to suffer the consequences. Maybe if you scream loud enough they'll hear you, but the castle decides, the henchmen execute and they don't listen to your protests.

[WheatMillington]

If you're finding yourself blocked amoungst MOST social networks, you might consider your tone and language. You've got to be posting pretty vile stuff to get banned from most social networks.

[popcalc]

Roel Van de Paar with 2 million bot created videos is still up though.

Because Google has run the numbers and the ad revenue his drivel generates ekes them out a profit.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPF-oYb2-xN5FbCXy0167Gg

[beretguy]

What community?

[throwaway48476]

And by "community" they mean business model.

[soraminazuki]

Google pulling the rug on the open web after years of benefitting from it is a shitty move. Then to inject corporate propaganda into alternative frontends after making the default experience miserable, even not considering the ads, is shittier still.

[verdverm]

Where and how do the content creators fit into this?

[orthecreedence]

"Community of shareholders"

[netsharc]

Gotta love that newspeak!

[friend_and_foe]

I'm just gonna drop this here

https://codeberg.org/mister_monster/YouTube2Peertube

In case anyone wants to help resolve this issue once and for all.